DeVore Orangutan O/96

That's right, last year was the 3XL's, the previous year at the old location (the Sheraton) was the Nines. Both were with a Leben integrated though.

I have to say that Devore speakers sound fantastic every time I hear them. I would presume that my finding them to sound similar to others of your speakers that I've heard (both at SSI and in audition at Coup de Foudre) is largely due to the fact that there is a clear family similarity between the models. When hearing loads of different types of systems at SSI, and then walking into the room with Devore and Leben...my emotional response is identical each time. I don't really recall which was punchier, which had better soundstaging...tonally, they're similar enough that I know exactly what I'm listening to. I don't doubt for a second that there are differences when listening to the different models side by side, and that I'd certainly have a preference for one over the other.

That said, one day, I hope to have a Leben/Devore setup, and don't doubt that one day I'll wind up going into Coup de Foudre and doing just that. And I plan to head over to Coup de Foudre to compare the different Devore speakers - will they still be there on April 18th?

@Countingbackwards--

The O/96s are currently scheduled to be at Coup de Foudre through Sunday the 17th, and ship back to the factory on the 18th.

And I'm glad to hear that your emotional respinse to the speakers is getting in the way of analyzing their component sonic bits. In my opinion, that's the way it should be.

Happy listening,
John DeVore

Anyone heard them lately? Interested in people's thoughts, the rooms they were in and their performance. I have a pair on order.

I heard the Orangutans a couple of months ago at In Living Stereo in NYC, driven by Shindo amps and a Shindo-modded Garrard 301 turntable. I've also heard the same amps and turntable driving the Nines.

Overall, I'd say there is certainly a "house sound" apparent between the Nines and the Orangutans. I've heard Nines driven by all kinds of amps, and with the Shindo they come across as warm, rich and well-balaned. For my tastes, however, the Nines are a bit sluggish and murky when paired with the lower-powered Shindo amps, and I suspect that may be partly because they're a bit less efficient than what's ideal for a 10- or 12-watt amp. Devores also are not artificially tipped-up the way a lot of speakers are, which makes them a particularly good antidote to solid-state amps and tubes of the KT88 and 6550 variety. And in the same way, Shindo amps aren't tipped up at the high end, either. Put together, it may be too much of a good thing to my ears, which prefer Shindo paired with the Veritys or Tonians.

The Orangutans, when paired with the same Shindo amps in that room at ILS, delivered a far more rich, enveloping and lively sound than the Nines - the sound of the Nines in that room was somewhat ordinary by comparison. At the same time, however, I felt like the 10-inch drivers may have been overwhelming the room a bit. As a result, I felt like the Orangutans still lacked the speed and transparency of the Veritys in that same room, although they did have a richer and arguably more involving sound. I was with a friend who still talks about "that room" and how great it was with the Orangutans, but to my tastes the sound could have used a bit more refinement. I suspect that, in a larger room, the sound would probably balance out very nicely indeed.

I want to emphasize that I consider Devores among the best speakers out there, and thought the Orangutans were certainly remarkable. Not yet sure the Oranguatans represent quite the value that some of the lower-priced models do. Again, I'd be curious to hear them in a larger room.

I'd actually like to amend my previous post - I think the Orangutans came across as a little bass-heavy in that room only on certain recordings. I remember this being the case with a couple of rock albums. But I also remember a Bill Frisell recording sounding quite good, now that I think about it (it's been a couple of months so it took a while to come back to me...). These speakers have an extremely rich and involving sound that fills the room in a big way.