Devores and Omegas - input please

bjesien
That was a very interesting post, thank you.

I’ve seen a number of people say they think something is a bit amiss in the crossover region in the Devore O speakers, though it seems to be more particular to the O/93 from what I can tell.


I’m sure you’ve seen the Stereophile measurements for the O93 added years after the reviews:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/devore-fidelity-orangutan-o93-loudspeaker-measurements

Note this part:

• last September, I received an e-mail from Herb Reichert: "I am listening to the DeVore O/93s, and every time I listen I feel there is something amiss in the presence region, like a narrow-band suckout."

The first thing that struck me about that was: WHY didn’t Herb ever mention that in his two pieces about listening to the 093? You’d think that would be worth mentioning!

Anyway, JA didn’t find the smoking gun in terms of detecting that phenomenon.


As for me, what I found is that both the O93 and O96 required at least an 8 foot listening distance to cohere. When I tried to listen closer, like I do at home, I could start to hear the sound sort of split apart a bit, presumably around the crossover region. And when I read the Stereophile comment above I wondered if this was in play given Herb has a notoriously teeny listening room. If Herb’s situation puts him too close to the O93s his observation wouldn’t be surprise me. And this is one reason I wish every speaker review would mention the set up distance from speaker to reviewer. That would help a lot in terms of understanding a speaker’s behavior in nearer-field vs farther.

But what’s interesting about your remarks is that you aren’t referencing a discontinuity or suck out, but rather an addition of an artifact. I’m presuming you mean some sort of texture, or roughness, or brightness that becomes unpleasant?

Does it only APPEAR once you reach 80db? (Hence maybe some break up mode?) Or is it always present in the sound and simply becomes unbearable once you get that loud?

I can’t say I detected this in any of my auditions of the O93 or O96, and I’m pretty sensitive to that stuff. On the other hand for most of the audition I was probably playing them at 75 db or so, which is about as loud as I’m comfortable with for longer sessions. I did crank them louder for some funk and rock to walk around the room and listen how they sound (I tend to crank my speakers louder when I’m out of the room, listening doing other things). But didn’t note a problem.

@prof, 
Really astute insight and perspective.  You're right of course,  there are no perfect speakers and listeners determine what combination of  strengths and flaws they find to be the most tolerable compromise.  After many  years of attending live jazz venues (Many small and intimate environments, often without stage  microphones  ) speakers that "thin"  the sound of instruments and sound lean  are out for me.  Razor sharp pin point imaging does not make up for this (In my view) glaring error. 
Charles 

IMO This thread serves as a fine example of what is best about this forum. Superb observations. Thanks guys.

Both brand are excellent, I heard Devore speakers at Axpona maybe 3yrs ago.i don’t remember the model,  What I remember they are indeed very refine good live sounding speakers, For my taste they are not for me.I do own Omega speakers the rs8 in Baltic birch cabinet.This speakers for my taste ,I like them , it’s the musicality of omega speakers that grabs me, the alnico are even better and palpable, Lois makes good musical speakers.Cant underestimates this brand for Lois know what he is doing.

A couple of years ago I heard O/93’s in a showroom. They were in a decent-sized room and driven by quality tube equipment. I wasn’t overly impressed; what was lacking was image-specificity and, particularly, soundstaging. Given the many very positive reports about them I was disconcerted; I wanted to blame the set-up, but couldn’t see anything amiss, and the owners of the store had obviously positioned them carefully. I wonder if this correlates with the "wall of sound" comments.

The same day I heard elsewhere Audio Note AN-E speakers, and although they were, naturally enough, close to walls, they were much more to my liking.