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DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby loudspeaker Page 2

Setup
John DeVore toted his O/babies from the Navy Yard and up my stairs then unsheathed them from heavy plastic. (The boxes were left in Brooklyn.) After much jogging, moving, taping, measuring, and listening, he secured them 64" apart tweeter to tweeter and 80" from my listening seat. After a week or two of listening, including one night playing hip-hop records brought by filmmaker Jeremy Elkin, I pushed them back 5" farther, endowing the sound with a deeper low-end with no sacrifice of presence, sparkle, or soundstaging.

Listening
As I started working on this review, I was…

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby loudspeaker John DeVore

Sidebar 1: John DeVore

Considering John DeVore's long legs, on his person and in the industry, I thought a historical Q&A was in order.

Ken Micallef: Why did you become a loudspeaker designer?

John DeVore: I've always been an audiophile. I always had music on and my hi-fi carefully set up, even as a teenager. I loved music, loved the gear, and was meticulous about the sound. In college, I realized I would probably never be able to afford the best speakers I was listening to at hi-fi stores, and so in the 1980s, I began reading up, studying, and eventually…

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby loudspeaker Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description: Two-way, rear-ported bass-reflex loudspeaker. Driver complement: horn-loaded 0.75" (19mm) Vifa textile-dome tweeter, 7" (178mm) SEAS paper-cone woofer. Frequency range: 38Hz–25kHz. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms.
Dimensions: 35" (889mm) H × 14.75" (375mm) W × 9.75" (248mm) D (including stands). Weight: 40lb (18kg).
Finish: White oak.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: B051B098 (both, auditioned); B0510001 (measurements), "handmade in Brooklyn, New York."
Price: $5700/pair. Stands: $995/pair. Warranty: Five years…

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment

Analog sources: Michell TecnoDec turntable with T3 tonearm, Goldring 1006 and Dynavector 10X5 LOW cartridges. VPI Avenger Direct turntable, VPI Fatboy tonearm, VPI Shyla MC cartridge.
Integrated amplifiers: Parasound Hint 6, PrimaLuna EVO 400.
Preamplifiers: Sugden LA-4, Tavish Audio Design Adagio phono.
Power amplifiers: Pass Labs XA-25, LKV Research PWR-3.
Loudspeakers: Devore Fidelity O/96, Volti Audio Razz, Spendor BC-1.
Cables: Interconnects: AudioQuest Pegasus, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: Triode Wire…

DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 4: Measurements

I performed the measurements on a different sample of the DeVore Fidelity O/baby from those that had been auditioned by Ken Micallef. It had the serial number B0510001. I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the speaker's behavior in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses.

Fig.1 DeVore O/baby, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).

DeVore specifies the O/baby's impedance as 8 ohms, with a minimum value of 6.75 ohms at 200Hz. Measured with…

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From the company:

In the December 2019 issue of Stereophile, John Atkinson pondered: “Is AudioQuest’s DragonFly Cobalt worth the extra $100 compared with the DragonFly Red? Yes. That sense of ease it offers with long-term listening is something I don’t want to do without.”

Now through December 31, 2023, AudioQuest’s multi-award-winning DragonFly Cobalt is available for just $199.95 ($259.95 CAD)—$50 less than DragonFly Red’s price at the time of…

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In Lil's world, a perfect day was for me to skip school and go with her clothes shopping at Marshall Field's, where it was my job to sit in a plush chair offering comments about which…

Gramophone Dreams #79: a Vintage Lenco L75 turntable & the PrimaLuna EVO 100 phono stage Page 2

When I grew out of shopping with mom, I began fitting pipe with my father and making hay every June with my uncles. Before I drove cars, I drove tractors in Wisconsin. The fields with the cut hay were about a half-mile from the shed where the tractors were stored, which meant I drove on the paved road dragging an empty wood wagon behind me. In one of the upper gears, with the throttle partway open, I'd space out listening to the deep-volumed rap-rap-rap of power issuing from the tractor's exhaust stack while making my way slowly up and down the rolling hills. The tractor's mass was so…