I am glad ytou are enjoying the speakers. I remember John DeVore voiced the speakers with Audio Note tube amps and he designed them for small apartment dwellers. Let me know yiur thoughts after a week of listening. I am so happy the speakers went to an audiophile who appreciates good quality.
Bob |
I have experimented with speaker placement. My cables are MIT Terminator 2 speaker cables and interconnects. I have replaced most of my source components, in addition to the Raysonic cd player, I have a Marantz SA8001 sacd player, a Magnum-Dynalab FT 101A tuner, VPI Scout/ZU Denon 103 cartridge. I have changed tubes in my Modulus 3A from the Sovtek 6922, to the 6h23eb tubes and have settled (for now) on the JJ 6922 tubes. I switched amps from my Classe 15 to the Classe 10 in my upstairs system. I also substituted my origional Modulus 3 preamp from my upstairs system.
This all started when I replaced my Vandersteen 2ci speakers with the 2ce speakers. If I put the 2ci's back in the system, it sounds fine. I even sent the Vandersteens back to the factory for a full check up and they came back fine. All I did was waste 200.00 on shipping to and from the factory. I am also getting very tired of the Vandersteen sound since I have owned them for 17 years. |
There was a great deal for a pair of DeVore Gibbon 8 speakers on Audiogon, so I bought them. I am driving down to the gentlemans house on Wednesday to pick them up. I will keep everyone posted once I get them set up on Thursday. If anyone else has any comments about the 8's, please post them.
Bob |
I picked up the pair of DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 8 speakers today from a gentleman on Audiogon. I drove 825 miles round trip in one day and I am too tired to take the speakers out of the boxes. I will set them up tomorrow and post my initial impressions.
Bob |
Yesterday, I drove 825 miles round trip to pick up a pair of DeVore Gibbon 8 speakers I bought off someone on Audiogon. I have finished setting them up and all I can say is WOW. So much better than the Vandersteens in every way. The mids and highs are now "just right" and the bass, although not quite as deep as the Vandersteens, is very articulate and of high quality. My initial impressions is WOW. I will update in a few days. |
I bit the bullett and picked up the DeVore Gibbon 8 speakers which I bought off a fellow audiophile on Audiogon on Dec 30th. I have since set them up to my liking and have these observations based on 3 days of listening. Most importantly, the brightness I was getting from my 15 year old Vandersteen 2CE speakers are a thing of the past. In addition, the hootiness I occasionally heard from the midrange in the Vandersteens are gone as well.
The Gibbon 8 speakers excel at soundstaging (width, height and depth), they image like a champ and totally disappear into the music. The highs are "just right" to my ears and the midrange is magical. This afternoon I played the cd "Letters Never Sent" by Carly Simon, and her voice never sounded so good and sweet. In the midrange and treble department, the DeVore's are quite a step up from the Vandersteens.
I am having difficulty with the amount of bass however. The quality of the bass is excellent, in pitch and articulation, but in my room, sounds a bit thin. I have the speakers about 10 inches from the wall, 6-7 feet apart, and toed in slightly towards me. That has yeilded me the best and smoothest mids and highs, and has reinforced the bass.
With the Vandersteens, the bass was always good and never drew attention to itself and I never felt it lacking. With the DeVore, I am constantly wishjing for a little bit more to make the sound a little fuller. I am also finding I have to play the speakers a little louder than I would like in order for the bass to be more satisfactory.
Which leads me to this: I am thinking that a subwoofer may be in order. I wrote to John DeVore asking his thoughts on mating the Gibbon 8's with a subwoofer but as its a holiday weekend and with CES coming up, don't expect an answer for a couple of weeks. I am wondering if any fellow Audiogoner's has experienced this?
I am thinking of a 10" sub, used subtually, adding just enough to fill in the thinness a bit. I have seen a good deal on a new Velodyne Impact 10" subwoofer for 299.00. It has adjustable low frequency cutoff and a built in 200 watt amp and level control. I can run the second pair of outputs from my preamp to the sub and have a corner reserved for it already. I would appreciate anyones thoughts on this or other suggestions
Associated equipment: Classe 15 (175wpc amp), Modulus 3A preamp with JJ 6922 tubes, Raysonic 168 cd player with EH 6922 tubes, VPI/JMW9/ZU-Denon DL 103 low output mc. MIT Terminator 2 speaker and interconnects. All power cords and filtering courtesy of Shunyata.
The adventure continues................ |
I have 3 different brands of speaker wire on hand, the MIT was and has been the best of the bunch. 825 miles is the furthest I have gone in a day for audio equipment. The worst part is I drove through the New York to Washington corridor which has a crazy amount of traffic. I left at 7am and got home at 12:30am.
I definitely need a subwoofer as I am really in love with the mids and highs of the DeVore. It's just a question of what. I only want 1 sub and it will either be a 10 inch or 12 inch. I am leaning towards a Paradigm subwoofer but not sure. Still hoping to hear from John DeVore before I make the plunge. |
I am glad you are enjoying the DeVores, they are a great speaker. The guy I was buying the magneplaners from re-negged on the deal. I didn't notice the phono problem right away because I hadn't played any vinyl for a few months. I think the problem is the rear port and the proximity to the rear wall. That and the fact that the Kismet speakers are tuned quite low. The bass I get from the Kismets is muuch deeper and tighter than I got with the DeVores and the subwoofer combined. It definitely isn't a problem with the phono cartridge. I played around with different isolation tweaks for the turntable, but the rumble filter was the best choice for me.
I didn't consider the Vandersteen 3A speakers because after I lived with my 2ce speakers for a long time, I grew irritated by the metal dome tweeter. It fatigued my ears and sounded etched at times. The 3A speakers use the same tweeter so I didn't bother auditioning them. I am really happy with the Kismet reference speakers and these are definitely going to be "keepers".
Enjoy those speakers. On a side note, I was listening to the MFSL Muddy Waters, Folk Singer and it sounded unbelieveable, but I think that the DeVores were a little better with the vocals.
Bob |
I spoke with John DeVore and he said I don't need a subwoofer as the Gibbon 8 provide plenty of bass. He said to make sure the speakers are directly coupled to the floor. Since I have very thick carpet, I sliced the carpet (hope wifey doesn't find out) where the spikes mated the carpeting and now the speakers are directly coupled to the floor. I didn't hear any appreciable difference.
I bit the bullett and ordered a Paradigm 10" sub dsp-3100. It is a 10" ported subwoofer with a 200 watt rms class d integral amp. I also ordered a MIT cable to connect from the preamp to sub. The subwoofer has adjustable cutoof frequency of 25-150hz so I will start at 80hz and work down from there. It also has a fully adjustable 0-180 phase switch. This will be useful as the subwoofer will be located across the room (12' away) from the speakers, next to the couch in the corner.
My goal is to integrate the sub as seamlessly as possible. I just want it to fill the sound in a bit to take away some of the thinness. Last night, I played Muddy Waters-Folk Singer on a mobile fidelity cd on my Raysonic tubed cd player. His voice was so dead center and mesmorizing and everything sounded so right. It brought tears to my eyes. I should have the sub within a week, I will post an update once I have it set up.
Bob |
NEW UPDATE:
I set up the Paradigm DSP-3100 subwoofer on Friday afternoon. After much tweaking I pretty much have the sound dialed in, but I may tweak just a bit more in the next week or so. I have the subwoofer cutoff frequency set at 60hz and the gain control at a little more than quarter volume. The Subwoofer is set 180 degrees out of phase with the DeVores.
The sound has filled in quite nicely and I have retained the huge soundstage and pinpoint imaging. Overall, I am quite pleased with the setup. I will get around to installing the spikes for the sub this week after I receive my MIT AVT3 audio cable this Wednesday. Right now I am using a cheap Radio Shack cord. Once the new cable is applied and the spikes are put on, I may tweak a little more. I am quite pleased with the sound and I think it will only get better in time.
Stay tuned. |
How will I distort the sound of my speakers by adding the sub? The speakers aren't connected to the sub and I am running the sub below 60hz and have the sub volume only set a quarter way up. Also, kindly explain how I could blow my speakers? I have been into audio and never blew a speaker. |
I had heard that the Super 8s had better bottom end and were a little more efficient as well. I still feel they are more the Jazz lover and Chamber Music lover type of speaker. Perhaps it was because the Vandersteens being a much larger sized speaker conveyed that largeness that I also missed with the DeVore. Not sure, my room could have sonething to do with it too.
The Kismet References are Killer in my room and I am extremely happy. My being happy with the system doesn't happen too often either :)
Bob |
I had the DeVore 8 speakers and Paradigm dsp 3100 sub set up in my living room. I was never truly satisfied with the sound, particularly on rock music. I bought the Odyssey Audio Kismet Reference Loudspeakers off a guy here on the Gon for an excellent price. I had never heard the speakers but I spoke with many owners of Odyssey equipment, particularly owners of the Stratos Extreme amp whcih I had purchased in April, and owners of the Odyssey Lorelei speakers of which my speakers are based upon. (The Kismet Reference are a souped up version of the Lorelei's)
Everyone talked about the amazing synergy between the components, so I took a leap of faith. I am soooooo glad I did because the speakers totally transformed my system. I am a very happy camper now.
Bob |
