Audio Note AN/E vs. DeVore O/96

The Graham Audio LS5/8 would be an interesting speaker to audition; it marries a tweeter to a 12" bass/mid unit.

@essrand 
How long have you owned the O/96 speakers and how do you like them?

Since this is not a note about Audio Note, I apologize. This is for @prof 
I put my O/93's back in, in place of my Spendor D7.2's. 
I played two albums that I had just listened to last night. 
Car Seat Headrest's "Making a Door Less Open" was more enjoyable through the Devores. I heard voices more clearly. The percussion sounded both more realistic and more propulsive. There was imaging but it is a different, more subtle form of imaging. Less hi-fi, less contrived in a studio gimmick manner. The Devores sere more tactile and Will Toledo's voice conveyed more emotion. I was ready to declare the 
Devores clearly superior to the D7.2's. 
But then I put my reissue of Stevie Wonder's Innervisions on. The Devores were good, but not as revelatory as the D7.2's. The snarl in Stevie's voice, the spine tingling nature of the back up singers in "Living for the City" were MIA. The overall sound throughout the album lacked the textural clarity and sounded just a bit distorted/fuzzy compared to the Spendors. 
Certain traits remained consistent throughout. The Devores put out a wall of sound and the Spendors were more polite and restrained. I am convinced that John Devore modeled his Orangutans for the type of music he loves-synth/industrial/percussion heavy techno. The Devores are more fun. They are more alive. But they can be a bit course. The Soendors are a bit too polite but always manage to behave without fault. They just lean a bit toward the hi-fil artificial side of sound reproduction. 
I can not choose one over the other. It simply depends on the choice of music and which trade-offs are dispensable at any given moment. 

Excellent "review" fsonicsmith!   Thanks!  Having heard the D7s and O/93s they certainly are very different sounding speakers.

Sorry about my typos. I need to use my readers when typing on my laptop and don't. When at the office I have a much larger screen. 
I think I have learned more from this experiment about audio than any other transition or shift I have made over the many years I have been at it. As John Atkinson said at the conclusion of his measurements of the Volti Razz in this month's S'Phile, TINSTAAFL. There is no such thing as a free lunch. 
Both recordings I used last night are extremely well recorded and well-pressed on vinyl. Both were played on my hot-rodded 301 with Reed 3P and VdH Crimson Strad XGW. Something I forgot to mention is the electric bass on the Car Seat Headrest album-through the Devores the electric bass had so much more texture and bite. The Stevie Wonder album is typical of it's time period-highly produced in a conventional studio. With all the studio gimmickry involved, it played to the strengths of the Spendors. 
I would throw out a guess that with modern rock recorded digitally and often in home studios or little better, the Devores are a loudspeaker suited to "modern times". Fiona Apple's "Fetch the Boltcutters" is due to be released soon on vinyl. I have heard the advance release stuff. It is bound to sound better through the Devores. And to bring this discussion back to the Audio Notes-funny thing-has anyone ever heard AN-E's playing rock? At Axpona, it was nothing but classical and jazz each time I visited the room.