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Devore Fidelity Orangutan O/96

My neighbor had to move some heavy furniture from one room to another so he asked me for help earlier today. Although, we've been neighbors for almost two years I had never been inside his house up until this afternoon. As I walked through the foyer and into his family room, I saw the speakers hooked up to some McIntosh separates. I have to admit that these were one of the most beautiful speakers I had ever seen. He offered to play some music and of course I was not going to say no. They sounded quite decent, although the sound was not as hefty or lush as I was expecting. Don't know if it was his equipment or room (wood floor, no rug, lots of windows), or maybe the Devore's are not quite going after those big, lush, and slightly warmer sound characteristics.

I'm actually saving up money to buy Harbeth SHL5+, or used 40.1, sometime next year. But boy did the Devore Orangutans caught my attention. And yes I know I shouldn't be basing my decision on looks alone, but if they're comparable to Harbeth in terms of sound quality, I'm definitely interested in exploring.

Just wondering if someone has had a chance to compare them directly to the Harbeth speakers I'm considering. Anyone moved from Harbeth to Devore O/6 or vice versa? This will be a system that I'll be building from scratch so I do have the luxury of building the system around my speakers -- total budget is around $15000. I usually buy used equipment whenever I can.

Please note that I'm not soliciting advice for other speakers at this time. Mostly interested in hearing about real world comparisons between the Devore Fidelity Orangutans and Harbeth SHL5+ or 40.1/2.
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jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@arafiq

i have d30r’s - lovely speaker... but very different presentation than harbeth shl5 - proac needs good tubes to calm the hotter treble and give full ness to the lean mid bass... so actually kind of inverse tonally of the harbeths

but once system is tuned to the proacs, they are an absolutely brilliant alternative to harbeths

in my main rig i alternate between:

harbeth c7 or super 5 -- driven by hegel h390
proac d30 r -- driven by cj et5 linestage into arc vt50 or vt100-2

you should know alan shaw voices harbeths with hegel amps
whereas stewart tyler voices proacs with arc tube gear

(your guy with d48r’s driven by class d is deaf - lugging his ferrari thru the burger king drive through on 87 octane)
arafiq's avatar
arafiq OP
1,693 posts
 
@jjss49 Thanks, man. I'm really intrigued by the Proac D48Rs. Despite the less than stellar audition today, the clarity and vocals were actually very impressive. I agree that tubes are probably going to make a big impact.

I'm also considering a used pair of Sonus Faber Olympica II (not Nova), since lots of used ones are in the market at reasonable prices. As of today, these are the two three contenders ...
1. Harbeth SHL5+
2. Sonus Faber Olympica II
3. Proac D48R -- i know this is probably more different than the other two but I really loved the looks and vocals. Definitely something different.

At some point, I need to get rid of my analysis paralysis and make a decision. 
arafiq's avatar
arafiq OP
1,693 posts
 
So after a lot of hemming and hawing, I finally decided to pull the trigger on a used pair of Sonus Faber Olympica II. I compared the Olympica Nova II with the old ones, although not in the same location, and honestly couldn't tell much of a difference. I might be the only one, but I also think the old ones look more classy and elegant. It was a tough decision between the SF and SHL5+, but I have lusted over the Sonus Fabers' for a long time and it's an itch I just had to scratch. So here we are!

The speakers will arrive next week. I will initially run them with my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II amp, and based on what I hear I'll decide if it's enough amp for the speakers or maybe look at other options like McIntosh. Slippery slope ahead ....
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three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
congrats @arafiq   Hope you enjoy the joyful music!
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fsonicsmith
964 posts
 

mquery,

I was never able to get a lot of depth from the soundstage of the O/93 in auditions (even though they were well away from the back wall). The "wall of sound" seems to be a fairly consistent take on that speaker (though I did find that the imaging was quite good - specific enough to satisfy me).

I've heard the O/96s do nice depth, they they too tend to draw things closer to the listener vs many other more sound-stagey speakers.
Same experience here. Width yes. Depth no. These are my everyday loudspeaker. No loudspeaker does it all. An argument can be made that the O/93 is more refined and balanced than the O/96. A cogent argument at that. If I had a larger room, I would choose the O/96's. To heck with "refined", the O/96's make you want to dance.
Wasn't this supposed to be a DeVore thread? Well I have an urgent news bulletin-the O/93's DO soundstage depth! Who knew? I thought I had great vinyl rigs that were dialed in. I knew my AMR DP777 was not replicating the SQ of my turntables. So I figured that was that. Yesterday I installed a new DAC, an SW1X DAC II Special with USB to SPDIF converter built in. For those that don't know, it is a non-oversampling 44.1Khz only design not altogether different from Audio Note UK's designs though the proprietor says that there are differences. No mass produced stuff here-this DAC is hand-built to order. But to the point (Prof I hope you see this) I now have soundstage depth and it sounds organic. I take everything I said about the limitations of the O/93 back. Besides depth, the bass has more foundation and imaging is first-rate. It was a matter of source, not loudspeaker limitation. I stand corrected. 
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