Any weekend tweaks?

[Manoet]

Rufus- No worries, I tend to be much the same way and specifically why I went looking rather than asking here as I knew answers on rear cover material would be all over the map. My original concerns stemmed from no displayed US FCC Declaration of Conformity label as mine came into country via Canada but surprisingly didn't have a Canadian DoC label either. For the US that requirement reads as follows:

"Declaration of Conformity

The Federal Communications Commission established the regulations on electromagnetic interference under Part 15 of the FCC rules in 1975. After several amendments over the years, these regulation were reconstituted as the Declaration of Conformity and Certification procedures in 1998.

By the regulation, the FCC DoC certification mark is mandatory for devices classified under part 15 (IT equipment like computers, switched-mode power supplies, monitors etc., television receivers, cable system devices, low-power transmitters, un-licensed personal communication devices) and part 18 (industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) devices that emit RF radiation) of the FCC regulations."

6-7 years ago digital boards were notorious for things like making cellphones ring errantly from escaping RMI. One of my early-version iPhones was rendered useless if within 5-6 feet of of my then new amp with dual B&O class D ICE boards. Turns out that case was leaking RFI via small cooling slots on its underside. I knew a plastic case bottom would never pass muster on obtaining a DoC for the US as its invisible to RFI/EMI but still don't understand how or why Devialet is flying under the radar compliance-wise in other countries which have similar requirements on leaky RFI/EMI. I don't believe the laws regarding displaying that DoC label have much in the way of teeth but believe it would be in Devialet's best interest to be in voluntary compliance in the event of some liability or class action suit were brought against them.

The lug I believe you're speaking of on yours that was milled down is the small white LED light viewing port that shines on the mounting surface directly below the main power button. They must've established a correct depth for that as mine is fully powder coated and absent of any raw aluminum. However, all four of my outer mounting contact points that the 4 short mounting screws go into have had their underside footers ground flat where they mate to and butt up against the underside of the Devialet top.

The nuts on the OEM binding posts are 12mm. Most all aftermarket binding post nuts will be 14mm reducing space between nuts further than an OEM setup. The guitar nut tool shown previously won't be of much use with 14mm nuts when all the nuts are tightened and parallel to each other as the nuts are too close together when fully tightened even for that tool. However once one nut is backed off a mm or two it will work all the way out until that particular nut is removed. Then repeat for all others. However, the best method is still going to be using small stacks of plastic washers as I've mentioned previously as there's no denying that tightening those nuts fully with only 4 or 5 threads engaged is going to be a LOT faster than if 25 or so threads are engaged by the nut. And fastener/binding post mounting strength remains identical either way.

[Davyboy]

Not experienced as to the merits or not of having a magnetic free casing around an amplifier but Lavardin (another French amplifier) have plenty of reasons as to why metal, magnetic or otherwise is a bad idea.
Before purchasing the 200 I seriously considered a Lavardin amp as they too say theirs are the best but no dealers here in the area for a home trail.
Marantaz, too, try to minimise stray magnetism by using copper shielding.
I do think Devialet has gone down the shiny bling route a bit like Apple and Linn has when more could have been spent on technology or even a cost reduction.
Saying all that I do like the sound and the looks.

[Pim]

Ok, I see. Everything on these container-wise should be, according to all prtinted materials 100% aluminum alloy. Top is CNC'd from a solid billet of aluminum while bottoms are cast aluminum. Of course aluminum is not magnetic, nor is chrome plating. However, and we're finding this a LOT with the Expert series, nickel is. And aluminum cannot be chromed except when plated first in copper then nickel and then colored chromium... a 3-layer minimum requirement for aluminum. The light magnetism found in the upper cabinet is from a heavy layer of nickel 'sandwiched' between a light coating of copper and colored chromium plating. Here again a healthy sonic improvement could've been achieved with an anodizing process using no plating and eliminated any/all internal magnetic interference from the enclosure. The likes of high-end anodized aluminum components which are legend compared to absolutely ZERO other chromium-plated aluminum enclosures anywhere in the world (far as I know) save for Devialet and for many, many SQ reasons. Someone at Devialet wanted chrome R-E-A-L-L-Y badly to overcome sound engineering advice with other gigantic, obvious and bona-fide reasons to not use it... regardless of costs which would've decreased dramatically with anodizing. Sad they've put a shiny aesthetic and/or the desire to be different in that respect out ahead of SQ. I'm convinced many here, myself included, would be flat-out gape-jawed in a side-by-side SQ comparison of an off-the-shelf chrome-plated and a bead-blasted/anodized unit. Just think... better sound and no fingerprints... all for less money. Where do I sign!?! Except we know they'd charge extra for less labor and better SQ. Nobody makes their hifi enclosures magnetic intentionally or on purpose... NO ONE! Well, ok, save for one. Saddens me to believe I own a $10k machine with potentially $15k - $20k of SQ that can't get out from under half a kg of magnetic clownsuit!

Here's a good idea for next weekend; You sandblast your Devialet and tell us how much better it sounds 

[Manoet]

Ironically I am indeed going back inside in the next few days in an attempt to see if I can determine how many pre-assembled modular parts are involved and their sequence of installation. Intuitively I believe the GUI module and power button go in first then the balance of components in as few as one or perhaps as many as 4-5 sub-modular assemblies. All of this with an eye towards exactly as you suggest, ie; better sound accompanied by what I believe could also be a small but significant lowering of internal temperatures via removing the 6-layer (3 layers inside/3 layers outside on top, bottom, front & sides of case) insulative and magnetically attractive plating process and replacing with black anodizing which is chemically 'etched' into the alloy surface .002"-.003" rather than piled on the surface like plating and completely inert/oblivious to magnetism. Even a half-hearted temp differential modulus attempt shows the potential for a 12-16% reduction in heat and I personally believe closer to 20% may be at least possible. And if I were to attempt it and everything goes south in a banana boat, ie; no increase in SQ, no temp-reduction, I'm out about $100, a week without the unit (I have multiple back-ups) and end up with a one-of-a-kind Devialet 200 that's out-of-warranty (an inevitability anyway in 5 years) with the same surface texture as the volume knob on the remote and anodized black that'll never show another fingerprint, smudge or reflection. Where's the down-side!?!

[Antoine]

Why not get all the innards out and play without any case first to check for differences? Perhaps then put it in your own case before sandblasting the original case?

[Manoet]

If it were a wired system I'd do that in a heartbeat but near as I can tell there's nary a wire in the house! And I may use sandblasting, actually stainless steel media-blasting for finish surface texture only. A chemical or acid bath may prove better for plating removal. Still in the preliminary stage of deciding plating removal options. Biggest fear thus far is the glass plate covering the GUI and how it's attached. If they didn't want it to ever come out or ever be replaced it could be a bear of a task!

[kenreau]

If it were a wired system I'd do that in a heartbeat but near as I can tell there's nary a wire in the house! And I may use sandblasting, actually stainless steel media-blasting for finish surface texture only. A chemical or acid bath may prove better for plating removal. Still in the preliminary stage of deciding plating removal options. Biggest fear thus far is the glass plate covering the GUI and how it's attached. If they didn't want it to ever come out or ever be replaced it could be a bear of a task!

Sounds like a great experiment.  I wonder if you could mount the internals on a wood prototype board or even a resin cutting board to give it a listen?  

Another thing to consider, when I get a new component I typically open it up and pull apart all the molex and various connections, fuses, etc and hit everything with Caig Deoxit, Progold and Lloyd Walkers Audio Extreme SST contact enhancer.  Are there any similar connections of the various modules that may benefit?

My WBT binding posts just came in the mail, along with a Furutech AC-1501 IEC PEM and some WA Quantum chips.  I couldn't resist an attempt to use the PEM even if it requires a little soldering.  Given your comments on the piss poor quality of the other RCA connectors, I'm going to look at using a Furutech XLR connector next.  I only use the XLR/AES input from my Aurender S10 so I wouldn't mind optimizing it.

Will be anxiously following your progress posts.

Best of luck
Kenreau

[Manoet]

My primary interest is getting this thing up to a level of SQ I'm content with rather than puttering around with make-shift enclosures tho funny you mention a resin cutting board as I've actually had a go with one of those once with an external power supply. Worked too but didn't knock it outta the park and I ended up going another direction. Was over a year getting that PS back in-the-box so I could sell it!

I look forward to your endeavor adapting the F'tech 1501. With quality wire and a suitable thickness of 3M double-sided automotive tape underneath it should hold like it were welded! I firmly believe however if some things inside the Dev were different it would eliminate the need for any OEM EMI AC inlet filter altogether. An interesting snippet of trivia is that most current high-end aluminum enclosures don't use em yet most current high-end steel enclosures do. If the 'big tweak' pans out for me, the first thing that will fall out of the Devialet afterwards is that filter to be replaced with a F'tech FI-33 rhodium plated 20A inlet using short lengths of Crystal Cables high-current solid core silver wires soldered at the OEM PS inlet. My last three systems and current 2nd system have that tweak with "OMG-level" SQ enhancement! When things are incredibly right in that particular 2" rectangular patch of real estate the benefits are far, far greater than the sum total of parts used and much further-reaching than just the AC or power circuit! Always a good place to start.

I have all the Caig products in-house use them regularly but my stupid-spendy Walker kit dried up years ago and had to be tossed. Today I make due with just the full compliment of Caig products.

Wish we lived closer as I have ALL the F'tech CF terminations and you could try before-you-buy. Tho I guess with parts like those, we NEVER return em!

I'm unsure how my next adventure will unfold. I could go internal once or twice more and still opt out of Devialet altogether. Or I could go in again tomorrow and immediately begin disassembly. I try not to overthink things as less gets done around here when I do.

[Manoet]

My primary interest is getting this thing up to a level of SQ I'm content with rather than puttering around with make-shift enclosures tho funny you mention a resin cutting board as I've actually had a go with one of those once with an external power supply. Worked too but didn't knock it outta the park and I ended up going another direction. Was over a year getting that PS back in-the-box so I could sell it!

I look forward to your endeavor adapting the F'tech 1501. With quality wire and a suitable thickness of 3M double-sided automotive tape underneath it should hold like it were welded! I firmly believe however if some things inside the Dev were different it would eliminate the need for any OEM EMI AC inlet filter altogether. An interesting snippet of trivia is that most current high-end aluminum enclosures don't use em yet most current high-end steel enclosures do. If the 'big tweak' pans out for me, the first thing that will fall out of the Devialet afterwards is that filter to be replaced with a F'tech FI-33 rhodium plated 20A inlet using short lengths of Crystal Cables high-current solid core silver wires soldered at the OEM PS inlet. My last three systems and current 2nd system have that tweak with "OMG-level"  SQ enhancement! When things are incredibly right in that particular 2" rectangular patch of real estate the benefits are far, far greater than the sum total of parts used and much further-reaching than just the AC or power circuit! Always a good place to start.

I have all the Caig products in-house and use them regularly but my stupid-spendy Walker kit dried up years ago and had to be tossed. Today I make due with just the full compliment of Caig products.

Wish we lived closer as I have ALL the F'tech CF terminations and you could try before-you-buy. Tho I guess with parts like those, we NEVER return em! S'why I have so many!

I'm unsure how my next adventure will unfold. I could go internal once or twice more and still opt out of Devialet altogether. Or I could go in again tomorrow and immediately begin disassembly. I try not to overthink things as less gets done around here when I do.

[completeluxury]

manoet a quick question in reference to something you just said:

" I could go internal once or twice more and still opt out of Devialet altogether."

opt of out devialet as an amplifier or just stop messing about with it?