Fleetwood deville impressions -Mixed bag vs the competition

I think your reasons and initial impressions are fair.

I own a set, and I think they are a laid back speaker. I’m really not getting much, if any, of that in your face sound that I thought would come from this speaker (or a typical horn). My ears are about 10-11 ft from the plane of the horns.

The sound beam or directivity of it you may notice that to be a bit different from other non-hornloaded speakers. I have them on a slight toe-in. I tried them all the way on axis and surprisingly the tonality is incredibly warm in my room but of course the stage will be compromised a bit. But almost all speakers that I had in the past in the same room exhibited a compromise in the stage with on axis toe-in. The Devilles still kept a strong vocal presence, however.

For me personally, I am finding very little it does wrong...the bass extension and bass loading in the room is great. All the frequencies that the horn is supposed to play I also find on point (though my ears are sensitive in the region of 800-1.2k but I’m going to put that on the room/reflections, for now ;), though, again maybe a slight, very slight fall off from 16k and beyond... at the same time, all the things it does right, it just does right...but the slight caveat is of those things that are right, they aren’t being excelled beyond what I am expecting, if I am saying that correctly. (Whether my expectations are driven by its asking $, marketing or public outcry. Though they could be driven by my past experiences with other horn loaded devices/speakers) Again, thats my expectation and others may not agree and they will strongly disagree with me, :)

It’s not a perfect speaker - its an overall solid performer imo. I have a bigger first impressions of them in another thread here, you can search if you like. (There are a few floating around)

Long story short..if one is looking for a speaker that plays music without adding too much flavor, and exhibits great dynamics that doesnt take up too much space, then this is a really good candidate for consideration. Snatch them up on the second hand market should you ever find one.

At the time of this writing, I have them paired with a gryphon diablo 120, dual REL carbon specials, Lumin X1, DNM solid core w/ zrtn network speaker cable. Tbh, I can probably spice them up with some silver speaker cable. Also barely any acoustic treatment in the room.

"Listening to them they have very good dynamics and bass extension to maybe high 30 hz region"

jimob-

How are your determining they are perfroming that low? The website conveninetly doesn't list a spec, and a good floorstander in a typical room will be lucky to get near 40 hz REAL WORLD. A real  good bookshelf MAYBE....

Nice looking speaker. No doubt they should play in their price point(at least)

Perhaps low325 can address?

I believe they are rated to the mid to high 30hz on their specs. In real world, in my room, they dont really every preside much in that space, and no other speaker that wasn’t full range claiming to play in the 30s didnt either. But I want to say, they do place waves in high 30s, but not and never with authority and presence. I’ve done simple RTA measurements of my room, and I always see a sharp dip starting at 50hz and below. The corners in my room will tend to muddy up anything that starts to exacerbate it in that region - I have a noise floor of about 37hz-ish... Thats just my room...which is why I have those RELs...If I remember correctly, I have my RELs at 8 clicks on the XO and 6 clicks on the gain (barely playing)...The Devilles do play clean from 63hz to 200hz. To my ears, when it hits 80hz with music, it sounds fast and articulate. But these are NOT wave moving monsters.

For what its worth, my listening space is in an open space concept shared with a kitchen to the back, foye to the right, and opens up to a dining area to the rear left of the listening position.

Some cornwalls or la scalas would have done nicely too, with maybe a smaller footprint considering I have two additional sub enclosure, but hey live and learn.

I think you are right @tablejockey , they are lucky to get flat to 80 Hz in normal size room. There is a large advantage in limiting dispersion in your typical room. This limits room interaction and improves imaging. It would be highly unlikly that a small point source speaker would get you to row 2-4. Large linear arrays can do that.

@jimob , You are probably getting the impression that they are "in your face,"  because they are not boucing sound all over the place. I would be willing to bet that in your room you will get a more sharply focused image out of the Devilles. Both speakers are IMHO overpriced. You can get Magneplanar 3.7i's and Sound Labs 545's for the same price, better speakers in every way except perhaps size.

The sound labs are excellent the issue is room I cannot put them more then 2 feet from the back wall,  the MBL 120, or 126 sounded incredible , with my subs a full range monster, also for less money, Marten Oscar duo make a excellent sounding monitor ,or their floor stander ,entry level Marten maybe but very detailed and cohesive ,

Way overpriced nothing special here but the roasted wood , warm sounding 

realistically $10 k with stands and they are still making a nice profit

some of these designers think they are gold ,for similar $ monies the MBL 126 destroy these as well as the Perlisten , B&W %805 mk4, Dynaudio Confidence Borrenson Cryo. Monitors and many others that are less monies.

Reynaud Voce Grande