I’ve owned a few pair of speakers from DeVore Fidelity dating back to the early 2000s including the Super 8, The NINES, gibbon X, O/93, and my current and main squeeze the O/96.
I also own a Leben CS600X, have done for years, and one was driving the DeVore gibbon Super Nines here at Axpona 2025. I also own not 1 but 2 racks from Brooklyn’s Box Furniture Co. who provided the lovely custom number you see here. Oh, and I reviewed and raved about the Grimm MU2 which was here handling digital duties and I lived with a ‘table from Well Tempered Lab for a very pleasant while. All to say, entering Room 646 was a reunion of sorts. The good kind.
John DeVore and Anthony Abbate from Box know how to spin a tune. Not Show Tunes mind you, but music that exists outside the world of audiophiles unlike a flautist playing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest hits recorded in quad DSD and Atmos. Oy. (I heard “Keith Don’t Go” twice on Day 1, a kind of warning for the well-traveled and musically vapid road ahead).
Every pair of DeVore Fidelity speakers I’ve owned and heard honor music and the connection between it and us in a manner that remains endlessly engaging even after years. Even after decades and even for a few fleeting moments in a hotel room. And the Leben CS600X is to my mind a great integrated amplifier, not good but great, at a great price and it looks the part as well. I often ask myself, what more do you need? And I haven’t found a convincing answer.
As someone who knows their way around a gibbon and an Orangutan, I’m often asked a question I’ll share along with my answer:
“What kind of amplifiers do the DeVore’s like?”
“Good ones.”
I also get asked to describe the difference between gibbons and Orangutans but haven’t come up with an equally pithy answer.
The system:
Well Tempered Lab Versalex Turntable & Tonearm: $4850
Well Tempered Lab CTRL Motor Controller: $1750
Well Tempered Lab Kauri MKII MC Cartridge: $2000
Fonolab Pacto Step-Up Transformer: $2750
Grimm Audio MU2: $17,500
Leben CS-600X Integrated Amplifier: $8995
Leben RS30EQ MM Phono Preamplifier: $3495
Devore Fidelity gibbon Super Nine: $9990/pair
Devore Fidelity micr/O: $3950/pair
Box Furniture Custom HT3S Heritage Triplewide 3 Shelf Rack (Sapele): $9500
Box Furniture ISO S.E. Heritage Isolation Platform (Ebony): $3500/each
Black Cat Graceline 1 RCA ICs: $2195/2M pair
Cardas Audio E9 Speaker Cable: $1330/2M pair