I've owned the AN E's and you should note they are not quite as efficient as they are quoted but still fairly good. I think 8wch may be ok if your not listening too loud you should be fine. I tried 8wch on them in my room with good results but ultimately found they needed a little more juice. 16wch plenty. They are very good speakers but I found they didn't soundstage that well in my room and somewhat "one bass noted". but I have a hard room to work with so not totally their fault. mind you other speakers I've had seem to be ok in the same room my Living Voice R3, Omegas SAM's(OMG huge sound stage).
I also heard the O/96's in the same sound room when I demoed the AN/E's I picked the AN's but you may have a different pick. I also listened to a 3 way Dynaudio speaker (wish I could remember them $5k price range 2 years ago) and they actually, at half the price, sounded better IMO then the divores but in no way as efficient.
To be honest I'm not a fan of the Devore house sound after listening to both the Gibbon 8 and O/96's, so add that to what I've said.
I would buy the AN/E's again if all silver wired/coil wired and I had the right room for them, thinking two corners here as they are IMO best in the corners.
I wanted to like the AN/E so bad. The place I heard them in was pretty awful. Apparently the room won't matter... so I'm to take that the speaker inherently is not to my liking.
Full disclosure: heard them in different rooms with different equipment. The Audio Note still has--after listening to many speakers over many years--the purest, most natural, timbral presentation of anything I've heard. Clearest window to the sound. The Devore's to me had a less welcoming sound; very good, no doubt, but somehow less "right". YMMV. What held me back with the AN's was the positioning, bass, and depth of soundstage.
You may want to look at my (long) thread comparing various speakers I auditioned. It's heavy on the Devore 0/96 and 0/93 audition notes, but I also mention my reaction to auditioning the Audio Note speakers.
In the end I definitely preferred the Devores, but that's definitely a subjective conclusion, obviously. As I mentioned in my thread, I found myself a bit too aware of the corner-loading nature of the Audio Note speakers (in their typical set up), and I have some issues with speakers that use the room that way.
The Devores gave to me a similar type of presentation, though richer and since they didn't require close to wall placement for rich base, they could be pulled out in to the room for closer listening/less room reaction and to me a more pure sound.
Largely it depends on your room and the equipment you will run. You can't really go by the advice you have to listen and compare - reviewer Rafe Arnott reviewed and had the Devore O/96 and replaced them with the Audio Note E - Art Dudley had the AN E for years and went with the 0/96 (but seeing his room that does make some sense). Reviewer Jack Roberts had both and chooses the Teresonic Ingenium which I also like (and again - seeing his room it makes a lot of sense - he has a wall behind his stereo but then a dining room that sits above and behind the wall that is hollow - so the the AN E will just fire back into that "essentially large empty box" and rattle his house. A front port or sealed cabinet speaker is a must.
Strictly speaking though the AN E absolutely does NOT need to be positioned against or near a wall - precisely because the AN E is designed to be placed against a "solid" wall which does not mean hotel room particle board or plaster or IMO wooden walls. In such cases - you are "likely" better off having them free standing. The AN E is very easy to make sound "pleasant" and "nice" but to get them to sound positively astounding - like most speakers - requires a lot of effort. It took me 6 months to get the AN J to work properly in my room back in Canada. And as good as they were - moving to Hong Kong with all concrete walls - is vastly superior. My dealer in Canada carries both and personally I prefer the AN E or the AN J to the DeVores. I find the tonality and timbre better and the driver integration to be superior - not to mention that at prices starting at 1/3 the price I see better value in the AN E and AN J. You also get far more options in terms of finishes.
And the AN E with the Alnico tweeters and woofers are a major step up over the lower iterations. Still - going to listen is always a good idea - but it would be more helpful to listen in the same room with gear you intend to own. The AN E is designed entirely with their own gear in mind. It plays better together. Other speakers may be more friendly to non AN gear. For example - I heard the AN E/L - a copper wired speaker - sounded nice with SS gear - the higher end silver wired AN E was utterly horrendous. Then went on the AN amplifier and source and the silver wired E was considerably better than the copper E. BUT had you just demoed the AN E Silver speaker in an otherwise high end rig you might be highly HIGHLY unimpressed. Indeed, even within their own company they don't recommend having an amplifier or source more than 1-2 levels off the others. Further the Hemp woofers and the Paper woofer versions do sound a little bit different - most agree that the HEMP is better but some folks still the warmer (slower) paper woofer presentation. If you plan to go with AN front end equipment - and you have solid walls (brick concrete) then the AN E is about as good as home audio gets. If not and you plan to run PP tubes or SS - then the AN E will be good, pleasant and nice - but probably not astounding. Thus enters the )/96, Teresonics, Pure Audio Projects, Spacial Audios, Volti speakers and dozens of other excellent speakers.
Just now learning about the Audio Note's and entertained to realize that while several of these speakers (Devore, Omega, Zu, and Audio Note) follow the 2-way 8" woofer formula, the Audio Note history literally admits they are descended from my $900 Snell E/iii's. So proud my 18-year old self picked them back when I had better hearing and no money. But $30k for the latest version? idk... Am I right in noticing that Audio Note is using a customized version of a Seas woofer in their AlNiCo version? The basket legs look identical but it looks like Seas gave them a bit of a cone customization. The tweeter doesn't seem to match the Seas. The off-the-shelf version of Seas' Alnico woofer/tweeter set sell for $2400 a set. Maybe I'll find a "rough" set of E/iii's and put these Seas drivers in them. Interesting that AN was able to keep the overall efficiency up at 95 dB when the stock woofer is 94 dB. oh wait- a bunch of people on the web already had the same idea and have already tried it. sigh.
I own DeVore O/93's. At Axpona 2019 the room I kept returning to time and time again was the Audio Note room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3XvJcic5o I believe Richardausten. Everything he says above mirrors my observations of the room at Axpona What astounded me was the the cheap kitchen table being used as an equipment rack right between the two loudspeakers. What happened to equipment racks being important? What happened to the rule not to place large objects between the loudspeakers? My conclusion was that in the case of the AN-E's and associated equipment, and what they do so exceedingly well-tone and timbre-the isolation of components and placement of the equipment is not very important. Like my DeVore O/93's, the AN-E's did not image. As with my O/93's there was a large wall of sound. The driver integration of the AN-E's with the matching AN gear was much better than my O/93's. The sound was utterly majestic and magical. Hearing Mr. Belanger play his cello live and then his recording was illuminating. Though a bit of a digression, I found the price of the AN-E's much easier to swallow than the price of the electronics. If my memory is close to accurate, the simple-looking box-like CDP was about 20K and the amp or integrated amp (can't recall) was also in the same ballpark. And then to digress even more, let's not forget that there are two Audio Note companies, Audio Note UK and Kondo Audio Note Japan. https://www.audionote.co.jp/en/ I gather that Kondo does not make loudspeakers so I truly am digressing.
I also was impressed by the AN-J (D) speakers at shows in the past. So much so, that I bough standard model J’s with Hemp drivers. The efficiency was not even close to the O/96’s... I had both side by side. I ran both an LM 211 integrated, and Shindo separates. I’m going to guess the 93 db rated J’s were around 90-91 DB, and the DeVores 93 db. Ultimately I bought Altec Valencia 16 Ohm speakers, and a Werner crossover. I would concur with fsonicsmith that none of these (Altec’s included) are great imaging speakers. I’m not sure you can have it all with one system... maybe throwing a boat load of cash in to it, but even then I’m not convinced. I think a variety of gear to rotate in and out may be the only way.
I’m not sure you can have it all with one system... maybe throwing a boat load of cash in to it, but even then I’m not convinced. I think a variety of gear to rotate in and out may be the only way.
Right on fjn04! Every six months I rotate out my Devores for Spendor D7.2's. I love them both and they could not be more different.
I was also entranced by some small Audio Note speakers at the last Toronto Audio show. With some acapella vocals, a track with sax, another with drums, the combination of body, clarity and believable organic timbral warmth was just outstanding. Probably the most impressive I heard at the show.
I’d auditioned Audio Note speakers in my big speaker audition journey and liked them, but ultimately decided the corner-loading style wasn’t for me. Still, I do sometimes hanker for being able to try them in my set up. And I still find myself wishing I’d been able to hear the Devore O/96 in my room! You still like the O/93s it seems?
And I can relate: I also switch between my main two pairs of speakers - Thiel 2.7s and Joseph Audio Perspectives, to keep things fresh. Both great in their own way.
And I still find myself wishing I’d been able to hear the Devore O/96 in my room! You still like the O/93s it seems?
I do. I think. I am going on five months of having the Spendors in my system. In a month I will put the Devores back in and see what I think. I know you found the D7’s bright. My 7.2’s are not in my room with my system. I think I have a handle on them-they are airy and taut at the same time, a combination that the Devores lack. But they lack the oomph that the Devores have. Last night I played a reissue of Stevie’s "Innervisions". I wish you could have heard "Living for the City". The snarl in Stevie’s voice was spine tingling. The back-up singers came in at the far sides. I am fairly certain the same track would not raise the hairs on the back of my neck with the Devores. I have two turntables in my system, a TD124 and a 301. Some records sound better with one, others with the other. So it is with my two sets of loudspeakers.
Please let me know how it goes when you put the Devores back in the system. I wonder if you will welcome them with open arms, or perhaps be less forgiving of their lack of soundstaging prowess.
One of the things I like about the Joseph Perspective speakers that I ultimately bought is that they do the soundstaging/imaging/disappearing thing with world class, tonally beauty, but also have the rich, punchy fun factor in the mid to lower bass that makes music grab you, more like the Devore speakers.
My Thiel 2.7s sometimes seem like an in-between of the Joseph and the Devore speakers: killer soundstaging and imaging like the Josephs, but bigger and richer and "organic" like the Devores. Naturally this means sometimes they sound like the perfect speaker to me, combining the best of all the things I like, and other times more like a neither here nor there between what the Josephs and Devores do well. I'd say that for the vast majority of the time the Thiels split that difference beautifully.Who'd ever thought Thiels would be described as rich and lush? But they did make a break-through in their final design, and the richness is no doubt helped along by my CJ tube amps :)
Anyway, regarding Audio Note, I hope to hear them again some time, (pandemic allowing...)
If you ever get a chance, do try and hear the Spendor Classic 100. This is what Spendor now calls what would otherwise be the SP100 Mk3. I heard this in the same system with D7's, and the admittedly more expensive Classics significantly outperformed them. Particularly in the treble, but really over the full spectrum; fuller, more meat on the bone, more characterful, a bigger sound. They came very, very close to my all-time favs, the Harbeth 40.2.
BTW, as I said above, I found the Audio Notes perhaps the purest speaker, timbrally, that I've ever heard. But again, I didn't go for the tight corner placement.
Heard the 0/93s, but never the chance at 0/96, which I suspect are significantly better, or Joseph.
I would LOVE to hear the latest Spendor Classic 100!
I own the Spendor S3/5s, the little guys, and they make me swoon over how beautiful they sound, so I was curious about a bigger classic version. (I used to hear the BC1 regularly, but it's been a while).
I searched around for some Spendor 1/2s and 2/3s, which are about as big as I'd go for that kind of thing, but unfortunately even Spendor dealers never had them in for audition. You just had to order them.
I had the Harbeth SuperHL5Plus which I really liked, but sold them because my Thiels were close enough to them in good ways, and other ways better. But my Spendor 3/5s are magical - for their size rich, with a fullness and roundness and organic quality to voices that rival the Harbeths.
I owned a set of Spendor SP1/2Es and really enjoyed them. Their ability to reproduce naturally recorded voice and acoustic instruments was incredible. Their imaging was the best I've heard, but that came at the price of a very small sweet spot. (I haven't heard the SP 1/2 r2s, the latest incarnation, but have read that the current generation of classic Spendors have lost a bit of their magic by trying to keep up with the modern fad of a more analytic sound. That's sad if true, but I have no idea if it is.)
Sadly, my wife finally had enough of their 1970s big-box-in-the-room appearance and I had to sell them. I don't have a dedicated room for the stereo so it needs to share the space with other uses.
I've got a pair of Ohm 1000s now that I really enjoy. The Ohm's also have a very natural balance, plus a much, much bigger sweet spot. In the latter sense, they are easier to enjoy than the Spendors.
@prof I intend to put the Devores back in this week and will report. In fact, I listened for quite a while last night more critically than normal in preparation for the swap. I listened to the Perspective2 Graphenes for an extended period of time at Axpona last year. The room was crowded and I never got to sit down despite returning to the room three times. Joseph is both popular and gets a lot of press buzz. So take my impression with a grain of salt since i never got in the sweet spot but I would classify the Joseph sound as very similar to the Spendor's which only makes sense since they have very similar design configurations. The sad truth is that by and large, 95% of the rooms with various loudspeakers sounded more alike than different. Another room that really stood out besides the AN room was the Volti/Border Patrol/Triode Wire Labs room. The latest S'Phile has a review of Volti's new and most affordable speaker, the Razz. I would love to hear it. The beauty of the Volti room was the unrestrained "aliveness" character and yet with much better integration than I usually hear with horns. Every design has a trade-off. The trade-off when the bass is taut with two 6-7" woofers is that the sound-to my ears-is just a bit hollow/thin. I believe it is analogous to a solid state amp with lots of negative feedback. A little bass slop is like a little euphonic distortion-it creates a sense of fullness. It has to be minuscule before it becomes more problematic than beneficial. My point being that the 10" paper woofer from SEAS in the O/93 coupled with a large mahogany front baffle creates a euphonic sense of fullness. Btw, and sorry for digressing, but people complain about the price of the O/93. They either don't know or forget that John Devore uses solid machined copper posts, silver wire, and though he keeps the particulars to himself, he reports the use of "exotic" crossover caps and the entire crossover is handbuilt and hardwired, and the individual drivers are carefully matched. That and the artisinal cabinet construction account for the price.
I’ve heard the large Audio Note bookshelves twice at different shows. I have to honestly say that whilst they were good, they didn’t really stand out (in the way both the Kerr Acoustic K320 and the Monopulse A’s did.
It was disappointing as I’d really wanted to like them.
I would still like to hear the hemp coned versions as maybe the small crowded rooms where they were being played didn’t do them full justice.
I own the O/96 and the Coincident Frankensteins mk2. To cut to the chase, And answer your original question. NO, the Franks will not be able to drive the speakers fully. You need a higher powered amp, at least 15-20 good tube watts, if not more. I suspect the O96s are 91-92 not 96dB as advertised.
Since this is not a note about Audio Note, I apologize. This is for @prof I put my O/93's back in, in place of my Spendor D7.2's. I played two albums that I had just listened to last night. Car Seat Headrest's "Making a Door Less Open" was more enjoyable through the Devores. I heard voices more clearly. The percussion sounded both more realistic and more propulsive. There was imaging but it is a different, more subtle form of imaging. Less hi-fi, less contrived in a studio gimmick manner. The Devores sere more tactile and Will Toledo's voice conveyed more emotion. I was ready to declare the Devores clearly superior to the D7.2's. But then I put my reissue of Stevie Wonder's Innervisions on. The Devores were good, but not as revelatory as the D7.2's. The snarl in Stevie's voice, the spine tingling nature of the back up singers in "Living for the City" were MIA. The overall sound throughout the album lacked the textural clarity and sounded just a bit distorted/fuzzy compared to the Spendors. Certain traits remained consistent throughout. The Devores put out a wall of sound and the Spendors were more polite and restrained. I am convinced that John Devore modeled his Orangutans for the type of music he loves-synth/industrial/percussion heavy techno. The Devores are more fun. They are more alive. But they can be a bit course. The Soendors are a bit too polite but always manage to behave without fault. They just lean a bit toward the hi-fil artificial side of sound reproduction. I can not choose one over the other. It simply depends on the choice of music and which trade-offs are dispensable at any given moment.
Sorry about my typos. I need to use my readers when typing on my laptop and don't. When at the office I have a much larger screen. I think I have learned more from this experiment about audio than any other transition or shift I have made over the many years I have been at it. As John Atkinson said at the conclusion of his measurements of the Volti Razz in this month's S'Phile, TINSTAAFL. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Both recordings I used last night are extremely well recorded and well-pressed on vinyl. Both were played on my hot-rodded 301 with Reed 3P and VdH Crimson Strad XGW. Something I forgot to mention is the electric bass on the Car Seat Headrest album-through the Devores the electric bass had so much more texture and bite. The Stevie Wonder album is typical of it's time period-highly produced in a conventional studio. With all the studio gimmickry involved, it played to the strengths of the Spendors. I would throw out a guess that with modern rock recorded digitally and often in home studios or little better, the Devores are a loudspeaker suited to "modern times". Fiona Apple's "Fetch the Boltcutters" is due to be released soon on vinyl. I have heard the advance release stuff. It is bound to sound better through the Devores. And to bring this discussion back to the Audio Notes-funny thing-has anyone ever heard AN-E's playing rock? At Axpona, it was nothing but classical and jazz each time I visited the room.
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