DeVore’s Gibbon X speakers

Having gotten used to John DeVore showing off his high-sensitivity Orangutan O/96 and O/93 speakers at recent shows, both of which have been very favorably received by Stereophile’s reviewers, driven by low-power Shindo and Line Magnetic amplification, I was somewhat surprised to see the new and more conventional Gibbon X towers driven by a high-powered VTL S-200 Signature amplifier in Triode mode via Auditorium cabling in his suite at the Venetian.

The new Gibbon is projected to sell for $12,000/pair and features all-new drive-units: a ¾” tweeter asymmetrically mounted beneath a paper-cone midrange unit based on that first used in the DeVore Silverback, which features what John calls an adaptive surround, and two long-throw 7” woofers. These have a magnet 50% more powerful than that of the woofers previously used in the Gibbon series, with double the linear voice-coil travel. The speaker has a specified sensitivity of 91dB/W/m, a solid bamboo cabinet, and boasts an elegant, superbly well-finished appearance.

With a front-end comprising an EMT TSD-15 MC cartridge mounted in a Well-Tempered GTA tonearm/turntable, both a track from Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold and a virtuoso transcription of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” by Swedish electric bassist Jonas Hellborg (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra) proved to be two of my musical highlights at CES.

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