DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 Loudspeakers
An award-winning blend of musicality and accuracy.
Designed especially for low-powered tube amplifiers!
The o96 features a 10″ paper cone with a phase-plug powered by a motor adapted from DeVore’s Silverback Reference drivers. A 1″ silk-dome tweeter, with a powerful double-magnet motor system, is gently horn-loaded.
Specifications
| Frequency Response | 25Hz-31kHz |
| Sensitivity | 96dB/W/M |
| Impedance | 10 Ohms 8.75 Ohms minimum at 190 Hz |
| Dimensions | 12″d x 18″w x 35.5″h (including stands) |
Conclusions
Although it sells for less than any of Stereophile’s Class A full-range loudspeakers—and far less than most of them—the DeVore Orangutan O/96 is an expensive loudspeaker by the standards of average consumers and audio perfectionists alike. Given that the DeVore Fidelity line, as a whole, leans to the more affordable side of the fence, I wondered about the level of value provided by their newest entry. According to John DeVore, the O/96’s bass driver is particularly expensive to make, as is the speaker’s Brooklyn-built enclosure. “A speaker is a major decorative item in a system,” he adds, “and, with these, I felt it was more important to achieve beauty than, say, for an amp. And getting end-grain plywood to look like glass is not easy!”
My own view is simpler: The O/96 is neither a budget version nor a luxury version of anything else. It’s an extremely well-crafted loudspeaker that achieves a combination of strengths that is, as far as I know, unique. The O/96 is distinctly easy to drive with low-power amplifiers, yet it’s clearer, wider of bandwidth, and more spatially accomplished than most other high-sensitivity loudspeakers.
Colorful yet uncolored, the DeVore Orangutan O/96 is the loudspeaker many of us have been waiting for. Yes, an old Western Electric horn or even an Altec Valencia has more punch and drama, and a Quad ESL has even more clarity and nuance of texture and timbre. But the O/96 gives a lot of everything and sacrifices little of anything. I’m thoroughly, giddily impressed.
—Art Dudley, Stereophile
Stereophile, Jim Austin, September 2017, Speaker of the Year, Class A Recommended Component
Audiophilia, Anthony Kershaw, January 2017, Speaker of the Year
This is a loudspeaker for both music lovers, and imaging/detail fetishists. I cannot recommend it highly enough to those with room to do the design, and performance, justice.”
Part Time Audiophile, February 2016, Editor’s Choice
