Devialet v Benchmark/Parasound/Pass Labs

[MusicLover]

While we're off topic I have to tell you about my experience. I was in Bangkok for Christmas 2012 and found some great high end stores. So I bought a quality cd and listened to 1 song on heaps of systems; SF Aida with 4 Pass Lab mono blocks, The big TAD with all top TAD electronics, Wilson Sasha with top Ayre, Full McIntosh set up, top Meridian. And the only system that blew me away was some 10 grand SF's on all lower end Audio Research tube gear (still 10 grand each I guess) It certainly didn't have the power of the all $100,000.- plus systems but it was the most musical system out there by far.

Since then I learned a lot about speaker and seat placement (Jim Smith's GBS) and now when I hear something in a shop I can't help but wonder; Is it the system that I'm hearing or the set up? That's why I've decided to stick with the high resolution of the Devialet and do the fine tuning with the set up. It's amazing how much tuning you can do by just tilting or turning your speakers a bit. It's like having a 10 band equaliser!

Have fun searching Kari, but keep in mind that the set up of the systems you're listening to makes as much or more of a difference than the systems themselves.

I guess that brought is back on topic again

Cheers,

Pim

Spot on Pim,

The largest and most noticeable improvements, by far, I've experienced have been after messing with the speaker's position (toe in, rake, distance from the back wall...). And that's considering the room they interact with is quite ok acoustically.

I remember a conversation some time ago with a well known telecom engineer from Madrid (in the industry for over 40 years) who's set up some extremely high end systems, I'm talking here discussing with the architect and the owner how to design and prepare the dedicated room. Well, his take was that only around 25-30% of the sound was attributable to the electronics itself and all the rest was simply its interaction with the room.

@Kari

Back to the original thread, IMHO, I would just go with my ears and absolutely forget about brands. Wether it's Devialet, AR or any other, it's irrelevant.
Which reminds me... I still can't understand (unless you are an investor), the fanatism some people display about a certain brand.

Are we all thinking about the same green logo here? (which BTW I used to own before)