Audio Quality – Spoken Words and Going Loud

Sound Quality – The Spoken Word and Teleconferencing


Speakers aren’t just used for music and movies – your favourite podcasts (like Ryan’s TWiCH), audio books from Audible.com, or Skype calls should sound pleasing to the ear.

To evaluate the Orbit, we used a copy of Episode #56 of TWiCH , a free recording of Alice in Wonderland narrated by Cory Doctorow (download it here at the Internet Archive), and Skype with my colleagues.

I’m pleased to say that the Orbit excels in this area – in all cases spoken words came across clearly and naturally. My only complaint is when the volume is turned up, which leads us to our final evaluation…

Altec Lansing Orbit - Mobile Speakers Redesigned - Mobile 11
Make yourself an Orbwich – Ryan’s TWiCH plays back nicely on the Orbit.

Going Loud


There are practical reasons for turning up the volume on speakers despite what your mother may say. For video conferencing, voice chat, or slide show presentations, being able to turn the speaker up high and still get clear audio is important so that everyone can hear what is being said.

Cranking up the volume gave mixed results on the Orbit. First the good: spoken words and sound tracks were still very distinguishable even from 25 feet away (aiming the speaker up to reflect off the ceiling helps), the speaker should fit very well in presentation and conferencing applications. Now the bad: there was a bit of clipping on the high frequency when the volume was turned up, and sounds became a little more harsh on the ears causing me to wince a few times depending on the tone of the voice.


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