02-Mar-2015, 10:31
I did speak to one of the Devialet designers at a dealer event in the UK, he claimed that the 400 sounds better than the 250, a case of distortion levels being halved with the dual mono set up. Depending on speaker demands, a 250 can sound better than a 200, I know this from past demo's. Matching the amp and speakers is always key to good hi fi, but in simple terms, the order of merit for sound quality is 800, 400, 250, 200 and so on. It should be remembered that the 250 / D-Premier is inherently a superior beast to the 200, with the very expensive case providing very rapid transient cooling of components, allowing the power supply to work the electronics harder. The 250's case is machined from solid aluminium and makes a very real difference to the amplifiers performance, in particular with difficult loads, it is not just there to look nice. Also, the 250's case is expensive to produce, which explains some of the price difference, although the point made by IanG above may also be a factor. One way of looking at this is that the 250 with it's fancy case, is essentially how the Devialet amplifier was originally designed from the D-Premier days, with the case being an inherent part of the design with respect to component cooling. The D200 is a derivative of this, giving much of the performance for a much lower price. Indeed, with the right speakers, speakers that do not present difficult loads, the D200 will give all of the performance of the D250.
At the end of the day, is is a case of correctly matching speakers and amplifiers. If you don't need the D800 capabilities, then go direct to the D400. If you think you do need the full fat D800, then the D250 would make a fine stepping stone.
At the end of the day, is is a case of correctly matching speakers and amplifiers. If you don't need the D800 capabilities, then go direct to the D400. If you think you do need the full fat D800, then the D250 would make a fine stepping stone.
