Devore or Audio Note or other sensitive speakers: wanting to listen in Denver

@hilde45 As you already know, Denver/front range isn’t where you will find an Audio Note or Devore dealer. To hear these two wonderful speaker brands in a dealer environment, you might consider a 1 day round trip flight to Chicago. From DIA to Chicago and back is cheap and easy. Mike Kay/Audio Archon in Chicago is a dealer for both Audio Note and Devore and last time I spoke with him he had O96’s, the Super Nines and AN-E SPE HE’s. Your next best bet might be to fly to LA where you have both a Devore dealer and an Audio Note dealer and of course there is always Pitch Perfect in Palm Springs for Devore. Bespoke in Salt Lake City used to be a dealer for Audio Note and may still have some speakers and he may be picking up Devore. Tyson is a great guy, he deals mostly in one on one Shindo based custom systems. He may also have Audio Research, Meitner, etc but he has the large Shindo field coils in the event you want to ruin your speaker quest for all time.

Which Devores and Audio Notes are you most interested in?

@hilde45 can you broadly describe your room and the desired setup? The sound between the O series and the Audio Note is vaguely similar but it all depends on the room because they each kindof get there via opposite origins. For instance, if you don’t have corners, Audio Note can be challenging. If all you have are near wall options in your room, Devore can sometimes over load the room. I’ve had AN-E and O96 in the same room with the same gear and lets just say it takes some work…its worth it but it takes work. Setup is key and the placement of these two speakers is not even remotely similar.

An interesting weakness of the direct sales-trial-return policy is that many do not have sufficient stock right now. I have heard from more than a few people that the wait is measured in multiple months of backlog these days.

The ultimate paradox during an environment like today is if a company has what you might want in stock and ready to ship, you begin to doubt the selection (if unheard). Kindof like pulling up to a restaurant with an empty parking lot.

No offense intended but I'm not so sure Audio Note or Devore get cross shopped very often with Klipsch, JBL, Zu or Tekton.

@jdoris No editorializing one way or the other about Zu from me. As a former Zu owner, I too love the company and the original guys behind Zu. When I said I'm not so sure they get cross shopped with Devore or Audio Note, it was a generic statement. Klipsch, JBL, Zu and Tekton make fine speakers...many are quite happy with their purchase. I was just drawing an inference from the Devore and Audio Note owners with whom I communicate...no one cross shopped with those four brands for various reasons. For me, sound quality, build quality and aesthetics must strike a meaningful balance. I won't compromise sound quality but thankfully I didn't have to.

@jdoris full disclosure, I have no industry affiliations but I do own four different speaker brands for various systems and applications. Certainly there is no best for every person or every system.

other downside is that small shops started by a single person or a small group can decide to go out of business without warning, or discontinue their products in a change of direction for the company

Also, beware the small startup "flavor of the month, best thing ever, you must be stupid to not buy these too". The all-time saddest irony along these lines had to be the unfortunate naming of the former speaker company "Vapor Audio". Who knew?