Largely it depends on your room and the equipment you will run. You can't really go by the advice you have to listen and compare - reviewer Rafe Arnott reviewed and had the Devore O/96 and replaced them with the Audio Note E - Art Dudley had the AN E for years and went with the 0/96 (but seeing his room that does make some sense). Reviewer Jack Roberts had both and chooses the Teresonic Ingenium which I also like (and again - seeing his room it makes a lot of sense - he has a wall behind his stereo but then a dining room that sits above and behind the wall that is hollow - so the the AN E will just fire back into that "essentially large empty box" and rattle his house. A front port or sealed cabinet speaker is a must.
Strictly speaking though the AN E absolutely does NOT need to be positioned against or near a wall - precisely because the AN E is designed to be placed against a "solid" wall which does not mean hotel room particle board or plaster or IMO wooden walls. In such cases - you are "likely" better off having them free standing.
The AN E is very easy to make sound "pleasant" and "nice" but to get them to sound positively astounding - like most speakers - requires a lot of effort. It took me 6 months to get the AN J to work properly in my room back in Canada. And as good as they were - moving to Hong Kong with all concrete walls - is vastly superior.
My dealer in Canada carries both and personally I prefer the AN E or the AN J to the DeVores. I find the tonality and timbre better and the driver integration to be superior - not to mention that at prices starting at 1/3 the price I see better value in the AN E and AN J. You also get far more options in terms of finishes.
And the AN E with the Alnico tweeters and woofers are a major step up over the lower iterations. Still - going to listen is always a good idea - but it would be more helpful to listen in the same room with gear you intend to own. The AN E is designed entirely with their own gear in mind. It plays better together. Other speakers may be more friendly to non AN gear. For example - I heard the AN E/L - a copper wired speaker - sounded nice with SS gear - the higher end silver wired AN E was utterly horrendous. Then went on the AN amplifier and source and the silver wired E was considerably better than the copper E. BUT had you just demoed the AN E Silver speaker in an otherwise high end rig you might be highly HIGHLY unimpressed. Indeed, even within their own company they don't recommend having an amplifier or source more than 1-2 levels off the others. Further the Hemp woofers and the Paper woofer versions do sound a little bit different - most agree that the HEMP is better but some folks still the warmer (slower) paper woofer presentation.
If you plan to go with AN front end equipment - and you have solid walls (brick concrete) then the AN E is about as good as home audio gets. If not and you plan to run PP tubes or SS - then the AN E will be good, pleasant and nice - but probably not astounding. Thus enters the )/96, Teresonics, Pure Audio Projects, Spacial Audios, Volti speakers and dozens of other excellent speakers.
Strictly speaking though the AN E absolutely does NOT need to be positioned against or near a wall - precisely because the AN E is designed to be placed against a "solid" wall which does not mean hotel room particle board or plaster or IMO wooden walls. In such cases - you are "likely" better off having them free standing.
The AN E is very easy to make sound "pleasant" and "nice" but to get them to sound positively astounding - like most speakers - requires a lot of effort. It took me 6 months to get the AN J to work properly in my room back in Canada. And as good as they were - moving to Hong Kong with all concrete walls - is vastly superior.
My dealer in Canada carries both and personally I prefer the AN E or the AN J to the DeVores. I find the tonality and timbre better and the driver integration to be superior - not to mention that at prices starting at 1/3 the price I see better value in the AN E and AN J. You also get far more options in terms of finishes.
And the AN E with the Alnico tweeters and woofers are a major step up over the lower iterations. Still - going to listen is always a good idea - but it would be more helpful to listen in the same room with gear you intend to own. The AN E is designed entirely with their own gear in mind. It plays better together. Other speakers may be more friendly to non AN gear. For example - I heard the AN E/L - a copper wired speaker - sounded nice with SS gear - the higher end silver wired AN E was utterly horrendous. Then went on the AN amplifier and source and the silver wired E was considerably better than the copper E. BUT had you just demoed the AN E Silver speaker in an otherwise high end rig you might be highly HIGHLY unimpressed. Indeed, even within their own company they don't recommend having an amplifier or source more than 1-2 levels off the others. Further the Hemp woofers and the Paper woofer versions do sound a little bit different - most agree that the HEMP is better but some folks still the warmer (slower) paper woofer presentation.
If you plan to go with AN front end equipment - and you have solid walls (brick concrete) then the AN E is about as good as home audio gets. If not and you plan to run PP tubes or SS - then the AN E will be good, pleasant and nice - but probably not astounding. Thus enters the )/96, Teresonics, Pure Audio Projects, Spacial Audios, Volti speakers and dozens of other excellent speakers.