There’s something about John DeVore’s loudspeakers that intrinsically connect me to the music. Jazz, blues, EDM, folk, rock, or pop… it doesn’t matter. The electron translations being performed by DeVore Fidelity designs – like the O/93 graciously provided to me by Soundhounds in Victoria, B.C., being reviewed here – would be listened to with envy by those involved with maintaining harmonious diplomatic relations between countries with disparate languages at the United Nations. They don’t impress me with platitudes, there’s no sweetening of what’s being said here – they shoot straight – the O/93s (like their bigger sibling the O/96) simply vanish from the signal path, and allow more of what’s in the source file – be it LP, reel-to-reel, or digital audio – to make its way to my ears without impediment. This is not a trick performed only by DeVore’s designs, this is the parlance of numerous transducer implementations available across a broad spectrum of prices, but it’s the way that DeVore’s speakers do it that is so captivating to my ears. It’s the honesty of those electron translations being carried out: A snare drum skin sounds exactly like a real snare drum skin. A cymbal crashes, splashes, sparkles, [...]
Read more: The DeVore Fidelity O/93 loudspeaker long-term review
This year dawned with plenty of questions facing the high-end audio industry. The most pressing were: Would the U.S. economy hold up, allowing manufacturers and retailers to stay afloat? Would vinyl continue its revival, possibly enticing young people into a hobby that’s in danger of aging out? And, would the recent growth in the show circuit create too much of a good thing? That third question was still hanging in the air as September arrived and the last two of the record seven major domestic gatherings for 2017 were scheduled to go off within weeks of each other, putting a strain on the finances and staff of audio companies and creating decisions for potential out-of-town attendees. For over a decade, the final big show of the year has been the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. This year, its traditional early October long weekend fell on the 6th through the 8th. T.H.E. Show, however, which was conducted in Newport, Calif., in June 2016, had shifted to Sept. 21-24 in Anaheim. That not only was uncomfortably close to RMAF, it also would have been the third sizable show in the Sunshine State in a four-month period. At the 11th hour, though, [...]
Read more: RMAF 2017: Best In Show