@fsonicsmith Just curious how you would describe the sound of the D7’s vs the O/93’s. I have the D7’s and agree with everything you said about them, including how to maximum the listening experience. I’ve been curious about the Devores too
Just to be precise, I have the newer D7.2’s. I bought them as new demo’s from an AD, one of the most respected in this Country, the gentleman from San Antonio (they were on the floor for two months). I bought my DeVore O/93’s new too, from an AD in Cleveland who then had them shipped directly from DeVore in Brooklyn, not that any of this detail matters much.
I was hoping someone would ask me this question. I am very happy with my decision. If you were to look at my past posts, I am in the camp that believes that loudspeakers may have the most influence on overall sound character, but that source and electronics and everything leading up to the loudspeakers are more critical for good sound than choice of loudspeaker. My basement system is an example-with the right source and components, you would not believe the SQ I am getting from a pair of Large Advents that I had modded by VanL Speakerworks in Chicago almost ten years ago.
So to your question. You can see my system if you go to my profile. My amp is an ARC 150SE and preamp is a Ref 6. The DeVores have "immediacy". They have more there there. They are vibrant and capture tone and texture. They are fun, dynamic, and outgoing. But despite all of these qualities, they are also very refined. If not for that refinement, the adjectives I just used could be applied just as validly to any number of large baffled efficient loudspeakers. So the DeVore O/93’s are both "in your face" and refined which is what gives them such a rare set of good qualities. I have heard the O/96’s. The O/96’s are more propulsive and powerful but give up a very small amount of the refinement in the O/93’s. That of course is just my humble.
The one thing I do crave at times is the halographic sound I described in my post above. Perhaps there is a theoretical room that would allow the O/93’s to do that too, but I am skeptical and know for sure that my room is not one of them. They put out a big wall of sound but there is almost no depth of stage. On program material that has it (my two go-to examples are Joe Henry’s "Tiny Voices" and the first cut, "This Afternoon" and the old chestnut, Dead Can Dance’s "Into the Labrynth" and it’s first track, "Yulunga") you will not get that hair-raising, startling, "unexpected sound out of nowhere" effect. The Spendor D7.2’s will do that exceedingly well.
One more little quibble I have with the DeVore O/93’s: there is something very slightly awry in the lower-midrange. I believe it was Ken Micallef who first pointed it out. Someone who owns a pair at S’Phile did, and called it a "woody" sound that he attributed to the large ply baffle and paper SEAS cones, iirc. I notice it too but would not call it "woody". I would call it "dry" and "course". It is over a very tiny range of frequency and does call attention to itself on every recording. Male vocals and certain strings mostly. As "prof" on this Board-someone I highly respect if for no other reason than his unusual talent at writing about sound-has pointed out before, once you notice a fault with a loudspeaker-an actual fault rather than a shortcoming or omission-it begins to eat away at you over time.
The beauty of the Spendor’s is that they are demure and sneak up on you over time. When I started law school in ’81, there was a young female in our class who of out fifty or so young women did not attract much attention at first. By the time the first semester ended, half the guys in my class were madly in love with her. Her looks sneaked up on you. She had this demure subtle beauty that simply intensified over time. So when someone up-thread said the D7’s did not have enough bass (for him), I am not surprised. They are not perfect. But if you place them properly in your room and have decent gear upstream, they will sneak up on you and you are likely-at least 50% likely-to fall madly in love with them.
