Напольная акустика — Devore Fidelity GIBBON SUPER NINE

The gibbon Super Nine is one of two current towers in the gibbon series from DeVore Fidelity, the Brooklyn, New York company founded in 2000 by John DeVore. It was introduced around CES in January 2018, when preorders opened with shipping about a month away. At USD 9,990 per pair it sits below the gibbon X, which cost USD 15,890, and its price lands close to the Orangutan series. The warranty is five years, limited.

Key specs that matter

DeVore describes the layout as 2.5-way. A pair of long-throw 7 inch paper cone woofers shares the lower band, and the top end comes from a 0.75 inch treated textile dome tweeter carried over from the gibbon X, where it made its debut. The enclosure is reflex loaded. DeVore quotes a frequency response of 28 Hz to 38 kHz and a sensitivity of 90 dB per watt at one metre. Without its feet the cabinet stands about 940 mm tall, 216 mm wide and 349 mm deep. One speaker weighs about 25 kg.

Engineering and use context

John DeVore has said the gibbon series goes back to the beginning of the company, and the Super Nine was meant to carry as much of the gibbon X performance as possible into a smaller package. The enclosure combines solid bamboo with plywood and composite material. Its sides and top are finished in dyed bamboo, with the front faces in polished black, and three bamboo colours are offered - cherry in an amber tone, a deeper mahogany stain and mink, a dark anthracite grey. The cabinet proportions follow the Fibonacci ratio. Inside the crossover, DeVore uses paper-in-oil capacitors alongside film types. Connection is through standard binding posts on the rear panel, and with its feet fitted the whole speaker still stays under 991 mm tall, so the feet add less than 51 mm to the cabinet height.

Pairing

DeVore set out to make the Super Nine a general-purpose load for both valve and transistor amplification, in contrast to its Orangutan O/93, which targets owners of low-wattage SET amplifiers. The maker rates the load at 8 ohms nominal with a lowest point of 5.5 ohms, a curve that stays close to 8 ohms across most of the spectrum.

Alternatives

The DeVore Fidelity gibbon X is the larger three-way tower of the gibbon series, using two 9 inch side-firing woofers and a separate midrange in a 112 cm tall cabinet.