Aural Envelope ORBIT 851 - any opinions?

Hi

I'm looking for a low budget subwoofer and noticed that Richer Sounds are selling the Aural Envelope ORBIT 851 for £79.99.

Does anyone have any experience of this sub?

I get the impression from reading some of the other threads here that there's not much worth buying under £150 when it comes to subwoofers - do you agree? What's the best thing to go for if (like me!) you really have to stick to £150 max budget?

Thanks in advance for reading my post and for any advice offered!

Jon

 

Hi Jon

I was in exactly the same position a month or two back, was looking at the Aural Envelope sub, decided that my absolute max budget was £150, thanks to this forum I ended up spending £280 on the BK XLS200. And it was a bargain!
It'll take some time, but you budget will gradually increase!
...PJ

 

I have never heard of the Aural Envelope before and it will be a pure guess when I tell you that at that price it will probably be a mixture of boom and distortion. Subwoofer technology isn't based on ever cheaper electronics but on more traditional items that are more expensive to produce which is why ultra cheap normally equates with ultra poor.

The best bargain around at the moment is just above your £150 and is the Velodyne CHT-8 for sale in the powerbuy forum here at £188 butt if you really can't rustle up that extra bit I would suggest that you lurk in our classified forum for something to turn up second hand.

 

BK Electronics have the Ruark Vita 50 for £150 which might be worth a look.

www.bkelec.com

oh, and while you're there be sure to take a look at the XLS200 and see what just another £130 would get you!

 

PJTX100, Ian, Theo

Thank you so much for this very prompt and well informed advice - this forum really has been invaluable to a newbie like me. Please keep the posts coming guys!

I'm beginning to realise that the best thing is to save my pennies until I can get something worthwhile - then again, there's always the plastic It would be silly to waste £100 on something sub-standard (no pun intended!)

Do you think that the Velodyne CHT-8 is a bargain, or is it worth paying a bit extra for the XLS200.

The funny thing is (and I'm really going to show myself up fo the newbie I am here!) for two years I coped with an all-in-one Hitachi HK150 - around £250 for everything (integrated amp/dvd, surround speakers, subwoofer and all wires and interconnects) and it actually sounded quite good to me!!! Ignorance can be bliss sometimes!!

Thanks very much once again.

Jon

 

The Velodyne is a bargain as it was previously sold at a much higher price but no-one can really answer the second part of your question as "worth" means something different to differnt people.

If you can find extra funds then the Velodyne CHT-8's bigger brother the CHT-10 is very well worth considering at it's Powerbuy price of £225 as these used to be sold here a couple of years ago at a specially discounted price of £325 and were bought by quite a number of forum members but at the current price they are one of the bargains of the year.

 

I couldn't agree more! Once you've heard something better it only serves to persuade you that it would be worth putting in your system. At the moment, my system is the best I've ever heard but no doubt that will change at the Bristol Show and I'll find something that needs improving urgently. 3 years ago I was happy with my Sony mini system.

Otherwise, all of the advice that's been given so far is as good as you can hope for new.

If you're going second hand, then the Paradigm subwoofers (such as PDR8, PDR10, PDR12, PS1000, PS1200) are excellent buys and should all be within your price bracket. Be careful as some could be quite old so make sure you know what you're buying.

 

Thanks for more great posts guys - really appreciate the advice. Please keep the thread going.

I'm on the verge of ordering the Velodyne CHT-10 from the link in Ian J's first post - the reviews seem excellent and it's clearly come down a lot in price. So much for my £150 budget - but I'm sure I won't regret it.

I've really got the bug now! As I said, I coped okay with a cheap all-in-one for two years until it (and its accompanying sub) broke a few weeks ago. Then a friend offered me his Sony STR-DE697, so I decided to go down the separates route.

I soon dicovered this place and haven't looked back since. I'm still using the old surround speakers (and speaker wire) from the all-in-one for now, so a decent set of surround speakers and cable will be next on the shopping list - I'm sure I'll be back to ask your advice very soon! I've also quickly realised that my amp is very low end (at least I got it very cheaply from a mate!), and I can already feel the upgrade-itis coming on! I don't think I'm going to enjoy getting my next few credit card bills! Still it's great fun and fab to meet all you guys.

Thanks again!!

Jon

 

You are sure in for a treat Jon!

The Ruark Vita 100 from the BK site at £199 has a very good write-up too and is again a massive saving on original price, but the Velodyne does seem to be very well thought of. People say the XLS200 rivals subs in the £500-£600 bracket. So much choice! Any of these will me an eye (or rather ear) opener for you!

Cheers...PJ

 

Thanks PJ - I really hope I'm as pleased with my Velodyne CHT-10 as you are with your XLS200. I'm so glad I came here and got this good advice from you guys rather than throwing £100 or so at something poor.

It's going to take two weeks to arrive - I can hardly wait and will have to rely solely on the tinny sound of my 5 cheap mini-satellite speakers till then - how great that bass is going to sound when it finally arrives!

Next month's tasks will definitely be to get a decent set of surround speakers!!!

Thanks all.

Jon