Honest advice please

[graemeharrison]

Hi @graemeharrison
Welcome, and although you will find discussions about Naim and Devialet on the forum, most of those threads are probably four old or so.

My brief history may be relevant or useful for you. I used Naim gear for about 10 years before switching to a Devialet Expert 120 in 2015. I was looking to go up the Naim chain to a SuperUniti, when I reconnected with the sales person who had sold me my Naim equipment; he was then at a shop selling Devialet.

I found the Devialet sound to be exactly what I was looking for: more power, astounding space and purity of tone, especially in the bass regions. And being a bass player, I am always focusing on the tone and texture of bass (a tiresome handicap, in many ways). I've droned on about this before, but listening to recordings of my own music, much more is revealed through the Devialet than from the Naim.

I understand the Naim sound and I appreciate very much what it does, and how it presents music. To my ears, the Naim equivalents to Devialet, in price primarily, sound veiled. The top end seems less harsh as it is a bit recessed, and the mids are emphasized as they come across as 'pushed' along with the bass tones- which Naim does very well. If you listen to Naim systems in the 300 series, or whatever it is now, I think you will find the sound more similar to Devialet.

I'm not intending to throw a general blanket of criticism over Naim; only to say that I (me, just me) find that some of the apparent strengths of the Naim presentation become drawbacks for me when compared to the Devialet.

Rather than say the Naim is more musical or less harsh or more fluid, I would consider the presentation of the general parts of the music and then decide which style of audio presentation you prefer. At this point, I would not go back to Naim because I hear more of the music with the Devialet. More tone variety, texture, and micro details.

It may also be that the PMC benefits from the top end roll-off or softenss that the Uniti has. My Dali's are a superb match with the Devialet, but perhaps my old ProAcs would be different. My wife says the sound is 'warm and luscious'. But what does she know. Right?

I'm not actually sure that I've helped much, but I'm not going to waste all this typing. But do search for Naim to Devialet threads. There are quite a few Ex-Naim people here. I don't think anyone went back. One member, also a former Naim owner, is @PhilP and he was extremely helpful to me when I was considering the same move that you are.

One final note. The Expert Series, like the D120 does have a different sound character to the later Pro Series. Many who upgraded found the change to be an improvement that we did not think possible. However, a few Expert upgraders were not as pleased. I'd say the the upgrade to the Pro CI amps moved the Devialet sound farther along the path where it diverges from the Naim sound. That also may not be very helpful, but if you're noodling around here, it might be interesting reading. Especially my posts; they're captivating.

Thanks so much for your input Damon, this does really help. My sources are a Bluesound Node 2 and an LP12/Ittok/Hana SL and my speaker cables are Naim. I actually run Bluesound Professional, making streaming audio hardware for commercial installations and I'm a drummer and appreciate the weight of the low end of the Devialet. I'm glad to see that you are using both our M32 and also the Dali speakers that we distribute in North America.