I’m not the guy that’s going to tell you what wide baffle loudspeaker can and can’t do. I will tell you this — John DeVore of DeVore Fidelity is making some absolutely lovely sounding loudspeakers these days.
Case in point here at RMAF — the new O/93, a 93dB sensitive addition to the Orangutan family. Estimated pricing should have it a hair under $8k (compare with the $12k for the stunningly great 0/96, also on display here). Same beautiful figured wooden front (the finish here is a “custom quilted cherry”, a $2,100 upcharge), same lacquered-finish sides and back. The O/93 uses different (less expensive) drivers, and does not include an integral stand, but shown here, simply placed directly on the floor. Ports and posts are rear-mounted, and not bottom-mounted. These guys are tone-monsters, and paired up with the huge 845-based $7.5k 219ia from LM Audio, the sound was huge, deep and luscious. This room was one of the hardest to pull away from!
Some specs on the new O/93:
- Freq: 30 Hz – 31k Hz
- Sensitivity: 93 dB
- Impedance: 10 ohms
- Dimensions: 10″d x 15″w x 35.5″ h
Two turntables spun LPs — a $4,400 Well Tempered Versalex and a $3,850 Well Tempered Amadeus GTA. Two Van den Hul cartridges pulled signal — a $3,375 Frog Gold and a $6,450 Colibri XCM HO. A $4,495 Acoustic Plan Phono Master and a $2,695 Leben RS30EQ MM (paired with a $4,995 Auditorium 23 Hommange T2 Step Up Transformer), finished off the analog input sections. Auditorium 23 cabling was used throughout. Box Furniture brought the pretty racks.
Mal & Kirsten Kenny offer up the following:
Have you ever heard DeVore sound this good? I haven’t.
Both of the Orangutans were doing impressively good work. If I were willing to give up my plan for insane sound and settle for a couple of speakers and a good stereo, I’d stop here. Warmth, detail, texture, jump… it was all here.
But the news was in the chain.
The Line Magnetic amps are SCREAMING good deals, and more satisfying to my ears than either Shindo or Leben. The Well Tempered decks are as simple and good looking as you can get, and at the low end of our modern price scale.
And then, of course, Van den Hul is back, with brothers Chris and Dale as the new importers for the line. The cheaper table was showing off the VdH Frog (north of $3k), whereas the pricier table was using either a Colibri or a Grasshopper (memory fails me). The sound was a perfect match to the rest of the system.
John, Dale, and Chris outdid themselves.
Any thoughts on why John tends to use Leben (and now LM) over Shindo equipment at these events?
Separately, while these look like AN’s, they sound nothing like them IMHO. The are not corner dependent, and to my ears are more alive.
They look like Audio Note AN-e speakers. Do they sound similar to the AN-e’s?
Similar, yes, but the bass is real, and not entirely room-dependent as it is with the Audio Note. It’s also a bit more continuous through from the mid-range down, I think. Altogether a better speaker, at least to my ears.
I totally agree!, one of my top-10 at RMAF.