Just retired and want to get back to vinyl listening

I look forward to your impressions of the DeVore O/93's. I just bought a pair a few weeks ago and though not yet fully broken in, I love them. Things may change, but the plusses are very tuneful bass, good (downright startling at times) dynamics, and gorgeous "tonality". Minuses-well minus in the singular-is a wee bit of deficiency in the midrange purity. 

I'll report on the 0/93s..  fson... did you listen to other models before you bought your 0/93s -- 0/96 or Gibbon X..  I still have several other speakers to listen too before my purchase....  The Gibbon Xs seemed to do well through lows - mids - highs --- seem ed to really well in mids..  highs were good and bass was decent -- but I'm did not really listen to things that were a real "low" bass test -- like some organ music --  but overall the gibbon X did well at moderate to low listening volume -- I 'm not a really loud music listening person -- definitely very little to none of the real pounding rock - heavy metal sound

I only auditioned the O/93’s. I drove to Cleveland from Columbus and visited Don Better. He knew I was coming to audition the O/93’s and had them set up with gear similar to my own after we exchanged some email and he knew that I had a smallish room and knew my ancillary gear. He had set the O/93’s up with similar gear, more or less. I had spent 4-5 years with speakers that had overpowered my room and did not want a repeat. Don assured me the O/96’s would render too much bass for my room. Don is the definition of "a cool jazz cat", being a pro jazz guitarist IIRC who was from Cleveland but spent much of his career in LA. I don’t want to get Don in trouble with John DeVore, but Don told me that although he sells 10 pair of O/96’s for every pair of O/93, he prefers the O/93. This could be for any number of reasons but my guess is that the narrow depth of the O/93's turns people off. You can easily rock the speakers back and forth with one pinky finger which is antithetical to many who think loudspeakers need to be solidly anchored to the floor. I happen to think the overall design of the O/93's bucks many design parameters that are assumed to be valid by the likes of JA when he measures speakers. When Don said he preferred the O/93's, I don’t think this was sales-talk as Don seems to have far better-heeled customers than myself and he seemed to be totally neutral as to whether I would buy or not. In fact, I think he was a bit surprised when I pulled out my credit card. Btw, Don has one of the most amazing arrays of iconic turntables I have ever seen in one place and the DeVores seem to scream for vinyl rather than digital. I have yet to use my Aurender N100H/AMR DP777 with my new O/93’s-I go right to my collection of vinyl.

thanks fson -- I will give the 0/93s a good listen before I move -- If I decide on Devore I may need to have the dealer I’m getting my local in house audtions and reeducation from a nod to selling me the speakers as there will be no dealer anywhere close to me in Spokane.. btw how picky on placement do you find the 0/93s -- how far out from the wall -- how far apart - anything between

I have decided to buy the TT from them as a starter and then can work with them if still needed after the move on speakers.. They are going to take me through setting up the TT and adjusting - measuring things on the concept TT and will use it for more next demo’s in their shop of the devore speakers -- I not that interest in the other speakers they have in house... I’ll basically rebox the TT in the shop with them and haul it with me in my yukon versus having with the stuff handled by the moving company.

I also will be visiting one other dealer here in VA - further away to listen to harbeth and audio note speakers -- I do wish to hear for my legacy memory a set of Klipsch Hersey-Cornwalls just to hear them and have a old memory comparative -- I plan to try to list to a KEF Ref5 and Sonus Faber Olympica IIIs if possible -- maybe legacy audio focus SE -- on a trip to the western WA area shops after I move and settle in spokane - it would roughly be a 3-4 days round trip to get out there and hit some shops in a 2-3 day time frame with the rest being travel time

pretty much decided on the luxman integrated and will buy they after move and paying for the move and getting new bed, etc in new place in spokane - probably a early christmas present for myself --

btw how picky on placement do you find the 0/93s -- how far out from the wall -- how far apart - anything between

I had an educated guess where they needed to be and think I am very close with no fine adjustment yet. I read John's "Care and Feeding" instructions and he ascribes to the rough equilateral triangle configuration with two options depending upon whether you set them along the long wall or short wall. Mine are five feet from the front wall, three from the sidewall, seven feet woofer to woofer centers, seven feet from my head in my listening chair, and toed in so that I barely see the sides of the enclosures. So my short answer is "not picky at all".
On the TT, my advice is to have the dealer set it up, buy a good digital tracking force gauge and level, and be sure to check VTF and for levelness when you arrive home. VTF is likely to change during transport. When I got back into vinyl about a dozen years ago, I felt compelled to tinker with alignment and VTA and azimuth rather than sitting back and relaxing and trusting that my dealer had aligned the cartridge and set up the table properly. That was a mistake. The problem with most TT's is that the basics of TT set-up are fairly easy but the the TT manufacturers don't make it very easy to actually perform the adjustments. I have owned two VPI tables and five different VPI armwands and though I love VPI, I don't like the tiny allen key screws that are prone to stripping with the least bit of over-tightening and the awkward location of those set screws. At 58, the most annoying thing is not being able to see what's going on without a pair of readers on and a flashlight in one hand with an allen key in the other while craning to see what's going on towards the back of the table against the wall. I tend to disassemble platter from table and tonearm from pivot point and transfer the whole mess to my kitchen table under bright lights :-) Don't let a bit of this cause you pause-the pain is worth it.