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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.
arafiq
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,164 posts
 
Regarding the o/96; I've seen this speaker work quite well but in every case its been paired to a tube amp with a fairly high output impedance (IOW no loop feedback).

Speakers that work with that sort of amplifier tend to operate on a slightly different principle as they are expecting something more like constant power out of the amp rather than constant voltage. Such a speaker likely won't sound right on a solid state amp, or a tube amp with enough feedback to behave as a voltage source. For more information see
http://www.atma-sphere.com/en/resources-paradigms-in-amplifier-design.html
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@atmasphere   Completely agree and well stated! My O/96's sounded ok but not quite "right" when paired with a Pass XA30.8.  However when I moved to a Line Magnetic 805ia 48W SET they simply came alive, especially when set a no negative feedback.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,164 posts
 
My O/96's sounded ok but not quite "right" when paired with a Pass XA30.8. However when I moved to a Line Magnetic 805ia 48W SET they simply came alive, especially when set a no negative feedback
As is stated in the article I linked from our website, any time the two technologies are mixed (power paradigm amp with a voltage paradigm speaker or vice versa) you are likely to get a tonal aberration. This is because the two camps take a different means to neutrality.


The voltage camp is based entirely on the idea of flat frequency response, the power camp is based on the idea that the distortion caused by the use of feedback (which is all higher ordered harmonics and IMD) is going to be more audible as brightness and harshness. No speaker is going to be flat regardless of the amplifier used. So keeping the distortion inaudible is regarded as more important.


The thing is, the output impedance of the amp affects where the crossover points are as well. For example if the output impedance of the amp is low, a choke in series with the woofer will cause the highs to roll out. But if the amplifier impedance is high, the roll out frequency will be moved up significantly, possibly a couple of octaves!

This is why many loudspeakers meant for amps with a high output impedance will have level controls for the mids and highs, since the voltage response of the amp is an unknown. Those controls are there to set the speaker to flat (and not to tune it to the room, like I used to think when I was a kid).



three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
This thread got me curious about comparing the Cary SLI-80HS (40w push/pull in triode mode) currently in my 2nd system against the LM805ia (48w SET) with my O/96 speakers.  I did this today and frankly the Cary sounds horrible in comparison with the Line Magnetic - 2 dimensional, lack of dynamic range, no textures, no nuance.  I was actually shocked.

And perhaps just as shocking is the fact that the Cary sounds much better paired with my Klipsch Forte III's than it does with the O/96's which cost $10K more.  With this said the LM/Devore combo is still substantially better than the Cary/Klipsch combo but the experience was really interesting.  Synergy is a funny thing. ;-)
yatra86
2 posts
 
@arafiq - I think it was I who ended up buying those Proac 48rs.  The room config / amplification was exactly as you described as was the asking price.  Once I got them in my listening room, the sound quality was much better.  Am looking for a suitable amp for them, as they deserve it.
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