Audio Note AN/E vs. DeVore O/96

@tinear123,

You may want to look at my (long) thread comparing various speakers I auditioned.  It's heavy on the Devore 0/96 and 0/93 audition notes, but I also mention my reaction to auditioning the Audio Note speakers.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/contemplating-devore-speakers-and-others-long-audition-report...

In the end I definitely preferred the Devores, but that's definitely a subjective conclusion, obviously.   As I mentioned in my thread, I found myself a bit too aware of the corner-loading nature of the Audio Note speakers (in their typical set up), and I have some issues with speakers that use the room that way.

The Devores gave to me a similar type of presentation, though richer and since they didn't require close to wall placement for rich base, they could be pulled out in to the room for closer listening/less room reaction and to me a more pure sound.

Thanks all and specifically @prof  for the interesting link / review

Largely it depends on your room and the equipment you will run.  You can't really go by the advice you have to listen and compare - reviewer Rafe Arnott reviewed and had the Devore O/96 and replaced them with the Audio Note E - Art Dudley had the AN E for years and went with the 0/96 (but seeing his room that does make some sense).  Reviewer Jack Roberts had both and chooses the Teresonic Ingenium which I also like (and again - seeing his room it makes a lot of sense - he has a wall behind his stereo but then a dining room that sits above and behind the wall that is hollow - so the the AN E will just fire back into that "essentially large empty box" and rattle his house.  A front port or sealed cabinet speaker is a must.

Strictly speaking though the AN E absolutely does NOT need to be positioned against or near a wall - precisely because the AN E is designed to be placed against a "solid" wall which does not mean hotel room particle board or plaster or IMO wooden walls.  In such cases - you are "likely" better off having them free standing.
The AN E is very easy to make sound "pleasant" and "nice" but to get them to sound positively astounding - like most speakers - requires a lot of effort.  It took me 6 months to get the AN J to work properly in my room back in Canada.  And as good as they were - moving to Hong Kong with all concrete walls - is vastly superior.
My dealer in Canada carries both and personally I prefer the AN E or the AN J to the DeVores.  I find the tonality and timbre better and the driver integration to be superior - not to mention that at prices starting at 1/3 the price I see better value in  the AN E and AN J.  You also get far more options in terms of finishes.

And the AN E with the Alnico tweeters and woofers are a major step up over the lower iterations.  Still - going to listen is always a good idea - but it would be more helpful to listen in the same  room with gear you intend to own.  The AN E is designed entirely with their  own gear in mind.  It plays better together.  Other speakers may be more friendly to non AN gear.  For example - I heard the AN E/L - a copper wired speaker - sounded nice with SS gear - the higher end silver wired AN E was utterly horrendous.  Then went on the AN amplifier and source and the silver wired E was considerably better than the copper E.  BUT had you just demoed the AN E Silver speaker in an otherwise high end rig you might be  highly HIGHLY unimpressed.  Indeed, even within their own company they don't recommend having an amplifier or source more than 1-2 levels off the others.  Further the Hemp woofers and the Paper woofer versions do sound a little bit different - most agree that the HEMP is better but some folks still the warmer (slower) paper woofer presentation.
If you plan to go with AN front end equipment - and you have solid walls (brick concrete) then the AN E is about as good as home audio gets.  If not and you plan to run PP tubes or SS - then the AN E will be good, pleasant and nice - but probably not astounding.  Thus enters the )/96, Teresonics, Pure Audio Projects, Spacial Audios, Volti speakers and dozens of other excellent speakers. 

Just now learning about the Audio Note's and entertained to realize that while several of these speakers (Devore, Omega, Zu, and Audio Note) follow the 2-way 8" woofer formula, the Audio Note history literally admits they are descended from my $900 Snell E/iii's.  So proud my 18-year old self picked them back when I had better hearing and no money.  But $30k for the latest version?  idk... Am I right in noticing that Audio Note is using a customized version of a Seas woofer in their AlNiCo version?  The basket legs look identical but it looks like Seas gave them a bit of a cone customization.  The tweeter doesn't seem to match the Seas.  The off-the-shelf version of Seas' Alnico woofer/tweeter set sell for $2400 a set.  Maybe I'll find a "rough" set of E/iii's and put these Seas drivers in them.  Interesting that AN was able to keep the overall efficiency up at 95 dB when the stock woofer is 94 dB.  oh wait- a bunch of people on the web already had the same idea and have already tried it. sigh.

I own DeVore O/93's.
At Axpona 2019 the room I kept returning to time and time again was the Audio Note room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3XvJcic5o
I believe Richardausten. Everything he says above mirrors my observations of the room at Axpona 
What astounded me was the the cheap kitchen table being used as an equipment rack right between the two loudspeakers. What happened to equipment racks being important? What happened to the rule not to place large objects between the loudspeakers?
My conclusion was that in the case of the AN-E's and associated equipment, and what they do so exceedingly well-tone and timbre-the isolation of components and placement of the equipment is not very important. Like my DeVore O/93's, the AN-E's did not image. As with my O/93's there was a large wall of sound. The driver integration of the AN-E's with the matching AN gear was much better than my O/93's. The sound was utterly majestic and magical. 
Hearing Mr. Belanger play his cello live and then his recording was illuminating. 
Though a bit of a digression, I found the price of the AN-E's much easier to swallow than the price of the electronics. If my memory is close to accurate, the simple-looking box-like CDP was about 20K and the amp or integrated amp (can't recall) was also in the same ballpark. 
And then to digress even more, let's not forget that there are two Audio Note companies, Audio Note UK and Kondo Audio Note Japan. https://www.audionote.co.jp/en/
I gather that Kondo does not make loudspeakers so I truly am digressing.