Loudspeakers

Described by DeVore as 'a miniaturised O/96' [HFN Apr '21], the O/baby combines a smaller 19mm textile dome tweeter with a new 178mm woofer using the same uncoated German paper as the legendary O/96. Once again, this latest DeVore speaker offers high sensitivity, a simple (almost non-existent) crossover and very amp-friendly load. The latter never dips below 7ohm – there's a minimum of 7.05ohm/188Hz – but big swings in impedance phase of ±60° below 100Hz contribute to a slightly tougher, but not tough, EPDR of 3.23ohm/112Hz. Sensitivity, rated at 90dB/1W, is determined by the response [see Graph 1] which, in turn, is likely to be that heard some 6in/15cm above the top of the cabinet and stand at a distance of ~2-3m.

Correcting for a 1m measurement distance, the forward response shows a peak at 2.6kHz (the very top of the bass/mid driver's 54Hz-2.5kHz bandwidth, which includes a –6dB notch between 670-800Hz) and a notch at 7.3kHz that gets deeper the higher off-axis that you listen. In this idealised response the errors are still a high ±3.6dB and ±4.5dB (200Hz-20kHz), respectively, with pair matching a little 'loose' at 1.4dB through the midrange [black/red traces, Graph 1]. The treble dome shows a mode at 23.7kHz but HF extension is otherwise very fine. Sensitivity clocks in at 89.0dB/1kHz or 88.0dB averaged over 500Hz-8kHz, so the O/baby (unsurprisingly) falls short of the O/96 or O/93 [HFN Mar '23]. The rear port is sharply tuned at 36.5Hz but betrays a strong pipe harmonic at 292Hz and resonances from 550Hz-3.4kHz (also on the imp/phase traces). Low bass rolls off very steeply to 40Hz (–6dB re. 200Hz). PM