Note that this is a discontinued product. You may want to visit the brand's page here to browse their newer products.
What reviewers think
Bloggers and YouTubers have tried this product—so we've summarized their strongest opinions below. Links to full reviews follow.
Product Strengths
- Warm, luscious, liquid, musical, and dreamy sound
- All-new woofer, midrange, and tweeter are manufactured by Rockport
- Aluminum inner shell and carbon-fiber outer shell
- Full-range 3-way Rockport, with one driver per range
Product Considerations
- One step down from the top-of-the-line Rockport loudspeaker
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Higher-level Rockport models have stiffer, more massive, and more self-damped cabinets than the Orion
Takeaway: The Rockport Orion speakers create a very pleasant listening experience with high-quality drivers. It is designed to deliver top-tier Rockport sound in a smaller package.
All
Orion
reviews
Manufacturer details
- Woofer: 13" carbon fiber sandwich composite
- Midrange: 7" carbon fiber sandwich composite
- Tweeter: Waveguide mounted 1.25" beryllium dome
- Height: 50.30"
- Width: 14.30" (20.30" with feet)
- Depth: 26.40"
- Weight: 360 lbs. each
- Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 25 KHz, -3dB
- Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms
- Sensitivity: 90 dB SPL/2.83 v
- Min. amplifier power: 50 watts
A continued evolution of our composite loudspeaker enclosure development, the ORION's DAMSTIF II enclosure merges a cast aluminum inner structure with an aerospace carbon fiber outer shell, consolidated via a high mass damping core. Our fabrication process completely eliminates the design constraints imposed by conventional construction methods, and owing to this design freedom, the ORION's form has been fully optimized for ideal drive unit placement, reduction of internal standing waves, and minimum edge diffraction, ensuring an unhindered, coherent wave launch.
The entire enclosure for the Orion is comprised of just three components; the inner cast aluminum housing, the outer carbon fiber main housing, and the outer carbon fiber baffle shell. The massive inner aluminum housing is formed as a single, continuous casting, and all of the interior braces and volumes, as...
Brand highlights
Taking a step back to look at reviewers' thoughts of the brand's entire lineup—not just this product—what stands out most is the following:
- Rockport designs and manufactures the majority of their drivers in-house, allowing precise control over every aspect of their performance.
- They are known for their cabinets' extensive use of damping and constrained layer construction techniques to minimize unwanted resonances.
- Every Rockport loudspeaker is individually measured and fine-tuned, with crossovers being tweaked to match specific drivers ensuring consistent performance across all units.
- The brand emphasizes that their designs deliver exceptional scale and dynamic ease, even in smaller models, offering a more significant sense of realism than expected for their size.
Select products
Atria II
- Positioning: The entry-level high-performance speaker in Rockport's lineup.
- Description: Features a waveguide-mounted beryllium tweeter and custom carbon fiber drivers, delivering a remarkable level of musical realism. Designed for smaller rooms but delivers a surprising scale of sound, making it a great choice for those seeking high-quality audio without the need for a large space, unlike the larger Avior II.
Avior II
- Positioning: A mid-range model that balances size and performance in Rockport's lineup.
- Description: Features a redesigned crossover and advanced carbon fiber drivers, providing a transparent and dynamic sound. Offers a richer sound than the Atria II.
Lynx
- Positioning: A compact yet powerful speaker, positioned below the flagship models.
- Description: Uses technology from the flagship Lyra, including a DAMSTIF3 enclosure and advanced driver units, offering a low noise floor and dynamic range.
Orion
- Positioning: A high-end model, offering advanced technology and performance.
- Description: Features a unique DAMSTIF II enclosure and custom drivers, providing exceptional dynamic contrasts and low-level detail retrieval.
Lyra
- Positioning: The flagship model, representing the pinnacle of Rockport's speaker design.
- Description: Features a groundbreaking DAMSTIF enclosure and a unique 3½-way driver configuration, delivering the highest resolution and lowest noise floor. It is the ultimate choice for those who desire the best in audio performance and are willing to invest in the most advanced technology Rockport offers, surpassing all other models in the lineup.
Our take on the brand
Look inside the brand
Our interview with the brand
What are two key technological innovations or strong opinions that differ you from other brands?
For us, everything comes down to three main elements: the enclosure, the drivers, and the crossover. We push each of those as far as possible.
We’re one of the few high-end companies that designs and builds our own drivers completely from scratch. That means we control every aspect of performance. Our drivers have the lowest distortion of any we know of in the loudspeaker industry. The carbon-fiber sandwich midrange and woofer cones, paired with 100% beryllium tweeters, behave like perfect pistons well beyond their operating range. The result is an incredibly clean, natural sound with no added noise or coloration. The moving parts in our drivers are ultra-light and nearly friction-free, powered by extremely strong motor systems—similar to a lightweight sports car with immense torque. That balance allows the speaker to deliver explosive dynamics while revealing the smallest musical details, the subtle cues that make recorded music feel alive.
Each crossover is individually calibrated to the specific drivers it’s paired with. It’s the only way to ensure every pair of loudspeakers meets our reference standard within a quarter of a decibel. We’re the only company we know of that goes to that level, and it’s a big reason we build a limited number of speakers each year.
Finally, our DAMSTIF™ enclosure designs are without question the stiffest, most massive, and well-damped in the world. They’re so inert that they contribute nothing to the sound, no matter the frequency or volume. This total absence of cabinet coloration results in extraordinary clarity across the entire frequency range, along with the blackest possible background.
In the end, all that engineering comes down to one goal: getting out of the way of the music. The less the speaker adds, the more you hear exactly what the artist intended.
What's your approach to customer support?
All of our speakers are designed to be easily serviced in the field. If there’s ever an issue, such as a blown driver or a system mishap, we can usually work with the customer’s local dealer to take care of it right at home. It’s rare that anything needs to come back to us for repair.
We take a lot of pride in the fact that we can service every single speaker we’ve ever built in our 35-plus-year history. We’ve never left a customer without support. We keep a deep inventory of parts and can bring any Rockport back to its original performance.
That kind of long-term commitment has always been part of who we are. We think of our products as once-in-a-lifetime purchases—built to last, to be cherished, and eventually passed down to the next generation.
What are your favorite tracks for showcasing the strength of your products?
That’s always changing, but lately we’ve been spinning:
• “Ta Confiance” – Kham Meslien
• “Antigravity” – Sohn
• “Whiskey and You” – Chris Stapleton
Each track brings out something different. Kham Meslien’s music has this deep, organic tone and sense of space. Sohn’s production pushes a system’s layering and control. And Chris Stapleton’s voice cuts straight to the heart. When a system gets all of that right, you stop thinking about sound and just get lost in the performance.
What other products pair best with yours?
We design our speakers to work beautifully with a wide range of electronics and test them with many different systems to be sure. Right now, that includes equipment from AudioQuest, CH Precision, D’Agostino, dCS, Doshi, Gryphon, HRS, Shunyata Research, Soulution, and Transparent Audio.
All of these companies share a similar mindset: total dedication to performance and musical honesty. When you combine components built with that kind of care, the whole system disappears—and the music takes over.
Used
Rockport
What if you spend more?
What competes at this price?
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Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Detailed, exciting, dynamic, and transparent sound
- Vanishingly low cabinet coloration, contributing to speed and detail
- Lung-emptying, bowel-clearing, demolition-grade bass
- Bass integrates well with the rest of the frequency range for an integrated musical performance
- Voices have breath and contour, yet the result always retains a minimum of warmth
Product Considerations
- Room acoustics should be a strong consideration, as the BC150 reveals room issues
- Needs a lot of quality electronics upstream
- Requires firm control and ample current capacity from the amplifier
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- The BC150 sounds more like a Burmester B38 with greater abilities to scale
Takeaway: The Burmester BC150 is a high-precision audio instrument that is both musically communicative and musically analytical, offering a detailed and transparent listening experience. It offers clarity and purity of sound, and brings music to another level.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- The M3 presents music with an unprecedented degree of individuality and specificity, without sacrificing tonality, texture, or body
- Remarkable level of resolution
- Astonishing transparency and is resolute
- Accurate tonality and represents timbre faithfully
- Exceptional high-frequency detail and speed due to a planar tweeter
- Accepts only banana terminations
Product Considerations
- The planar tweeter misses the very last measure of extension, shimmer, and effortlessness accomplished by the very best available today
- Low-frequency extension was limited to the high 20 Hz, low 30 Hz range
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Compared to Magico M9, the M3 has recalibrated the resolution yardstick by which all other loudspeakers must be measured and compared
- Compared to Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 9s, the M3 has recalibrated the resolution yardstick by which all other loudspeakers must be measured and compared
Takeaway: The Børresen M3 loudspeakers boldly represent the realization of striking potential in audio and push known boundaries. People who choose the M3 will enjoy a specific level of playback that is unavailable from other loudspeakers.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Sublime image size and expansiveness, coupled with an ability to be driven as hard as your ears or your amps can take
- A sense of balance to the sound of the Alexx V makes renewal possible, expressive and articulate from the deepest bass to the highest treble
- Trickle-down benefits from the WAMM Master Chronosonic and Chronosonic XVX
- Bass performance is otherworldly
- The Alexx V has the ability to uncover and continue to deliver micro-details at extremely high SPLs, even after that slam of a transient
Product Considerations
- Some power behind the throne is needed, because the loudspeaker's impedance plot drops to two ohms at 250Hz
- The dome tweeter does sacrifice the last ounce of micro-detail, compared to the insane resolving power of the best diamond and beryllium drivers
- The choice of finish needs to be considered with care
- Cable management can impact performance
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Compared to the original Alexx, the Alexx V is a massive improvement—closer to a baby XVX in so many ways
- Compared to the Alexia 2, the Alexx V was more than a mere additive sum, a step-function improvement
- Compared to the Wilson XVX and WAMM Master Chronosonic, the tweeter is effortless and resolving by normal standards, but no match for the extraordinary levels of detail retrieval
Takeaway: The Alexx V offers a sublime listening experience with excellent balance and dynamic range that allows the listener to get closer to the music. It is a worthy contender for those looking to upgrade their listening experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- Excellent imaging, providing a strong stereo image for multiple listeners due to wide dispersion and Space Optimisation+
- Flexible and capable of playing all kinds of music, getting out of the music's way, and suitable for both large and smaller rooms
- Dynamic, detailed, and can play at a wide range of volume levels, from quiet listening to near PA levels
- Features a new driver array, including a Beryllium dome tweeter, thin-ply woven carbon fiber midrange (used on NASA's Mars Rover), and aluminum-magnesium alloy bass units
- Incorporates new amplifier technologies—'Power DAC' for the lower bass and 'Adaptive Bias Control' for the mid and treble—reducing distortion
Product Considerations
- The midrange dome is exposed, which might be a concern with children
- Owners of previous Linn systems may find the price difficult to accept
- Some audiophiles may prefer Linn to trawl its past rather than building its future, and they will want an Isobarik
- Some audiophiles may not be able to see past the LP12
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- The 360 offers significantly improved imaging and soundstaging compared to the Klimax 350
Takeaway: The Linn 360 is a high-end loudspeaker that provides excellent sound quality and flexibility, making it a great choice for enjoying music with friends or for personal listening sessions. Its innovative design and technology deliver a detailed and immersive audio experience.
Video review
Our take on the brand
Our Summary
Product Strengths
- The Magico M7 delivers the highest sound quality by the reviewer's metrics
- Described as 'vivid' due to a comprehensive lack of distortion, low compression, rich texture and detail, and coherence across the spectrum and image
- Soundstaging hangs in space with a realistically large soundstage window and deeper stage depth, approximating real sound in a real performance hall
- Superb instrumental definition with a tonal density that removes a filter, revealing the believable richness of each instrument combined with high definition and low etch
- Voicing is resolutely flat in terms of frequency response, so well-balanced recordings sound impressively right
Product Considerations
- The M7 might require bigger amplifiers to reach the dynamic levels of the best horn speakers
- It will not be a good fit for listeners who need frequency colorations to reassure them that their expensive speakers are doing something
Comparisons (according to reviewers)
- Vs MBL 101X, the M7 does a more believable simulation of the stage because it's rather clear about performer locations, but the MBL-101X gets the image off the speakers more reliably, but at the price of some placement precision and air
Takeaway: The Magico M7 speakers deliver a rare and significant sonic achievement with a focus on distortion minimization. These speakers set a benchmark across almost all important sonic dimensions, making them worth considering for serious audio enthusiasts.
Video review
Our take on the brand
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