Loudspeakers

My speakers are the DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze. I’ve owned O/93s and Gibbon 88s in the past and enjoyed them, and when I decided to reshuffle my system, these were the first choice.

When the O/96 models were released I really liked them and seriously considered buying some then. I ended up with O/93s for some reason. I had heard them at the DeVore Monkeyhaus and they’d blown me away and I think that’s what swayed me. When the O/Reference were announced I thought it would be cool to have a model between them and the O/96, which was of course John’s plan anyway. The limited edition 20th anniversary model ‘The Twentys’ were announced and I was too slow and not in the right space to purchase any, but fortunately for me John decided to make the same speaker available as a normal production model, and here we are.

The O/Bronze takes a lot from what the O/Reference achieves and hybridises it with the O/96. It uses the same bronze enclosed tweeter as the Reference model and a hybrid woofer, using the bronze chassis and the O/96 motor, as far as I can remember anyway. I think it also uses reference level parts in the crossover. It even has fancy pants decoupled bronze ports. This is a beautifully crafted and designed loudspeaker.

The veneer is an awesome American black walnut which complements the bronze of the drivers really well, and of course the finish is impeccable as I’ve come to expect from DeVore creations.

They have the same high impedance and high sensitivity as other Orangutan models making them a very efficient load for any amplifier. The synergy of DeVore with Kondo is amazing. It reminds me of my old Shindo stuff in a way, the musical inertia that draws you in regardless of the source material. A simple 2-way design with a wide baffle ensures high efficiency.

Here’s a little write up from a recent issue of Stereophile:
“The new DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze is specified at 96dB/W/m sensitivity and 12 ohms nominal impedance, with a frequency range of 26Hz–23kHz (no tolerance given). Standard finishes include American Black Walnut and Lace Walnut; custom finishes are also available.

Outwardly similar to the O/96, the O/Bronze differs substantially from its popular sibling. “The tweeter and woofer, cabinet, and rear ports are all in the exact same locations on the O/96 and O/Bronze, but each of these elements has been improved and optimised in multiple ways,” DeVore said.”The tweeter is the same model used in the O/Reference. While the textile dome is identical to that in the O/96, every other element is unique. The motor is an underhung design, meaning the voice coil is always within a stable magnetic field, improving linearity and dynamic performance. The magnet is a large rare-earth doughnut, creating a much more powerful and focused magnetic field, and the gap itself is nearly double the height of the gap in the O/96 tweeter. The faceplate and horn are cast and machined from bronze, increasing stability, decreasing resonance, and improving the precision of the horn loading.”

“The woofer uses the same German paper cone as the driver in the O/96, but the linearity of the magnetic gap through which the voice coil moves has been increased significantly by means of a large copper Faraday ring. The ring is mounted directly to the machined bronze phase plug at the centre of the cone to act as a heat sink, drawing heat out of the magnetic gap and decreasing thermal compression. The chassis itself is cast and machined from the same bronze alloy as the tweeter, further increasing stability and decreasing resonance compared with the cast zinc chassis used for the O/96 woofer. The rear ports are also cast and machined from the same bronze; they are mounted, as in the O/Reference, isolated from the cabinet to minimise the effect of vibrations on performance.”

They work really well in my space, and I enjoy them immensely!

I still have my pair of Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a bookshelf speakers. They live up to the hype. Mine are in burr walnut and look great. I’ve installed the new GoldBadge crossovers since these were an older pair that I got before the newer crossovers were standard. These are sitting on some Falcon stands. A classic that any musically inclined person has to enjoy at least once.

To change things up now and then I have a pair of Omega Super 7XRS mk2 fullrange single driver speakers. These little speakers do some surprising things, and look pretty cool as well. I use these with a pair of Fostex T-90A supertweeters which have been fun to play with. I made the little crossover box with a Fostex L-pad attenuator and a Jantzen Superior capacitor. They work really well.