Help: Devore O/96 Integrated Amp + DAC suggestion

+1 charles1dad

The Lampizator Atlantic SE is hands down the best DAC I have ever owned, a significant improvement over the Lampi Big Six, which is also excellent.

@wallace79 -- There is an Atlantic SE currently for sale, at a screaming good deal. I sent you some background information on it via private message.

Hi Walter,
The significant aspect regarding the Atlantic is it utilizes some key  features of the esteemed Golden Gate DAC (such as directly heated tubes and copper foil capacitors) and also used the power supply of the Lite 7 DAC. The Atlantic was a major shift upwards from the very good Lampizator 4,5 and 6 series. The Atlantic resides in a higher tier.

In terms of amplifiers certainly increased power has some advantages depending on the specific circumstances. The AN OTOSignature in terms of sound quality won’t be easy to exceed. It’s a time honored design pure class A  and utilizes the excellent AN double C core output transformers. I understand why Wallace is so impressed with its sound. 
Charles

I came to this thread searching on Devore, and also found the Lampi. I have been a long time owner of Lampi and own the Golden Gate (with Jupiter caps). The GG sounds best with KR 242, KR PX25, or the special Lampi 45s depending on the rest of the system chain - rolling the tubes changes the output so the way it couples to the preamp. If you get this right, your system will take off to new levels. The GG is far superior to the Atlantic if you are listening to complex material, like orchestral. Also to the Big 7. The dynamic range, resolution, and macro dynamics are much more. I have compared the GG to the Vivaldi, Big 7 to the Trinity, to the 40k Aries Cerat, the top Nagra dac and transport, and to multiple Esoterics K01s. Also once to the MSB Select II. I preferred it to all. But I had to roll tubes, as with the wrong tube it sounded less good. This is the beauty - the other dacs were static, while the GG could change. The Atlantic imo can be beaten by higher priced dacs though it is a good valve dac. The GG is much more than that. Now, the thing is, I also prefer it to the Lampi Pacific. The Pacific is a very different dac and some of my friends upgraded, but I find it to be a very different sound not to my liking. So for me GG is the final piece.. The other good digital I like is Neodio Origine, MSB, Aries Cerat, and Total Dac.


Now to the Devore. After being a fan of big horns, and having heard many from vintage Western Electrics and Siemens Bionor to 400k Cessaros and more practical 30k hORNs Universum and Tune Audio Anima, I never liked compromised models of full range horns - the ones with a digital woofer like Duos, Cessaro Liszt, etc. The full ranges were either expensive or very big (for a central London apt) or both.

I then came across the Devore Orangutan O96 and loved them. I have heard Trenner and Friedl Ra, AN J, Tannoys, but the O96 are my current favorites as a compromise to big horns. In fact, I don’t like cones and preferred them to a 20k and a 65k Lansche in the same room. The reason is that the O96 is more transparent to recordings. I haven’t bought them yet and am investigating. I heard them in one room with New Audio Frontiers (NAF) 2a3 8w amp, a German 550 valve 20w amp, a Jadis 100w integrated, and the Silvercore 833c 20w amp. I heard them in another room with the Kondo Overture 30w EL34 integrated (30k euro) and the Unison research Triode 25.

My favorite by far was the NAF. It also is cheap on the used market, at least in the EU. I think the Art Audio 300b Diavolo will also do well though I have not heard it on the Devore, but have compared Art Audio amps on another speaker. It sounds best with the WE reissue compared to the KR, Elrog or EML mesh.

If you are into recordings and transparency to recordings, the NAF is the easy pick. If you want more power and speed the Jadis is pretty good. However compared to the NAF it makes different notes on a violin or a piano sound more similar. The 2a3 is more nuanced tube, after all. That said, this is only with relevance to the Devore...I do not think the NAF is a fast 2a3 amp like for example the Audio Note Empress, but that is 6w and I do not know if it suits the Devore. It is not an integrated either. The NAF is more SS like...clean, good drive, transparent, backward layering, makes speakers disappear. I am normally a fan of greater power but not here. I also want to try Berning on this, and the Ayon. I am due a compare of Ayon, Jinro, and Kegon soon but on AN J, not Devore.

I would like to hear it with the Shindo. Caelin, the man behind Shunyata, owns the O96 and has tried it with everything from Constellation Centaur to Ayon SET amps and says it sounds good with all.

I'm using the Leben CS600 with Border Patrol DAC with my My DeVore O/96; stellar results in 15x18x9 room. Best, mikirob.

Tone of Music in San Francisco have the full range of DeVore speakers that you can audition with a range of amps and digital sources. I've collectively spent a few hours on multiple days hanging out and listening to the various combinations they had and in the end settled on O/96's, Leben CS600 and still looking for a new DAC. The line magnetic amp was also pretty awesome but I wanted the Bass boost that the Leben offers. The dealer did a comparison with a Chord Qutest and then a Wavelength Cosecant. My preference was for the Cosecant however it didn't suit my setup as there was no on/off switch for the tube in the Cosecant.

Ultimately there is no wrong decision with this setup and I was very fortunately to have a local dealer that let me listen away for hours and find myself very excited and waiting patiently for the DeVores to be delivered (seems like a 6 month waitlist).

No idea what dac to go for but for this I am just researching what dacs reviewers and Devore themselves use as a reference. Totaldac keeps coming up but the price..... it makes me cry a little.