DeVore Fidelity Orangutan / Gibbon

[NickMimi]

I’m capturing my initial impressions of the DeVore Fidelity, Orangutan O/96, 10 Ωhm, 96db speakers. These speakers are on loan from our own @dB_Cooper whom I would like to congratulate on a most awesome Birthday purchase If I live long enough to see golden years, I hope to be able to splurge wildly like this too

TLDR: These speakers play big, dig deep down into the mid 30’s (possibly a bit lower depending on your room’s acoustic capabilities), they are absolute midrange Queens that reveal tonal colors well and simply have a beautiful rich sound character. The most over used saying ever in this hobby, “These are incredibly MUSICAL speakers”.

A few more details; I’ve got the speakers set up in my main listening room which is 25 ft wide, 18ft tall and open behind and above me to the rest of the house which provides substantial cubic feet of airspace. The speakers are pulled 6ft forward of the wall behind them, they are 7ft apart at their centers and about 8ft from each side wall. My head sits right at 7’.5” in their centers and they are slightly toed just to the outside of my shoulders. I would consider this sitting fairly close in a dedicated space.

The Orangutan O/96 use a wide baffle, rear ported box design with John Devore’s semi custom soft dome horn guided tweeter and semi custom 10” woofer w/ phase plug design. At 18” wide the only speakers in my home that are wider are my K-horns @31.5” yep, the 18” box is a wide body and takes advantage of the sound cohesion this type of design is known to provide. The beautifully created horn for the tweeter is very cool The speaker binding posts are mounted to the bottom of the box and he uses the excellent Cardas all copper model. The legs are actually separate stands made of hardwood which were purpose built and designed to act as isolation for the speakers from the floor.

For some reason I personally don’t understand, I have read some reviews comparing these to single driver crossover less designs and that’s simply not fair to the Orangutan or a proper comparison. This speaker is a 2 way, ported box design that has a custom horn loaded tweeter designed to be high sensitivity and an easy to drive 10Ωhm load that is supposedly fairly consistent and specifically created to take advantage of low power tube amplifiers and the general sound character they provide. Personally I would think it’s more appropriate to compare these to Joseph Crowe, Avantguard, Volti, JBL, Altec Lansing, AudioNote etc. 2 way horn designs. None of which that I happen to own currently but maybe someday

I have read in at least one review that the bass output of the O/96 can be varied via their room position, which is also room dependent . (I plan on trying this in my own space.)

Thus far using my Vinny Rossi L2i-SE, Alan Eaton 45 monoblocks, First Watt Sit 3, and Line Magnetic, LM 216ia I have had consistent results with some fine nuances (which is what the hobby is all about) in the output and sound character of these gorgeous and beautifully designed speakers In all honesty I love what these do and I’m so very thankful for the opportunity to experience them for a few weeks in my home!

[Gothique]

That really is a name and a half.

[dB_Cooper]

Ook.

For those in the know.

[NickMimi]

Now that @dB_Cooper has his Orangutans in hand I can say whatever I want. He has had time to listen to them in his own space and my opinions and experiences don’t matter because they are my own and can’t influence his subconscious before he has a chance to make up his own opinions. ive been sitting on these notes for weeks i really wanted my buddy to have a great first day w/ his new speakers

NOTE: The following words turn what are fine nuances into the “big differences” some folks talk about in this hobby. Flowery words and phrases are used to help me describe what I felt I experienced. I’m no reviewer and I speak to my desires in reference to my own musical enjoyment, keep that in mind for any equipment I reference. None of my opinions are neutral, they are all heavily influenced by my preferences and what I experienced in my own home. Also, it took me several weeks to put all this together.

I find the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 an easy to listen to speaker capable of “big sound presentation” in an open room. I did not find them particularly difficult to make “disappear” but i also did not play w/ their positioning much, I placed them in 2 spots where i had room, they worked well in both spots and I moved on from there simply swapping out a variety of amplifiers. I feel somewhere between 6 to 50 watts is where folks will find the best sweet spots for these units. I enjoyed them most when applying maximum pleasant harmonic distortion possible via the front end equipment.

If you enjoy a mix of contemporary and traditional folk, gospel, blues, jazz, soul or indie these speakers should absolutely be on your short list to try out. (My short list is pretty long and my REALLY short list is hampered by funding $$$ requirements) I’ve also enjoyed many genre’s of International /foreign music on the O/96’s as I have been powering through daily listening sessions to maximize my time, exposure and experience w/ them. (This is the closest i will get to speakers this expensive anytime in the near future thus I am doing my best to maximize my time w/ them ) I cannot thank enough the various members of this forum w/ whom over the past several years I have had so many interactions w/ and the friends I have made locally for all the knowledge and great times.

This next sentence pains me to write, it must be stated though; so far the most entertaining amplifier pairing w/ the speakers has been the Radu Tarta Shiny Eyes 300B DHT on loan from @Camus. The spatial presentation w/ the Radu built 300B is exactly how I have remembered and described it in the past, massive and over exaggerated w/ extreme depth and a soundstage that envelopes you if your seating position is close enough to the speakers, (just as mine happens to be.) Within minutes of installing and powering up this heavy beast of an amplifier the soundstage enveloped me. It’s simply not in front of me or behind the speakers, I’m within the soundstage bubble and this makes for the most entertaining presentation of any experienced. The next closest amplifier that I have had the pleasure of experiencing that came close to such a similar presentation was the Decware SE84UFO 25th anniversary. IMO, that amplifier would have been almost perfect had I purchased a pair to use them as mono-blocks, the added wattage was missing, not so w/ the Big Radu 300B pushing 6.5wpc.

Listening to a widely diverse but audiophile centric group of songs w/ the combination O/96’s on the Big Radu amplifier w/ NO subwoofers and conversely with the speakers stand alone just fine but IMO they really come alive and “POP” w/ the subs in-line. The RADU for example has big bass but it’s just not as tightly controlled as it was w/ my Line Magnetic, Decware or Vinnie Rossi amplifiers, the subwoofers help make up for that IMO to my personal tastes.

While i’m thinking about it, the Charney Companion speakers just can’t compare to the rich depth of sound and oversized presentation the big Radu brings out of the O/96’s, the FirstWatt SIT-3 and Decware 341.5 are better suited to the Charney speakers where I’m currently using them. The FirstWatt SIT-3 was an acceptable combination but surprisingly did no “WOW” justice to the O/96’s in the set-up. @ 1.75 watts the Alan Eaton 45DHT mono-blocks sounded great, but did not get anywhere near the gargantuan soundstage of the Big Radu design. The LM 216ia kept my interest for 3 solid evenings, and had solid punch to it in both Triode and Ultralinear modes but my KT88’s simply don’t add the same deep richness the 300B’s bring out. The Vinnie Rossi continues to over excel in its duties as a pre-amplifier, but compared to the symbiosis of the Radu Tarta Shiny Eyes, i feel it’s performance as an amplifier would be considered average w/ the O/96’s. I could swap any number of DHT’s in the VR and it simply cannot do what the Radu does to these speakers.

All this and I’m no where near done yet, so far the largest soundstage & most decadent sound character has been the combination VR as pre w/ the Radu in line. (That’s DHT pre-pushing DHT amplifier) I also went straight from the Berkley Alpha Reference DAC into the Radu amp. first using an RCA connection, then using XLR and I also tried the DAC as volume control in each scenario. So many combinations and this did not include any tube rolling…

The DeVore 0/96 speakers are impressive for their size, putting out both big sound and fine nuanced details when asked to do so quietly. So very easy to drive and easy to place in my space. I enjoyed them both at higher and lower volumes and that is a trait i appreciate. I coaxed a rich, deep sound out of them that was very easy on the ear and even managed to get some extremely deep and pleasantly holographic staging which again pleases me greatly and is an attribute i value. I hope our friend db_cooper is pleased and excited about his purchase and is able to coax much performance from these speakers, they are extremely capable

[dB_Cooper]

I’m glad you had a good long time with them Nick!

Within an hour of getting them set up I could see their potential, coming from the Voxativ Zeth with the AC-PiFe driver, they served me a real smack in the face reminder of the bewildering diverse number of ways to skin the cat this hobby presents us. It’s no wonder why it can and often takes years to get “there”.

My initial reaction was how these things have such a grand presentation, they sound and present like a MUCH larger speaker and actually transform my tiny listening space into something more grand.

The second thought I had was, WOW these things have bass! The kind of base some could be happy with. The problem is that I have spent a few years now in that trying to get “there” and this bass is not the bass I’m looking for. This give you a lot of deep, plentiful bass, but it’s speaker bass, a bit slow, a bit bloomy and plenty of it.. It’s not the bass I’m looking for.

That said, I knew what I had to do, anticipated it even. I’m not going to go into the details now so I’ll leave this as high a level as I can; What I’ve done here is trade a supermodel for a movie star.

I spent a lot of time chasing perfection with the Zeth, because they hinted so much at that perfection, but they simply couldn’t give me what I wanted. These O/96 are not perfect, but they’re already giving me precisely what I want.

[dB_Cooper]

A placeholder for a weekend post, …Or how I found audio bliss by plugging an orangutan.

[orrman]

I miss my old O/96 every day that I think of great audio experiences.. such good speakers to listen to and simply enjoy the music.

[Virion]

I see you placed the O/96 close to the wall. When I read reviews they say your supposed to place them far away from the walls. What is your experience?
I myself have a small space to eventually place speakers, so I kind of dismissed the option of using them

[gerihifi]

Hi, they work perfect close to the wall - at least in my testing (even it was just a modified O96 Klon), but I’d also for testing a pair original O96 in the same room/placement - no issue.

[dB_Cooper]

I’ve read and got a confirmation back from John DeVore that as long as they’re 18” inches or more from a sidewall, they’re good. I’ve got mine at 21” from center.

[Virion]

Cool thank you. I geuss their back on the list to consider.

[dB_Cooper]

The other thing critical for them, actually critical for all speaker placements:

You want different values in distance when placed in a corner. You want to center of driver to sidewall, front of speaker to rear wall and center of driver to floor to all be different. If they’re the same or too similar they’ll just increase the amplitude of the matching frequencies for that distance.

So in my case, 21” from the side wall. 40” from the rear wall and 33.5” from the floor. You’re looking for those kinds of differences.

[Virion]

Is it then ok to place the two speaker in parallel to each other, so same different distances to same parallel wall. Or do they need to be different across all walls for both speakers?

edit: Maybe mirroring is a better word for what im asking.

[dB_Cooper]

Yes, at least in my case it’s not an issue although not mirroring can solve for other room problems. Speaker placement is an art and a year from now I’m sure I’ll go in and tweak things a bit by a degree or to or an inch one way or another and claim that it sounded SO much better and kick myself for not having done it earlier.

It’s what we do in pursuit of the insane.

[dB_Cooper]

Where would the hobby be for many of us if it wasn’t for those kind souls willing to take hits on a speaker they ordered, waited on and then soured on to quickly to try their next attempt?

I did impulsively bought the 0/96 because they went on sale on my birthday and it was a color that fit right into my design style but I know it’s a color that will turn off a lot of other buyers. In the end was that DEEP discount and their flawless condition that allowed for the impulsiveness otherwise I’d never bite.

I’ve done a lot of reading over the years, and understood what the O/96 were about but I was surprised,despite a lot of what what I’d been reading that they were as big presenting as they are for their size. That said I knew that I’d have to work to make it more of what I wanted.

This post is mostly about how I am keeping the speaker despite my saying the bass was not for me.

I like tight bass I also like authoritative well controlled and dynamic bass with speed and impact. The 0/96 offers a great deal of the dynamics, impactful and authoritative. A side note for others, the Firstwatt F8 is a f’ing fantastic pairing for the 0/96, tons more grip and downright control than I’d ever seen it show before. Maybe a better fit than my previous Zeth speakers, but I was shocked at how much more detail and immediacy the low mids to upper bass bass range took on. But on the lower frequencies it’s slower speed and compared to the Voxativ Zeth maybe the larger heavier woofer? It’s just an interesting and welcomed discovery as they’re both 10 ohm high efficiency, very similar in their specs actually. I’d been working for about two years trying to get everything that I wanted, something that I wasn’t going to give up on given how close I’ve been with the Zeth and flirting with it on the 0/96 in just the first week of playing with them.But nothing beast experience and the knowledge we gain along the way. Wanting it all makes this hobby exponentially difficult and an order of magnitude more expensive but at leas the expense part was already behind me. LOL

In a way I feel a bit embarrassed and would be tared and feathered by purists for what I am about to say. I have plugged one of the ports of my O/96. Plugging both ports just sucked all of the life out of them, plugging one, the one furthest toward the center of the room, (which happens to fall more directly in line with the bass trap behind it.) gave me a much better canvas on which to work with integrating my Rel T5-X into the presentation of the plugged Orangutan.

I’ve got to say I had them 95% dialed in within a couple of hours and now after a few days of listening I’ve got them 98% of the way there or MORE. When I say “there” I mean the sound I’ve been searching years for now. So that kind of level of happiness. I’m writing this because I am keeping these so I’m confident enough now to answer questions or provide more coherent observations like what I found with the Firstwatt F8.

I’m not a measurements guys because it would instantly put me in an analysis paralysis situation of data overload and looking at a graph of something like these speakers, there’s no way to look at a graph and see what these speakers show. Not to imply that there is one way to skin a cat, we all think, hear, reason, rationalize differently and most importantly we all ultimately want to get to the promised land of perfection our gear often hint at the possibility of. So more power to all of us that chase it despite the dents on the wallet.

That said, and the reason I listen; I feel I’ve been most fortunate that I’ve come to really understand my chain. Hundreds of hours of listening, each component given lots of runway and changing cables trying things with them and understand what the component I’ve introduced into that do and how they harmonize and gain synergy as part of that chain. What I’ve come to realize is that at this end of the pool there are few bad components, it’s more like bad fit into a chain. So when I say I was impulsive about the O/96 purchase it was because I “knew” I’d be able to make it work and ordering the plugs for the ports the day after I’d make the purchase.

I’m ready for the ridicule and gasps, but man I don’t care because my plugged orangutan is the best sound I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to and precisely what I’ve been chasing.

And still I know there’s more of the table with the little bits of tweaking around the edges that I’ve got planned for all my vacation time coming up around the holidays. Some vibration isolation pads for the footers I’ve been playing with, need to switch some cables around a bit as I’ve got to talk about the other reason why I made this work.

No one speaker does it all, and as much as I’ve claimed that the O/96 give me precisely what I was looking for, they needed a little help. The Ideon Absolute Time is that little bit of help. The Voxativ Zeth with the wood cone drivers is one hell of a speaker, but ultimately needed gear I couldn’t or better said, didn’t want to give it. A SET amplifier. I did have to get the Ideon to make up for most of what I was giving up though. That says a lot about them.