Ah, to be a speaker designer. If you didn't catch it, check out Stephen Mejias's field trip to the DeVore mad laboratory. Picture above are the many prototypes of the new Gibbon 9 speakers. The Gibbon 9s slot in above the $4000 Gibbon Super 8s and below the $15k Silverbacks and will surely get more "I bought 'em!" reviews.

The blog post and subsequent commentary under the pictures gives you an insight into the depths of John DeVore's mind. Bass driver on the bottom of the cabinet or the rear? One woofer or two? Front or rear port? Yes, it's a crazy place and Stephen's coverage is a great read for anyone interested in the voodoo behind sticking drivers in boxes.

Speaking of DeVore's design voodoo, it's worth noting just how small these speakers are. The Silverback is, well, huge, but the rest of the DeVore line is really small -- and that's a good thing! While the picture above makes the cabinets seem gigantic, the Gibbon 8s (prototype second from the right) are only 34" high and 8" wide (with bass down to 35Hz, if you're a numbers man).

We've been seeing a trend towards these high performance speakers in tiny packages. While England and Europe have mainly been the leaders in this area, it's important for audio to remain actually livable, especially when the new demographic that will hopefully buy these speakers live in condos, not 4000 sq ft houses.

The Gibbon 9s land at CES come Jan 8th and check out the DeVore news page for a display case full of "Best of 2006" awards.