“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.”
The Enleum AMP-23R (review) and Weiss DAC204 (review) are among my favorite things reviewed in recent memory. Each embodies the perfect trifecta of hifi goodness with looks that seduce, fit, feel, and finish that sooth, and sound that serves (music). Win, win, win.
Having owned, lived with, and loved a number of speakers from DeVore Fidelity including the super 8s, The Nines, gibbon X, O/93 and my current ride the O/96 it was only a matter of time before I got to spend some time with the newest and smallest Orangutan—the aptly-named micr/O.
Measuring a mere 10” square, the sealed cube micr/O were designed to live on a bookcase, record shelves, a desktop, or on a side table.. Featuring a horn-loaded .75″ textile dome tweeter and 7″ paper woofer surrounded by a lovely slice of birch ply baffle, the micr/O have a reported frequency response of 50Hz-25kHz with an 89 dB/W/M sensitivity.
If we add these seemingly disparate paragraphs together we arrive at a question—what would these little lovelies sound like as a (sexy) desktop system? After a week and a half, I have an answer. [footnote 1]
As regular readers know, my daily desktop system for the past 10 or so years consists of the ADAM A3X powered monitors paired with AudioQuest DragonFly DACs, the DragonFly Cobalt being the current resident. The DragonFly receives its digital input directly from the back of my iMac, paired with an AQ JitterBug, sending its analog output to the ADAM A3X. A simple system. I already talked a bit about how the Weiss DAC204 improved the sound of this system when it replaced the little DragonFly, “the Weiss DAC204 brought with it more of everything making music sound more present, more physical, and more engaging. No real surprises there considering the price delta.”
Adding the Enleum AMP-23R and DeVore micr/O functioned along similar lines. Think more. And if you’re wondering if I tried the little micr/O up higher, I did. Up a few inches and more, while some things changed I ended up preferring them sitting smack dab right on the desktop where they sounded their most meatiest.
Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
This desktop system also filled more of the Barn with music’s convincing physicality than the much smaller in size and price ADAM A3X, something else that falls into the obvious category. The DeVore micr/O were also designed to live comfortably on book or record shelves, surrounded by other lovely things, to fill a room. Seeing as the Barn is barn-sized, I was not able to test the micr/O’s small room capabilities but they lit up the space around my desk, luring me back to sit in on the music at hand, a nearly irresistible beckoning.
Even after an admittedly brief time together, I can say with confidence that the micr/O bring with them the DeVore house sound (see my review of the DeVore O/96 for more on that), a sound that to my mind pays tribute to the reproduction of music in an eminently human way. Heart and soul.
The Weiss DAC204 is a little brick of goodness and the Enleum AMP-23R is among my favorites amps making this desktop system a collection of favorites in sight, design, feel, and sound.
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
Takeshi Nishimoto’s Lavandula from 2013 pair subtle electronics from Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot) with Nishimoto’s acoustic guitar creating an ethereal otherworldly cloud of loveliness as delicate as a spider’s web. I sat transfixed at the fullness and rightness of these sounds which seemed to unfold outside and inside my head at the same time.
This is one of the things I love about listening nearfield, so close I can reach both speakers and the Enleum’s warm to the touch volume control from my seat, as it allows for total immersion in music, a lovely intimate space as vast as your music presents. The body and weight of acoustic guitar and strings played with fingers surrounded by electronic landscapes resounded with a rightness that allowed for full immersion, an unobstructed invitation to get so close to this music it became part of my thoughts. Lovely.
Ex:Re is the solo project of Elena Tonra, singer, songwriter and guitarist for the band Daughter. Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble is a collaboration between Tonra and classical composer Josephine Stephenson, who also plays piano here, joined by the UK’s 12 Ensemble string orchestra to present a reinterpretation of Ex:Re’s self-titled debut solo album. String seas swell under Tonra’s guitar and vocals, twisting and churning these songs into moving elegies to loss.
Here’s Stephenson on the process:
“Working with acoustic instruments was an opportunity to add subtle, yet tangible dynamic details to highlight Elena’s words. As the Ex:Re songs are often built from loops, I enjoyed exploring the multitude of possible variations and reinventions within these, adding counter-melodies and making small changes in harmony or voicing.”
This album was recorded at multi-arts venue King’s Place in London and the sound image took up that kind of space, with each player fixed on stage, once again existing inside and outside my head. This is the kind of captivating performance captured with all its energy and emotion in tact and this little system seemed to know it better than I did as it presented a physical manifestation that seemed to contain details and delicacies I previously didn’t take as seriously. Bows bouncing on strings creating tension amidst the sea of strings swinging and swaying under the weight of Tonra’s sung words. Stunning clarity, superb voice, intimate and all encompassing.
Into Somethin’ is Newark, NJ’s, Hammond B-3 master, Larry Young’s debut on Blue Note from 1965. Also featuring Sam Rivers on tenor saxophone, Grant Green on guitar, and Elvin Jones on drums, this is Antonioni Blow Up cool presented by four masters of their instruments in peak form. As this record filled the space above my desk, slowly worming its cool waves into my psyche, I felt like I was strutting down some trendy Soho street looking for a propeller to flop into the back of my convertible Silver Cloud. From what I’ve read, Sam Rivers could be a fiery kinda guy and his playing here reflects that kind of passionate heat, the perfect foil to Young and Green’s cooler modes while Jones builds the worlds they inhabit in time. The desk-sized Weiss/Enleum/DeVore system perfectly captured and presented these temperatures, modes, moves, and moods in tactile dimensional form acting like the best travel agent imaginable, using music as tour guide.
When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
Imagine sitting at a desk, selecting an album to play, and the music opens up and unfolds in front of you so close you can lean in and enter an alternate world where each element dances in space like some phantasmagorical zero gravity stage play, flickering forms that you suddenly realize have also materialized inside your head creating an endless perpetually shifting and changing universe to explore that takes complete control of your consciousness where you can float, sing, fly, swim, and dance as if in a dream. If you can imagine that, you can imagine what it was like to live with this Weiss/Enleum/DeVore system.
These are a few of my favorite things.
1. Part of the reason for this quickie review is the little Weiss DAC204 is needed elsewhere and they are, unsurprisingly, in short supply.
DeVore Fidelity micr/O
Price: $3950/pair
Company Website: DeVore Fidelity
Enleum AMP-23R
Price: $6250
Company Website: Enleum
Weiss DAC204 D/A Converter
Price: $2895
Company Website: Weiss Engineering
North American Distributor: Bluebird Music
