Just to be clear, we're not picking on the Orbs, just giving you some options to help you decide what aspects are most important to you and "how good is good enough".
I actually like the Orbs myself; haven't had a chance to hear them but the reviews seem pretty good. What I like is that they have a lot of the same WAF as the Bose systems but both the satellites and the sub seem to offer better sound than the equivalent Bose.
It's a shame that you have to spend so much on stands (with any speaker, not just the Orb) to get that spiffy living room look.
Then again, it would almost be worth buying a basic Orb system just for the stands :
"HOSS (Hunk Of Solid Steel) floor stands are the ultimate complement to our Mod1 and Mod2 satellites. Seductively stylish, they are sure to look great in any room. HOSS is a stunning combination of stainless and carbon steel sourced from American mills. The base is a four inch diameter, three inch tall section of solid steel while the satellite support poles and all of the bracket parts are pure hand polished stainless. Each pair of stands contains nearly twenty-five pounds of steel, all of which is cut, polished and assembled by hand in the USA."
EDIT - of course for the cost of an Orb "People's Choice" system with 2 stands ($1298) you could get 2 M50s (don't need stands), 2 QS4s and an VP100 ($1273) then add the subwoofer later... it's really a question of how much pleasure you get from a great sounding HT system vs. how much pleasure you get from a happy wife.
I would vote for the happy wife any day
