Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Super 8 Speakers by davehg

Model:	Gibbon Super 8
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$4000
Description:	2-way floorstander, 36Hz-40kHz, 8 ohms, 90dB/W/M
Manufacturer URL:	DeVore Fidelity
Model Picture:	View

Review by davehg ( A ) on January 20, 2007 at 00:06:57
IP Address: 24.16.3.40

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The Devore replaces a pair of Merlin TSM-MM's, which I have owned for several years. Several factors, having nothing to do with the Merlin, prompted a speaker change. My time with the Devore has been both fascinating and frustrating, and while I am not sure if this speaker has the staying power of the Merlin in my system, it is one of the best speakers in its price range I have encountered.
I recently spent time playing with a WAVAC MD-811, my first foray into SET amps. Paired with the Merlin, the amp did some great things but left me thinking that the Merlin was too inefficient. So after several years without change, I embarked on a mission to sell my VAC Avatar SE and Merlins and find a proper speaker for the Wavac. It came down to Terry Cain's Abbeys or the Devore, both of which I had previously heard at CES and THE SHOW. I tried without sucess to get a pair of Abbeys shipped to Seattle, but snapped up a pair of mint ebony Devore's on Audiogon.
Hooking them to the WAVAC was an exercise in sheer frustration. First, the Devore is easily the most finicky speaker I have ever played with. It took several days to find just the right position, and I am still not convinced I've totally dialed them in. They like to be wider apart in my room, and 2 inches in any direction made an enormous difference. Too far from the rear walls, and they lose weight and presence; too close, and the rear port fires into the rear wall and makes the bass tubby. The Wavac was a failure with this speaker. Unlike the Merlins, which did incredibly well with the 16wpc SET, the Devore sounded shrill, shouty, and with hardly any low end. Enough so that John Devore chimed in to my post on the Asylum with some pointers on setup, and I followed his advice. While the speaker settled in, it was just the wrong match with the WAVAC. I was beginning to regret my selling the Merlins.
But with my VAC Avatar, the Devore changed completely. Instantly, the warmth returned, and now the Devore beckoned me to try further placement and setup. I pushed them wider apart and a bit closer than the Merlins had been from the rear wall. One day, taking the advice to raise the rear spikes to have the speaker tilt down ever slightly, it suddenly snapped into perfect focus. WOW. The many positive reviews I had read now suddenly made sense.
The Devore has this amazing transparency and incredible soundstage, both in front and to the rear of the system. It resolves without harshness or brightness, and disappears much the same way a good planar speaker can (I am thinking Maggies or older Martin Logans). It has a natural and musical warmth, but without being at all rolled off at the ends. Image heighth, especially singers, seems accurate. Cosmetically, the ebony finish ($1k more) is gorgeous, and my wife, a designer, loved the look.
In comparison with the Merln TSM, some interesting observations. I really liked both speakers, they succeeded in very different ways. The Devore is more dynamic than the Merlin, with a tad more extension and air, all without inherent brightness. The Merlin sounds ever so slightly closed in or wooly by comparison. The Devore had much better bass extension, naturally being that it is ported and has a larger cabinet. But the Merlin succeeds in areas where the Devore falls behind: instruments and vocals have more weight and body than the Devore, and the while the top end extension is not as open, the Merlins pull out inner detail much better. Example: one one song with maracas, you hear the beads inside the shells in the Devore, but with the Merlin, you get the sensation of each bead colliding with eachother, and with cymbals, you have a better sense of the sheenwhen struck by the drumstick. The Devore smeared this detail and had a lighter weight with vocals and instruments, even as it had more extension/frequency range. I attribute the lack of weight to two things: a ported cabinet, and a lively and less-braced cabinet.
One oddity with the Devore: at 90db, they should do better with less power than the Merlins. In fact, more power made the Devore perform better. While the lower powered WAVAC played loud enough, and the Avatar's 27wc triode mode also worked well, 60 wpc of ultralinear power (or 45 watts of triode using VAC PA90 monoblocks) added back in some of the weight and body to the Devore. Also, at lower volumes, the Devore sounded flatter, compressed and closed in, turning up the volume cured the problem immediately. This is a speaker that, contrary to its efficiency rating, likes a bit more power AND wants to be played louder in order to shine. Again, surprising given that the demos I have seen of this speaker use lower powered Shindo tube gear.
The last comment is probably a compliment, but I noticed it less with the Merlins: the Devore really showed off bad recordings. I don't mean to imply that the Devore is bright, it is not. But flat compressed albums were immediately noticeable and less enjoyable via the Devore than through the Merlins. I am convinced the Merlins are more colored than the Devore, but they were generally less finicky than the Devore with bad recordings. With a good recording, like Bob Dylan's new album Modern Times (or even his excellent remastered "Freewheelin Bob Dylan), the Devore sparked and shined, and the peformance was so very real. With flatter recordings, like the newly issued and musically satifying Paolo Nutini album (got my import copy before the US release!!), the Devore demonstrated the shortcomings of the recording. Again, unlike a speaker such as Thiels or Wilson Sophia, the Devore is NOT cool or clinical or ruthlessley revealing; instead, you simply are more aware of the strengths or weaknesses of recordings, cables, and even choices like upsampling at 96khz versus 192khz (each of those settings on my Tri-Vista DAC were readily differentiated with the Devore).
Right now, I am using the Devore with a REL Strata III, not really necessary on all but the last low end bass notes. It is making great music, and while I miss some of the attributes of the incredibly musical Merlin TSM, I equally appreciate the virtues and strenghts of the Devore. I would like to spend some time with the Merlin VSM, a more expensive solution that might share more of the Devore's strength's with less of the TSM's weaknesses, but until I muster the funds or the time/hassle to try another speaker, I can say the Devore's are impressive, and I am not sorry I made the change. The Devore also made me realize what great integrated amp the VAC Avatar SE is, and I ended up selling the WAVAC after trying various new and NOS tubes to tame the edge of the amp.
I have not tried other amp combinations beyond the VAC Avatar and PA90 and WAVAC, but I suspect the Devore would do equally well with a Class A integrated solid state amp, or a good hyrbrid, though I would generally avoid any gear that is inherently brighter or more ruthlessly revealing. The Devore will stay for a long time, at least until I can get my hands on the more expensive Merlin VSM.

Product Weakness: a teensy bit lightweight, incredibly finicky set up, can be "hot" on the top end with the wrong gear
Product Strengths: Dynamic, incredibly musical, killer soundstage, transparency, revealing without edge

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	VAC Avatar SE
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Bolder modified Squeezebox/MF Tri-Vista 21 DAC
Speakers:	(Merlin TSM-MM as comparison)
Cables/Interconnects:	Acoustic Zen Silver Reference/Hologram II
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	All types
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Foundation Research/Cardas Golden Reference AC cords
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	a teensy bit lightweight, incredibly finicky set up, can be "hot" on the top end with the wrong gear
Product Strengths:	Dynamic, incredibly musical, killer soundstage, transparency, revealing without edge