BONUS: John DeVore on speaker design 

There's an Audiophiliac imposter scamming my viewers, DON'T respond! I don't do giveaways or ask for money (except for my Patreon).

Love this guy, his own channel is worth a look. Like his stories about his albums, and musical likes, good to listen to, plus he comes across as a real genuine guy and not always trying to push his wares or full of himself. Thanks Steve for these interviews with the makers/designers and listeners/enthusiasts (as well as your gear reviews of course).

Finally a video (see here 15:25) where John DeVore actually talks about how his speakers sound (from which one can infer his speaker design goal seems to be about recreating the natural sound of recorded acoustic instruments, including voice, from a two-channel system). Specifically the O/93 has these features which are uncommon in similar smaller speaker drivers (less than 10 inch diameter): - High dynamic quality - Even impedance - High sensitivity - Effortless dynamics - Energise a room in a more lively way as opposed to a speakery way. - This lively quality is appropriate for live instruments e.g. a cello resonating vibrations and blasting them into the room in all directions or a vocalist with a powerful voice being actually in the room. John needs to articulate his speaker design philosophy/goals more often so that the market understands the point of his speakers…what makes them different to competitors i.e. why someone might be interested in them. We owe it to Steve’s excellent interviewing skills prompting it out of John who was about to clam up. One tiny prompt from Steve opened up a plethora of knowledge from John.

Beautiful speakers. Insane prices. Maybe someone who owns a pair will invite us to have a listen. Love the enthusiasm and passion for the art.

I really enjoy interviews with John and I hope to hear his speakers some day. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you John. So good to hear multiple speaker designers, like John talk about the same characters, challenges and various solutions in the attempt to provide great sound.

As a professional product development engineer I am Impressed by your involvement with the component manufacturers- that’s great and I know how that can lead to great products. Nice.

This is your best video yet. Love the two-part nature. It’s in-depth and very helpfull. Great work!

n your advice I watched one of your interviews;the Devore interview is what I landed on by chance. The man is truly a pleasure to listen to. So informative and well delivered. I love your show.

Great conversation! And what gorgeous speakers. Heard them couple of times at shows and they sounded really nice even in a hotel room. Wish I could afford a pair!

They're easily the most beautiful wood cabinet speakers I've ever seen.

At first glance, these speakers reminded me of Audio Note AN-E

Love it. I can listen for hours to John, what a great guy.

Enjoyed the interview very much, especially the details of prototyping. I could certainly identify with his conundrum about having to order a 1,000 pieces to get one.

Great interview / talk with John. It’s always a pleasure to hear you guys chat and to hear a talented designer like John talk about his speakers or whatever, for that matter. Thanks, Steve and John! 🔊🎶🙂

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to John talking about the Os.

Great interview! The OBaby looks interesting, but still too far out of my budget to afford. I hope to at least listen to a pair someday.

Never heard the DeVore Orangoutangs, but I have a great love of the Dynaco A25 so I know that a traditional Seas 10" paper cone can do something special with regard to music reproduction. I wish you could get something going with a whizzer cone. Losing the crossover gets you a very special level of transparency, but in my experience always at a cost in FR that is too high. It sounds like John came up with a great compromise. I'd love to give it a listen some time! I really like the idea of machining the horn out of the baffle.

really looking forward to your review of these babies. thanks

My old Signet speakers have SEAS drivers and still sound great.

Hi Steve I enjoyed very much the interview with John Thank You.

5:57 The hardest bit is designing the crossover and also building cabinets that stray from the classic box shape. As soon as you do that, it's a complete nightmare to make the cabinets. As far as being finished with the sound, for me, it's when I dare not touch it any more even though maybe I could make it sound even better. But when I refuse to try (cos I like the sound so much) well that is when it's finished. l love designing speakers. One of my two designs is a 5" FR and a 6" woofer in a small floor standing cabinet. The other design is a 8" coaxial and a 10" woofer in a large floorstanding cabinet. To make more, all I have to do is clone these two designs and maybe sell some @ my leisure. They have several unique acoustic innovations I haven't seen before, like semi open main drivers and also highly modified main drivers (plus a few other acoustic oddities). On the FR driver, the mod extends highs with a tiny (grain of rice size) piece of tin foil. Tinfoil Tuesday! Describing these radical mods would be way beyond a RU-vid comment. I am also a point source nutter! People say my speakers sound different and they seem to like the spacial sound and particularly clean med that happens cos of the mods and the semi open main driver mounting. I also have my Audiolab 6000A to make my speakers sound good.

Put your 6" FR drivers in a floor standing cabinets. Mount driver with a 1cm gap between the driver and the box (on the top 2 speaker screws). And a 2 cm gap on the bottom 2 speaker screws. Use soft thin sprinkler hose (slightly longer) for your SPACERS. You can tweak the gap a bit by squashing the flexible hose (by turning the screw). And also make a 2" deep bass vent tube onto the speaker hole to make it act as a bass vent and it stops the "bonky" sound by the semi open FR driver. Other than lightly packing the box with wadding, you are done. Sounds a bit like panel speakers! Also you can add a woofer. I do it on the bottom panel (facing down towards the floor). So you only get one directly heard source. Bass has impact too.

My biggest regret was to listen to my wife and sell my big collection of vintage speakers which included a pair of snell j speakers.They had paper cones sounded amazing.

What a great video... Thank you Steve!

This was just awesome. Made in Brooklyn with nice parts. Have found the French distributor and will have a demo soon. Thank you

On those little cubes, if john rotates the veneer 45 degrees, the cube can be twisted to create mirror imaged pairs.

I figured it out... it's the STANDS that kind of mislead me at first. Nice Stands, kind of spendy for an old timer, good stuff for younger folks who will have them for a lifetime.

Agree. Seas speakers are in top 3 manufactured first heard Devore at the 2006 CES - top 5 sound at the Veniation ( IMHO )

Just my 10 time on this video hehe greate

About designing speakers. As you know it's not just sounding right, it has to have impact and every now and then you get a rush of satisfaction. Like for example, a trumpet sound that is not just sparkly but also every nauce of the trumpet sound hugs your brain like a teddy bear with metalic satisfaction. I was listening to RU-vid Chet Baker & Paul Bley - Diane (1985). By: Pedro Nobrega. Try that on the best system you can. Especially point source speakers for that holographic soundstage. And play it on panel speakers if you have some. Piano sounds good in that album too. It's tizzed up on the top so it's good for FR single driver driver speakers. Iol This album made me think my speakers I just built are finished and I dare not change anything on these speakers.

I have to admit that I was having a hard time seeing how large or small those speakers were until the Unboxing when I had more SCALE between human & speaker. Part 1 left me wondering whether the speakers were more or less the same size as the Klips. It didn't make sense, but image wise for some people (you know stupid folks me) we need visual references to compare scale.

Very interesting speakers, thanks for the review and interview

They look gorgeous. They're nicely sized for a smaller apartment. They're relatively efficient. They're voiced more towards the warm side. All good things. Then we get to the price. Sadly, that's where I get off the bus. If the o/Baby were the price of the Micr/O I'd be visiting In Living Stereo for a listening session.

Have you tried MISCO as a Made in USA manufacturer? They say they can make anything you want…?

I thought a woofer shouldn't be centered the same distance from the edge of the baffle all the way around and also I thought that a perfect square was something to stay away from in designs too because of standing waves. I will have to go back and look through my books.

My speakers, from the early 80's are SEAS. Very nice.

I'm pretty sure I need to take a ride to Brooklyn, pick up Steve and head to John's.

As Einstein once said... "Elegance lies in simplicity."

john = great radio voice!

If they are designed for a record shelf, why are they not in 12" record format? Would that not limit resonant spaces around the speaker?

Heard the O/baby in Munich, well-balanced speaker, good job! Is the top model really so outrageously expensive? What's the price tag on those?

Very engaging. It occurs to me that the record shelf speaker still has room for an ABR in the space above (or below-with feet)....John?

For the monumental prices, these would want to be very good

I’d love to find an interview discussing the 0/96

Always thought is was seas . As in sail the seven

Hi John, would be fun if you made a transmission line speaker with open baffle mid and HI’s .

Good lookin little speaker, but I can't imagine in any way why someone would choose these at the same roundabout price as a new set of cornwalls or fortes, that just makes no sense.

Gotta love The Special's there 🙂

How do you do it Steve? How in the hell do you do it? I have enjoyed reading your stuff for decades. Now seeing you and personally armed with a *complete* understanding of the high end speaker industry? Of course I mean how do you possibly keep a straight face? (-:

I can't help but wonder if John had a sound proofed room for the burn in process - if - he would use some or any of the so called "burn in" sound mediums - - his comment that he uses music left me wondering about the value of those "burn in" CD's.

If only he would make a version of those for a desktop set up that would be gold!

Truly driven by passion, would love to listen to a pair of his speaker...and I so much agree with his perspective on 2.0 home cinema layout...you simply don't need more as the human ear and the human brain receives 99% of the sound in a stereo mode, given that you are watching a movie in your living room through a full range speakers driven from a "decent" 2 channel amp

21:52

Can’t afford $5000 speakers but they look nice

I like listening to John I sub his channel as well good interview

ALL THE AUDIO WIZARDS TALK OF SPEAKER "DRIVER" yet all we ever see them talk on is the Speaker Cone as if it's a Driver. NONE OF YOU GEEKS EVER TAKL OF THE "VOICE COIL" - How its Quality Effects the Speaker CONE, THE SENSITIVITY, HOW MANY FABRICATORS ACTUALLY "MAKE THEIR OWN VOICE COILS" , THE DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY OF "VOICE COILS", TYPICAL RELIABILITY....ETC.

Cool!

That big rack o' Pass is a sight to behold.

*SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC:* Printable Speakers (like Printable Houses) ---> in the next 1/2 of the Century could make designing 1/2 way between DIY and INVENTOR Creative Control rather than MFG'ers.I also think (not know) that MORE of the INCOME could go to the 'Designer and Inventors' of Audio Equipment. Is that a Possibility & are there conversations among people (Mr. DeVore) in your line that see this as a potential. P.S. I don't mean anything insulting by calling someone SIR :) It's just respectful and build into my South Texas up bringing.

for relic's sake put that shirt in a safe place "do not wash" do not remove the voted sticker (recommended)

I wish you had asked him about all those colored tabs/dividers in his vinyl walls behind him. Just what is going on there? Lol

You can voice a speaker you can't tune it or change the pitch!

have you been to jd's house? yeah i had backflash's of school felt ill then i had a coffee n went into a genious nerd shock... i laff about it now alk the "florecent tab's 😖" joke time is over 🤓🗣

Nothing new speakers design Allison speaker did 30 years ago

It looks like a smaller 096

"...stupid passive radiators..."

I've never heard of someone who is against home theater? Literally against watching movies or they just don't want to have good speakers while watching them lol?

Might buy some. Depends who you voted for. Just kidding.

you are not wearing a comme des garcons

Enough. These are crappy wooden boxes. Tweeter on a huge bare baffle board. No possibility of them ever imagining anything. Speaker design --- B + W 801.

Opportunistic pricing of mediocre designs.

What a joke...!! Greedy guy..!! For a speaker that cost maybe '$1700 to make and wants $5600 a pair.....lol..!!! Never...!!