Devialet run-in time

[ZincAlloy]

My D170/200 took a few days to come to live, but no where near a few months.

Ken and Rufus,

you must be very patient guys to wait for a few months - I would have been beating my dealer up to get me a replacement by then . Its incredibly frustrating when you know how good a Devialet can sound when you own one which sounds awful.

As Ken said, the temptation is to rush around changing everything else trying to fix the problem and nothing really helps - maybe a bit of improvement here and there but fundamentally the sound is just wrong.

Could I ask whether you are both happy that your Devialets really sound as good as you expected? The reason I ask is because although mine has improved a lot it's still not as good as the one I originally borrowed - mine has a slightly harsh/grainy edge to vocals which the demo unit didn't. I hope/expect that it will continue to improve but just want reassurance that it will, I guess.

Has anyone spoken to Devialet about poor initial sound? If so, what was their response?

I wonder if the variation is on a unit by unit basis or by build batch? Mine was built in 2014 week 2.

Hi - yes. After the frustrations of the first couple of months, I'm really pleased with the sound of my D200. Like others have reported, because it is so clear, the temptation is to turn it up too loud and overdrive the speakers. But that's not Devialet's fault!

ATB, Ken

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My D170/200 took a few days to come to live, but no where near a few months.

Ken and Rufus,

you must be very patient guys to wait for a few months - I would have been beating my dealer up to get me a replacement by then . Its incredibly frustrating when you know how good a Devialet can sound when you own one which sounds awful.

As Ken said, the temptation is to rush around changing everything else trying to fix the problem and nothing really helps - maybe a bit of improvement here and there but fundamentally the sound is just wrong.

Could I ask whether you are both happy that your Devialets really sound as good as you expected? The reason I ask is because although mine has improved a lot it's still not as good as the one I originally borrowed - mine has a slightly harsh/grainy edge to vocals which the demo unit didn't. I hope/expect that it will continue to improve but just want reassurance that it will, I guess.

Has anyone spoken to Devialet about poor initial sound? If so, what was their response?

I wonder if the variation is on a unit by unit basis or by build batch? Mine was built in 2014 week 2.

Hi - yes. After the frustrations of the first couple of months, I'm really pleased with the sound of my D200. Like others have reported, because it is so clear, the temptation is to turn it up too loud and overdrive the speakers. But that's not Devialet's fault!

ATB, Ken

[PhilP]

Hi - yes. After the frustrations of the first couple of months, I'm really pleased with the sound of my D200. Like others have reported, because it is so clear, the temptation is to turn it up too loud and overdrive the speakers. But that's not Devialet's fault!

ATB, Ken

Excellent! Mine is literally sounding better by the day. I'm very impressed with the phono stage and experience no 'edge' to vocals from a vinyl source so the 'edge' I can hear on all digital sources may well be down to them rather than the Devialet.

Now the 200 is better run-in I can start to experiment with cables, software etc. to see whether I can improve things. My iMac is about 4 years old and I'm using vanilla iTunes so I would hope that improvements should come fairly easily.

[f1eng]

I have never heard edge on any of my digital sources with my D-Premiers, didn't have the 250 or then 800 long enough to try a wide variety of recordings, but did not notice any edge so far either.

[PhilP]

I have never heard edge on any of my digital sources with my D-Premiers, didn't have the 250 or then 800 long enough to try a wide variety of recordings, but did not notice any edge so far either.

Well, you're very lucky

For some reason I seem to be particularly sensitive to digital graininess/edge particularly on female vocals. I'm not claiming to have 'golden ears' - it's more likely a problem with my ears (maybe F1/gigs when I was young..)

With my previous all-Naim system I managed to remove pretty much all the digital grain/edge by adding an external PS to my NDX streamer, using an expensive Naim analogue interconnect, adding ferrite cores to my ethernet cable and using a Naim equipment support (Fraim). With Devialet I have to start all over again.

[f1eng]

I have never heard edge on any of my digital sources with my D-Premiers, didn't have the 250 or then 800 long enough to try a wide variety of recordings, but did not notice any edge so far either.

Well, you're very lucky

For some reason I seem to be particularly sensitive to digital graininess/edge particularly on female vocals. I'm not claiming to have 'golden ears' - it's more likely a problem with my ears (maybe F1/gigs when I was young..)

With my previous all-Naim system I managed to remove pretty much all the digital grain/edge by adding an external PS to my NDX streamer, using an expensive Naim analogue interconnect, adding ferrite cores to my ethernet cable and using a Naim equipment support (Fraim). With Devialet I have to start all over again.

Actually what I wrote was not the whole story.
The second D-Premier I had when I went dual mono had a bit of an edge, so I had it replaced. The third D-Premier sounded the same to me as the first, and the demo unit I had tried at home, so I was content.

[nicoludio]

Finally had a chance to listen to the D200 yesterday but it was inconclusive, and serves to highlight possible break-in requirements.

Dealer had a pair of D200s but only a stereo unit was used to drive Raidho D2 speakers. Power/speaker cables were Ansuz.

After about 30+ minutes of listening, the dealer asked for my thoughts. I said that the sound was somewhat bleached and "tin"ny (with truncated decay of notes), with congestion on orchestral pieces (instruments seemed to collapse together and it was difficult to follow each line) and a slight mistiness/grain to the midrange.

He then swapped the demo unit for the unit below, which had been running for >1 year whereas the demo unit had only been running for a couple of months. I did not expect much but the sound improved quite considerably. It now sounded smoother, with more body and definitely more musical, although the midrange "mist" was still present but at a lower level.

While the first unit was beginning to be a write-off, the second unit showed more promise.

Its amazing how run-in times make such a dramatic difference.

[TDA]

I Think i can truly say that I have been the biggest critic in here regarding run in time. Mine has broken in now after 3 months and I am laughing at the whole situation. So if you are satisfied after 30 min then wait 3 months..it will only get better