I’ve thought about trying Devore speakers on and off, but I’ve never had the chance to listen to a pair outside of a trade show. Tim at Carytown Sound in Richmond had a pair of O/96, actually in the same color finish as yours, but I never got to hear them before he closed up shop earlier this year.
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Hard resets aren’t all bad news, it means you’ve developed enough to know precisely what you want. that’s 3/4 of the battle IMO. lol
It’s a small community. I got them from Tim.
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I think the impressive aspect about stage with them is the stage coherency, it’s not the most immediately enveloping or expansive, but it’s extremely tightly defined and great at representing accurate scale and location within it’s stage, I think that’s really the value of their stage compared to some other speakers, it’s just really accurate to the recording, but often that means they’re not super exciting either. I did sometimes find that on my voxativ some recordings and system pairings just didn’t seem impressive, and others really wowed me, but it didn’t often fully envelop me or “putting me there” like some other speakers imo. They did however give a very very very clear window into the recording itself and how tightly things could be laid out in front. It’s just a very specific sort of stage, I found that I really had to treat my room a lot and try every possible place to get the best of them vs some other speakers.
I would agree that I’ve had the best luck with SET specifically some of my powerful + neutral leaning chains I’ve used (standouts would be an aries cerat and lamm system). I think the more pure the amp and preamp + a more expansive and immersive dac was the most enjoyment I got out of these speakers, as it allows for the drivers to perform at what they’re best at while letting the source tailor the sound more to add in a bit extra for something more consistently immersive. I did have a big shock moment with a yamamoto a08s, for how little power it was so pure and coherent, super impressive but did lack grunt and was more specialist in that it didn’t work with some tracks, but when it did hit, it hit hard.
You’ve seemingly tried it with a good range of gear there, I don’t know how much more value you’d find in trying to swap things around considering your experiences with other speakers and pairings, I think with what you’re after you’d just get more out of a different set of speakers imo
I did feel like it was better able to extract more of what you were driving it with for the 4x, but that’s a double edged sword lol
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Hey @rooze welcome and so very excited to have you posting! I am a big fan of the type of equipment you have had go through your hands 
I’ve only had a pair of Zeth speakers in hand for a short while. The pair i have in hand use the Voxative Pi-Fe driver. The enclosure design has limitations and as far as i can tell is the simplest design and build they offer. The short version of my opinion is that yes basically you are getting a solid 90% of what this design is capable of. You could probably get some more spatial depth and tighter imaging out of them but their lean nature is what it is. Sure different Voxative drivers and front end equipment will offer slight differences but even w/ my short time w/ the Zeth I’ve maxed out everything substantive they are going to reproduce in their sound character.
Even using my “warmest” amplifiers this speaker design has a lean sounding character. I’ve gotten a nice taste of the bass they are capable of reproducing on their own which is fast, tight and super well defined. Meh, I promptly threw my subwoofers into the mix and then jacked the crossovers up high to thicken the overall character out a bit more. Same trick i use w/ my LS3/5A’s, it works and is plenty good enough for me. 
These speakers are extremely resolute w/ an excellent quality top end but are also super sensitive to what they are being fed which is a double edged sword.
I’ll write more, especially in comparing the ZETH to Carney Audio Companion’s I own which are running Lowther DX65 drivers. The Carney enclosure reproduces what I feel most audio enthusiasts prefer in their music character. The Zeth design was simply a lower cost option for folks like myself who wanted a taste of what the Voxative drivers are capable of but who can’t afford the more complex speaker cabinets or don’t have the skills and equipment to make their own larger and more complex DIY designs for the transducers.
I’m very excited and hope to hear more of your experiences and stories w/ various pieces of equipment over the years that you have had the pleasure of using. 
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@NickMimi Thanks for the input and the welcome.
I do a similar thing with subs, I generally run them with a little more overlap to add a bit of heft in the midbass region if it’s needed.
There’s a review of the Zeths floating around that I’m sure you’ve read, and I had a fairly lengthy exchange with the previous owner of my speakers, who talked quite a bit about what I should expect from them. Those two sources gave me an expectation that I haven’t quite been able to meet with my particular setup. Yours and dB_Cooper’s comments are more aligned with what I’ve found to be the case with the equipment that I’ve used so far….the speakers are a bit on the leaner side.
That said, they’re not unpleasant, their presentation just makes them shine more on certain types of recordings than on others. That can be said about all of the speakers I’ve owned 
I’m not in any hurry to do anything. I do have them listed for sale, but the ‘local pickup’ requirement means I’ll probably have them for a while. So I’m keeping an eye open on the usual ‘used’ channels for an amp that might be worth rolling the dice on.
I’ll drop back with an update if I find something worth sharing…
Cheers!
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I genuinely miss some of the things they do that my 0/96 can’t or simply can’t quite achive. It’s a frustrating hobby. lol
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@rooze Are you nearby in Virginia? I have a Decware 341.5 amplifier that i would be happy to let you try on them for a while. Also, you are experienced in tube rolling and would understand the variety of tubes i have in hand to vary the output of the amplifier a bit.
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Thanks, that’s a very generous offer. Yes, I’m about 90 minutes south of Richmond. I may take you up on this when I get my system back together. I’ve randomly sold off the core components from two systems and I’m left with a bit of a mishmash of gear that doesn’t play together particularly well. (with the exception of my vinyl rig, which is so far untouched).
I do this every so often….I get frustrated with the rig and purge everything then start over. It could be undiagnosed ADHD 
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@rooze , I’m in Fredericksburg so we are basically a day trip from each other. 
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@rooze , i have had more time to experiment with my pair of Zeth, they have a different transducer than yours but the enclosure still has the same limitations so you can probably reproduce the same results if you care to try.
Scootch your listening chair in real close, near-field close. Get within their “bubble” and you will find an unrealistic seating position but surprising difference in their sound character.
Here is a picture of how stupidly close in i had to come to get within their bubble of sound as built and designed in the Zeth enclosure.
PS. Goodness me, these are tight, so damned tight and fast. Bass drops by Nenad Vasilic, Poem of Chinese Drum by Hok-man Yim, Kroumata Pieces by Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, Tutam Yar Elinden, By Rubato, OOOFF 
but I’m basically sitting between the speakers. BTW, 2 excellent watts bring these to life.
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Now you know they’re a keeper for when you downsize your house and become an apartment dweller.
Remembering the dimensions of that room, play with their placement some more, move the speakers back 30” or so from the rear wall which is probably how I had them, they may be requiring some in room reinforcement as I had mine about 16” from the side walls.
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Interesting. I’m not averse to nearfield, though that’s maybe a bit too close for me 
It looks like you may be using a different base under them? Has anyone figured out how to get them on to the stock base without sticking a spike in the wooden base and gouging it? It’s really awkward so I’m thinking of ditching the wooden base and going straight into the floor - though I read somewhere about the critical 22mm gap…
Right now I still have a pair of Spica in the main system. I’ve sold off most of my ‘good stuff’ and just haven’t figured out yet what to replace it with.
I’m in that ‘frustrated and don’t know what to do about it’ zone, at present.
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Yes, yes and yes. 22 mm is what I measured out precisely what the stock footers are set to. Raising it lowers the bass frequency a bit but less texture. Lowering it tightent the bass frequency a bit but less bass which for that cabinet is not ideal.
I went to a custom kitchen counter place and gave them the dimensions I wanted and even got to pick a matching white marble with gold veins to match the speakers. $150 bucks.
One thing I never got to try but the dimensions (22 mm) are probably where they need to be is Stillpoints mini.
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Hmm… so standing them on marble slabs, without the recessed inserts, would probably raise that by 5mm or so. I think I might just try it. I’m using them with subs so maybe I can paste over any deficiencies with a good smattering of REL bass.. 
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I took the measurement of the recessed indent in the wooded bases into consideration when I measured. What I would do today if I still had them is try out a set of Stack Audio AUVA but they’re 30 mm without any of the hardware which is perfectly usable that way if you’re not moving the speakers around carelessly.
Also thought about sheet of plywood under the speaker in between the footers as a way to decrease the distance to the floor but I never got around to experimenting with that as I found some Chi-Fi stainless steel footers in which I then replaced the stainless bearing to silicon nitride Ceramic ball bearings. They were precisely 22 mm if you want to try them.
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Completely understandable and unfortunate when dealing w/ expensive hobbies. Fortunately these are excellent types of problems to have in your life, and a wish for long good health to you so that this may always be your only worry.
Go read this fellows web page, he has allot to say and in particular loves your transducers so you MAY gleam some knowledge that could help your future endeavors or not. Just remember sometimes a problem is most easily solved simply by walking away from it.
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Just a quick update from my frustration period…
I figured that simplifying my system and reducing what I have invested into it might help rekindle my interest in the hobby, and trigger a return to listening more seriously to music again.
So I bought an inexpensive all in one streamer/DAC/pre (Eversolo DMP A10) and a pair of active monitors (Legacy Audio Calibre XD).
The Calibre can be biamplified with an external amp to drive the AMT tweeter, leaving the internal amp to handle both bass and midrange.
Break-in is a slow process. I don’t like to leave the system running while we’re away from the house so after almost two weeks I’m probably at around 150 hours max.
The speakers are not sounding how I remember hearing them at CAF. I heard a big, bold, slightly warm presentation, whereas at this moment mine sound a little hot on top and lean through the midrange. Of course that’s with my budget streamer, so who knows if that’s the culprit or the lack of break-in.
To try to make listening during this transition period more enjoyable I bought a LTA ZOTL40 from a local chap to throw on the AMT tweeter in biamp mode.
That hasn’t worked so far due to a gain mismatch with the internal amp, and I’m waiting on an attenuation device that should hopefully fix it.
Now to my point
Last night I thought I would take a break from the break-in and throw the Voxatix Zeth into the system with the new LTA ZOTL amp. It’s an EL-34 amp running NOS Mullards.
It sounds very good indeed, the best I’ve heard from the Zeth in the year or so that I’ve owned them, and by a wide margin.
I’ve run the Zeth with an expensive digital setup (dCS) and expensive amps, but they’ve never sounded this good.
So I’m in a bit of a quandary as to what to do next. I’m suitably impressed to want to start improving the front end again, perhaps a new preamp, DAC, etc, but I don’t want to end up back where I came from.
I’ll continue with more running time on the Legacy but I might be heading towards having to make a difficult decision if they continue to underwhelm.
But yes, I’m finally realizing that the Zeth are a very capable speaker when you land upon the right match of gear.
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Since they’re easy to come by. I’d look for a Firstwatt SIT3 to pair with the Zeth. I never tried the LTA 40 but I always felt for the Zeth it would have been better than the UL I had. The UL responded very positively to tube rolls so perhaps a bit of further gains to be had there.
Glad you’ve close to rekindling the love! It sucks not to be there. Very happy for you!
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For those of you who are ZOTL enthusiasts, I recently acquired a pair of practically new Hagen 2 on US Audio Mart. The synergy between these speakers and my custom 6B4G push-pull ZOTL amp from David Berning is out of this world.
A brief introduction. I am a big fan of the Quad ESL 57, as you can see in the picture below. It is the only speaker I keep going back to after trying out other pairs. The Berning 6B4G is the best amp I’ve heard with those Quads, and I’ve owned both the LTA 40+ and the UL+, as well as a Quad fan favorite (including David Chesky) the ASR Emitter 1 Exclusive. But, despite their see-through transparency, and the fact that my REL T7x subs and Townshend supertweeters offer nice support at the frequency extremes, the 57 lacks dynamics. Also, although I run a dehumidifier during the summer months, I prefer to give them a break when humidity is high to protect the panels. So I usually turn to my second system in the summertime.
A few years ago I owned the Charney Companion. While, in general, tonal balance was pretty good, the speakers required to be place near the front wall to make any bass. The idea of having speakers close to a wall is against my own preferences. I tend to favor a more near field experience to maximize the direct sound and minimize unwanted. However, the direct sound that voxativ drivers produced stayed in my mind.
Enter the Hagen 2. I got these speakers 3 weeks ago. I won’t lie, these required substantial efforts with setup to make them sing. Fortunately, my previous experience with fullrange drivers gave me enough confidence and trust in their potential. With these, I first had to minimize toe-in as listening on axis is almost impossible to a climbing frequency response in the upper treble region when listening on axis. Also, I ended up removing the acoustic treatment (absorption panels) on the first reflection point to boost the lower midrange/upper bass region. Since the speaker has a narrow dispersion pattern and can sound lean if not handled properly, my positioning helps reflect mostly that lower midrange region (due to the wider dispersion at those frequencies) from side walls thus producing a fuller sound. I also had to turn to the more “organic” filter choices on HQPlayer (IIR2) to avoid too much incisiveness from my custom tube DAC. I also think that placing the speakers right in front of my Quad panels (which are dipoles) help produced a fuller sound by preferentially boosting the mid-low frequencies.
In short, this combo produced the sound I’ve been looking for for years. With the Berning 6B4G driving the Hagen 2 the sound is virtually electrostatic like in its transparency and speed. But the imaging and soundstage precision are far superior. than my 57s. I have yet to experience a setup in my home environment that yields such razor sharp images with so much air between instruments. There is something to be said about the time domain correctness of a fullrange driver, and the direct sound that the crossoverless design yields. With my 12W amp, dynamics are truly incredible. In addition, with my REL subs properly integrated, this system produces the fastest most articulated bass I have experienced in my life. Irrespective of genre, the bass is always clean and powerful (with sub support, of course). Even for low level listening (mid 60 dB) I still experience a full range incredibly detailed sound.
In an attempt to offer a more balanced perspective, I would add that these speakers will punish your ears with bright or poorly recorded source material. My Quad 57 is far more forgiving and wins in this regard. It is also the more “neutral” speaker. But as far as a “you are there” visceral sound experience that, despite not being entirely tonal accurate, it is absolutely remarkable and addictive. I have second setup in my house which consists of a more powerful version of the same 6B4G amp (22W), an LTA microZOTL preamp, and ProAc D30RS speakers, which I love, but since getting the Hagen 2 everything else in my house sounds boring 
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They’re so picky but when you treat them right you really are rewarded, awesome setup, and glad they’re giving you what you’ve been after!
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