Audio Note AN/E vs. DeVore O/96

 I’m not sure you can have it all with one system... maybe throwing a boat load of cash in to it, but even then I’m not convinced. I think a variety of gear to rotate in and out may be the only way.

Right on fjn04!
Every six months I rotate out my Devores for Spendor D7.2's. I love them both and they could not be more different. 

@fsconicsmith

I was also entranced by some small Audio Note speakers at the last Toronto Audio show. With some acapella vocals, a track with sax, another with drums, the combination of body, clarity and believable organic timbral warmth was just outstanding. Probably the most impressive I heard at the show.



I’d auditioned Audio Note speakers in my big speaker audition journey and liked them, but ultimately decided the corner-loading style wasn’t for me. Still, I do sometimes hanker for being able to try them in my set up.
And I still find myself wishing I’d been able to hear the Devore O/96 in my room! You still like the O/93s it seems?


And I can relate: I also switch between my main two pairs of speakers - Thiel 2.7s and Joseph Audio Perspectives, to keep things fresh. Both great in their own way.

And I still find myself wishing I’d been able to hear the Devore O/96 in my room! You still like the O/93s it seems?

I do. I think. I am going on five months of having the Spendors in my system. In a month I will put the Devores back in and see what I think. I know you found the D7’s bright. My 7.2’s are not in my room with my system. I think I have a handle on them-they are airy and taut at the same time, a combination that the Devores lack. But they lack the oomph that the Devores have.
Last night I played a reissue of Stevie’s "Innervisions". I wish you could have heard "Living for the City". The snarl in Stevie’s voice was spine tingling. The back-up singers came in at the far sides. I am fairly certain the same track would not raise the hairs on the back of my neck with the Devores.
I have two turntables in my system, a TD124 and a 301. Some records sound better with one, others with the other. So it is with my two sets of loudspeakers.

fsonicsmith,


Please let me know how it goes when you put the Devores back in the system.  I wonder if you will welcome them with open arms, or perhaps be less forgiving of their lack of soundstaging prowess.



One of the things I like about the Joseph Perspective speakers that I ultimately bought is that they do the soundstaging/imaging/disappearing thing with world class, tonally beauty,  but also have the rich, punchy fun factor in the mid to lower bass that makes music grab you, more like the Devore speakers.


My Thiel 2.7s sometimes seem like an in-between of the Joseph and the Devore speakers:  killer soundstaging and imaging like the Josephs, but bigger and richer and "organic" like the Devores.   Naturally this means sometimes they sound like the perfect speaker to me, combining the best of all the things I like, and other times more like a neither here nor there between what the Josephs and Devores do well.   I'd say that for the vast majority of the time the Thiels split that difference beautifully.Who'd ever thought Thiels would be described as rich and lush?  But they did make a break-through in their final design, and the richness is no doubt helped along by my CJ tube amps :)



Anyway, regarding Audio Note, I hope to hear them again some time, (pandemic allowing...)

If you ever get a chance, do try and hear the Spendor Classic 100.  This is what Spendor now calls what would otherwise be the SP100 Mk3.  I heard this in the same system with D7's, and the admittedly more expensive Classics significantly outperformed them.  Particularly in the treble, but really over the full spectrum; fuller, more meat on the bone, more characterful, a bigger sound.  They came very, very close to my all-time favs, the Harbeth 40.2.

BTW, as I said above, I found the Audio Notes perhaps the purest speaker, timbrally, that I've ever heard.  But again, I didn't go for the tight corner placement.

Heard the 0/93s, but never the chance at 0/96, which I suspect are significantly better, or Joseph.