DeVore Orangutan O/96

Kharl1955,

Who on this thread made a judgment with regards to how the Orangutans sound? John Devore insinuated that the original Orangutan prototypes would be around 8K. This year's prototype, the 0/96, are now expected to be around 12K. According to the on-line Stereophile 2011 CES review, John has found a new supplier for the SEAS drivers. Why that should increase the price substantially is what some of us are pondering. It's a perfectly legitimate point.

I'm a huge fan of the SEAS midrange and bass drivers. I certainly plan on listening to the Orangutan once they make it to my local DeVore dealer or if John ever shows up at RMAF again.

Besides the price, the only issue for me is the cabinet legs.

I don't want to weigh in here on value or comparisons, but I'd like to address the price of the O/96 Orangutans vs. the price of last year's O/93 prototypes. When I switched manufacturers for the Orangutan woofers, we nearly had to start from scratch as much of the development with the previous company was not directly transferable. That said, the combination of my long relationship with SEAS and their exceptional work helped things moved along very quickly.

The O/93 model is still in progress and will still come out near $8k/pair, it's just that the drivers for the O/96 model came together first, and the deadline of CES isn't flexible. The difference between the O/93 and O/96 is sensitivity (93dB vs 96dB, as implied by the names) and size, with the O/93 being somewhat smaller than the higher-sensitivity model. The two models do use different drivers, and the less-expensive model will not have the elaborate cabinet of the O/96. The Orangutan has always been conceived as a series of speakers, not a single model.

Cheers,
John DeVore

John,

Thank you for taking the time to explain the Orangutan variations to this thread. I have talked to you several times and I've read every Orangutan tidbit I can find; this is the first I've heard of a Orangutan series (exciting!). I look forward to hearing them at the next audio show or at Matt Rotunda's studio.

Regards,
dpe

Hi Dpe--Matt will have one of the very first production pairs, I hope by the end of April.

Cheers,
John

Thanks John for the clarification---very helpful indeed. Love the cabinet work on the new speaker.