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Monkeyhaus III was arranged so we could hear music through the new DeVore Fidelity 3XL. The big brother to the gibbon 3 monitor, the 3XL adds the silk dome tweeter from the Silverback Reference and a new 5-inch treated paper cone woofer. Most striking on a visual note is the solid bamboo cabinet and matching stand - sustainable reforestation stuff, smart building for those who believe it's better to swim in an ocean than a cesspool, never mind the temperature. The integrated amplifier taking on driving duties was John DeVore's vintage Solen/Ensemble B-50 Tiger hybrid integrated amp, a 50wpc solid-state amplifier using a pair of ECC 81s in the preamplification stage. Helping out on phono duties was the Audio Note AN-S1 Moving Coil Step Up transformer stepping up the EMT TSD-15 MC cartridge attached to the EMT 997 banana tonearm mounted to the Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable.


While we're on the John DeVore vintage theme, it's worth pointing out that John has a collection of gear laying in wait at the Monkeyhaus. Other voices, same room. These include the wonderfully tactile and nixie-tubed tuner display Revox A-720 FM tuner/preamp; the 'open, sesame' B&O CDX CD player; a Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1; the Pass Labs Aleph 3, one of my favorite amplifier designs of all time; the Moscode Super-It phono section with an original "The Mod Squad" mod and a Mod Squad Deluxe Phono Drive; the first receivers by NAD 7020, Marantz Model 18 and Yamaha 1000; a Grommes Premier 240 amp (EL84) and a Counterpoint SA-5000 preamp. "That's about half" estimates John.


Monkeyhaus participants are encouraged to bring music. I started making my list early this time, culling choices from different genres including mildly annoying, downright rude, super tremolo'd angst and wood nymph on acid. When added to everyone else's mix, the progression of songs, genres and styles can be truly mind-boggling and beautifully broad. Stephen brought along two whoppers of unrestrained frenetic energy with Grupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino's Lo Dice Todo and El Guincho's Alagranza!. Andrew Klein who's been in and around music his entire life (and when I say in, I mean in the recording studio, backstage, front row, seen Jimi, Janis, Miles and Marley and many many more) brought among other gems The Who's Pinball Wizard, an unreleased alternate take white label promo 45 that jumped out of the 3XLs sounding bigger and badder than any platform-wearing starry-eyed John ever could.

Jonathan Halpern brought along his Otari reel-to-reel deck and some 1st-generation dubs of master tapes. As old, borrowed and Blue as this Kind of recording is, hearing it on tape in the Monkeyhaus was something new. Stephen said it sounded "bloody" and I'd say that's about it with tape. The music courses through you. Jimmy Cobb's circling brush work sneaks up and makes your arm hairs shiver. Paul Chamber's bass moves your guts and John Coltrane's solemn intensity hits you in the chest. And when Miles plays, he leaves little doubt as to who's the leader. If you listen, he'll take you places you didn't know existed. Like stepping in and out of time.

You don't need a blueprint to enjoy the concert
More than any other thing, the listening parties at the Monkeyhaus are musically inspiring. And I have to say our Monkeyhaus host is the prime mover of this particular venue. If enjoyment through the shared appreciation of music was John DeVore's Monkeyhaus goal, he's wildly succeeded so far. Our 7hr+ listening parties have involved a bunch of exceptional gear including Nagra, Audio Note, Shindo and Komuro each having its own voice and musical sensibility. Since John DeVore and I are friends, I won't write anything that will force you to buy his speakers. Not even subliminally. Wink. What I can say based on the many experiences I've had listening to DeVore Fidelity speakers with a host of accompanying equipment in a host of rooms of all shapes and sizes is that if you've only heard one pair one time in one system (that's too many 1s), you don't know what the speakers sound like. You know what that system sounds like as well as the room you heard it in. DeVore Fidelity speakers are also rather enigmatic in that it takes listening to real music over time to really hear what they do best. Unfortunately that also means that some audiophiles, especially the unhappy ones, will never really hear a pair.

I know a place where we can go
I will say that the 3XLs and Silverback Reference moved the music in that room within a room to the point where it consumed all of our attention, moving us in unison to varied beats and purpose. There's another Monkeyhaus-inspired thought that's been quietly and happily nagging at me. That's the idea of surrounding and wrapping yourself professionally and personally with and in music. It's the wonderful nature of building things that let all of us enter our own room within a room only to find like-minded crowds waiting. Welcome to the Monkeyhaus.

Some of the Music Played at the Monkeyhaus
The Bug, London Zoo
Byron Janis playing Pictures At An Exhibition on Mercury
Jacqueline Dupree playing the Elgar Cello Concerto
PJ Harvey Bring You My Love
Restless Soul, Earth Bound and Modaji from Future Sounds of Jazz - Vol.6
Nick Cave, More News From Nowhere 45
Miles Davis, De Manera Silenciosa
Lighntin Hopkins, Last Night Blues
Neil Young, Cortez The Killer from Zuma
Fourtet, The Space Of Two Weeks
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, Don't Give Up 45
Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, Moonlight In Vermont
ZZ Top, La Grange
Massive Attack, "Butterfly Caught" and "A Prayer For England" from 100th Window

The Dirty Three, Cinder
Juana Molina, Segundo
The Pretenders, The Pretenders
Ibara, River Crossing
Peter Bjorn and John, Seaside Rock (milky-white vinyl)
Isotope 217, The Unstable Molecule
Oceansize, Everyone Into Position
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus Dig!!!
Olivier Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time


Give Me Love: Songs of The Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929
Temptations, All Directions
Malcolm X Memorial
Archie Bell and the Drells, Tighten Up
The Budos Band
Sprigs of Time: 78s from the EMI Archives
George Coleman, Bongo Joe
Sugar Man Three, "Sugar's Boogaloo"
Curtis, Curtis
Washington Philips, What Are They Doing In Heaven Today
Betty Wright, I Love The Way You Love
Mary J Blige, My Life
The Impressions, Keep on Pushing

Wicked Witch, Chaos: 1978-1986
Butthole Surfers, "Moving to Florida" from Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis
Tommy James and the Shondells, "Crimson and Clover" 45
Rainbow Arabia, "Omar K" and "Let Them Dance" 45
Loren Connors, The Moon Last Night
Einstürzende Neubauten, "Sand" from Yü-Gung
The Birthday Party, Release the Bats
Kim Doo Soo, 10 Days Butterfly
Larkin Grimm, Time Is a Spiral #2
Robert Pete Williams, Goodbye Slim Harpo
Various, Negro Prison Songs


Erykah Badu – Instrumental version "Bag Lady"
Cornell Dupree - Dub version "Be Thankful"
Marvin Gaye - Alt. version. "I Want You"
Smokey Robinson - "Virgin Man"
Van Morrison - "TB Sheets"
Missy Elliot vs. Little India
Meshell Ndegeocello - "Leviticus"
The Who, Pinball Wizard promo 45


Grupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino, Lo Dice Todo
Richard Hayman, Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine
El Guincho, Alagranza!