Reviewing the DeVore Fidelity gibbon Super Nines – Part 1

The first time I heard a DeVore Fidelity speaker was in 2005, and it was at Pitch Perfect Audio, a store owned by Matt Rotunda. I had gone over to Matt’s to see about buying a Shindo Labs preamp. This trip blew my mind as I also heard the Shindo Labs gear, a pair of Auditorium 23 SoloVox speakers and a pair of DeVore Silverback speakers. They were all driven by Shindo amps, and the source was a Shindo turntable system. Oh, by the way, I did buy a Shindo preamp while I was there.

 In 2017, I heard the DeVore gibbon Super Nine speakers at RMAF, and I could not believe how good they sounded. I immediately asked for a pair to review, and I was told they weren’t quite ready for review yet. I’ve had the privilege to review the DeVore orangutan 0/96 and the 0/93 speakers, and I found them to be highly musical and emotionally satisfying. In fact, I consider them to be two of the best speakers on the market at any price.

I eagerly anticipated reviewing the Super Nines, and we presented a Beatnik Bongos Award to the named DeVore/Tone Imports room for “Best System Under $100,000” at the RMAF 2017 show. You can read what I said about them here; the sound was incredible. The Super Nines were driven by a 40 watt Class A Sugden Sapphire FBA800 amplifier, and the source was the SPEC turntable paired with an EMT arm and cartridge.

Design Goals for the gibbons and orangutans

Since I had never reviewed speakers from the DeVore Fidelity gibbon series, I asked John DeVore, president and chief designer, about the fundamental differences in the design goals of the gibbon and the orangutan speakers? John said:

“The gibbon series goes all the way back to the beginning of the company, our first two production models were the gibbon 8 and gibbon III. In a sense this means that the gibbon speakers represent the design goals I had when I made the move from hobbyist to manufacturer. My goal then, as now, was to make speakers that appeared completely conventional and checked all the audiophile boxes such as imaging, sound staging, transparency, bandwidth, and tonality; but were much easier to drive. All gibbon models are very close to 8 Ohms across the spectrum, and tend to be fairly high sensitivity. This allows them to flourish with a great many wonderful amps that are normally considered fussy or limited in performance or capability. When you treat amps to a kind speaker load they will often perform and sound better, and as a result the system sounds better.”

I went on to ask how the gibbon series differs from the orangutan series. John said,

“In comparison, the orangutan series has a narrower focus. While again trying to maintain a fairly conventional look and modern audiophile performance, I wanted to push the amplifier-compatibility even further into the ‘exotic’ realm of single-ended and flea-watt tube amps. To do this they had to have even higher sensitivity and higher impedance, moving away from the ‘normal’ expected 8 Ohms to around 12. This made them marginally less compatible with some amps designed to push into punishing speaker loads, but opened a whole world of SET 300Bs and such to people who would never put up with the difficulties or compromises of horn speakers and single-drivers.”

I also asked John why the orangutans use a wide baffle and the gibbons use a very narrow one. He said,

“All DeVore Fidelity cabinets make use of Fibonacci ratios, so when the necessary net internal volume is determined, the shape follows certain guidelines. The gibbon series speakers use smaller drivers and are intended to look understated so they have narrow fronts. So they need a deeper cabinet to make up the internal volume needed. The Orangutans need to be higher sensitivity, and so use larger drivers. This dictated a wider baffle, and I used this feature to tune the response at the listening position. With a wider front, they only needed a shallower cabinet depth to achieve the internal volume required.”

About the Super Nines

The Super Nine speakers are 2.5-way, compact floor-standers with a design goal to get as much of the performance of the big gibbon X ($15,890) in a smaller package making it easier to place in a room. They also cost $6,000 less as they retail for $9,900. The speakers are also easy to drive at 91dB sensitivity and an even 8 ohm load.

These speakers were also designed for a wide sweet spot so that they need very little or no toe in.   Each speaker has a pair of wide bandwidth 7-inch paper cone drivers, and they use the same .75-inch treated textile dome tweeter that was first used in the gibbon X. The crossover uses high-quality paper in oil and film capacitors. Even with its footers, it’s a little under 39 inches tall and only 8.5 inches wide. They are deeper than wide at 13.75 deep.  

As with the rest of the gibbon line, the new Super Nine is made out of eco-friendly solid bamboo and comes in three finishes: an amber bamboo called “Cherry”, a deeper stain color called “Mahogany” and then “Mink,” which has the bamboo stained a dark anthracite grey. My review samples were stunning in the “Mahogany” bamboo.

Setup and Placement

When it comes to setting up a listening room and placing speakers in the room, it’s important to remember that every room is different. Still, I highly recommend you read and use the information from Jim Smith’s book, Get Better Sound book and DVDs. If you look at my reference system description, you will see that the room my system is really odd. It took some work, but in many ways this is the best room I have ever had for a listening room. The main reason for this is that, as I learned from Jim Smith it is easier to place the speakers once you have established your listening spot. I have found that the position of the listening chair in my room has a much greater effect on the bass than the placement of the speakers. I expect this is the case when setting up most rooms.

Well, it’s time to get on about placing the Super Nines. Like all of DeVore’s speakers, they are designed to work well and look good in the average living room as well as in an audiophile’s listening room. Still, these speakers like space. I expect if placed on the long wall in a room they could be placed closer to the wall behind the speakers and further away from the side walls.

This placement isn’t possible in my room. I ended up placing them on the short wall with the tweeter being 124 inches from the center of my listening position. This placed the tweeters about 63 inches from the wall behind the speakers. If you can’t pull them out this far into the room, you should try placing them further apart. This also results in the speakers being 84 inches apart and about 31 inches from the side walls.

I also tried different toe ins, but in the end, these speakers sounded best and produced a better soundstage no toe in at all. While the Super Nines benefit from very careful set up, they also sound really darn good placed just a little out from the wall behind them and wide without being up against the side walls. Please remember, however, every room is different, so don’t be shy about determining what works best in your room.

OK, so now it’s time for a little listening. I will be trying a few different amps and also a couple of different sources, including both analog and digital. Part 2 of this post covers my actual listening experience.