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Does the Devore Fidelity Orangutan 0/96 speaker play rich and full bodied at 50 Decibels

I started an earlier thread seeking a horn that plays rich and full bodied at 50 DBS.  Did an AI search and A1 advised that the power I am using is fine to elicit rich sound at 50 DBS from the tweeter horn and mid range horn, it will not get the large woofer moving in order to provide satisfying bass.  Since the Lucera, is not readily available for listening, I looked a little further.  The Devore 0/96 Orangutan came up and after reading about this speaker it seems that since it is a 2 way and both drivers are close to each as well as the woofer being of the paper cone variety, This would activate  the base driver at low DB levels.  Does anybody own or have heard this speaker?  Wil the entire spectrum of sound, play rich and full bodied at 50 DBs. I am aware of the Fletcher Munson Cure.  Thank you in advance for your opinions. 

kjl1065
chrisoshea
576 posts
 

Yes O96s will sound rich and full at low volume….And the word is BASS not Base….Base is for baseball….

desktopguy
453 posts
 

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone here mentioned the source component(s) upstream of the speakers & amp. Those matter a lot in getting satisfactory low volume performance. I’ve had any number of 2-way speakers on my nearfield/desktop system over the past 2 decades. I worked for years in this home office and listened to (still listen to) classical music at very low volume all day long (12-14 hrs/day). I’ve found a few ingredients that optimize low volume performance:

1 - Of course the speakers are a major part of it. I’ve had gotten the best low volume sound out of sealed/acoustic suspension passive 2-way speakers located 2.5 - 3 feet from my ears. The best were the ATC SCM12 Pros and the current pair, vintage KEF 103.2s.

2 - The amp matters a lot, too. I pair my speakers with a powerful class D amplifier. I have 3 of them, 2 stereo (dual mono designs) + one pair of monoblocks. All 3 are rated at 250 wpc, of which I use only a tiny fraction. But what these amps all do is hold the woofers in a steel grip. High damping factor = good low volume perforrmance.

3 - Only recently did I really figure out how important the DAC (or streamer) is in producing good low volume sound. I have 4 NOS (non-oversampling) R2R DACs. All sound quite good in this desktop system. But easily the best at low volumes is the Lab12 DAC1 Reference, which uses a matched pair of 6922 tubes in the output. Either those tubes, or the 8 paralleled TDA 1543 chips, or both, make low volumes from this DAC noticeably more full and tonally accurate than other DACs. It’s almost as if I had a "loudness" circuit engaged--but unlike a real loudness circuit, which sounds intolerably bassy at higher volumes, this system ramps up beautifully to higher volumes (during the infrequent times I crank it) 

4 - I also have a high quality powered sub (JL Audio e110) crossed over to the mains via a Marchand electronic crossover. This powerful, linear-sounding sub is no doubt part of the good sound I’m getting at low volumes. 

tomcarr
1,816 posts
 

OP, your post got me thinking, so this morning I played music I'm very familiar with at 50-56 dB. My listening room noise floor level is around 37 dB. And guess what?

It sounded really good! I heard all the octaves the same as what I hear when I'm listening at louder levels. I also use a pair of subs. Those will make a difference.

I must admit, I was surprised.

You were asking about Devore Orangutan speakers. I'm sorry I can't help there, but I have no doubt those speakers should sound great at any volume level, if your room noise level isn't loud.

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