A Pair of 2nd hand D-Premiers or One new D200

[Celts88]

Hi All

Hope this is the right area of the forum to ask, but have been offered a great price on a pair of 2nd hand Black Matte D-Premier's (approx. £4.4k for the pair). I have also been offered one new D200 for approx. £3.4k or £6.8k for a pair (makes a D400 mono set). Also been offered one new D250 for approx. £6.4k or £11.3k for a pair (makes a D800 mono set)

May seem a dumb question to some, but which way would you go:

• £3.4k - One new D200
  
• £6.8k - A par of new D200 (a D400 mono set)
  
• £4.4k - A Pair of used D-Premier's
  
• £6.4k - One new D250
  
• £11.3k - A pair of new D250's (of course makes up a D800 mono set)
  

Been told I can still upgrade the D-premiers to D250, but have to send back to France and cost per unit is £3k (of course £6k for the pair to upgrade), so this would take them up to roughly the same price as I have been offered the D800 mono set.

At present I'm leaning towards the pair of 2nd hand Black Matte D-Premier's for £4.4k 

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
John

[deviousalet]

What source inputs do you need (USB, optical, etc.)?

What speakers are you driving?

D-Premier owners can inform you better, but my understanding is that the 200 has more inputs (USB and Ethernet) while the D-Premier has better power, case (thermal mangement), etc. As I understand it there used to be two upgrades for the D-Premier: one just the input boards and one the power supply and other things but given the price of upgrades I'd plan to stick with the D-Premier as they are or buy the 200/400. If you need USB or ethernet then get the D200/D400. If you don't and won't need USB or Ethernet and have speakers that would benefit from the added power and quality of the dual-mono D-Premier then I would be very tempted by that pair.

[PhilP]

I don't know who offered you the new boxes at those prices but they're at a really good discount - around 40%.  List prices in the UK are:

200 - £5,490
400 - £9,980

250 - £9,990
800 - £17,980

At the prices you list I would be most tempted by a 400 :

Can you get an ODA at 40% off, I wonder.  If so, go for that.

[Confused]

This is impossible to answer without more information.  The D-Premiers look like excellent value and they give very little away to a current D-800, but of course you can't use SAM (and some other later features) with a D-Prem.

Do your current speakers have a SAM profile?  Is it likely that you'll buy new speakers in the medium term that would benefit from SAM?

And to pick up on Phil's point above, some of those prices look utterly bonkers!  Is this a trade deal, VAT free or something?  Or maybe you have intimate pictures of your hifi dealer that he would prefer were not made public?

[Confused]

Or thinking about it, by "new" do you just mean current model, and they are actually second hand or ex-demo?

[Ron D]

So does one have the capability to use a pair D-Premiers as monoblocks?

If not as monoblocks then 2 separate systems? Is this a reason for this option?

As mentioned, one can turn a D-Premier into a 250 so you could get those and then down the road turn them into an 800 system.

A nice quandary to be in

[Rodney Gold]

I would go for the 400 .. the 800 has just 3db more headroom
Ethernet , USB , sam and some future DSP is what it has over the D premier
The D prem has less than 1 db headroom over the 200.

[DelaneyB]

Good prices. It depends on what you want.
I had a D120 for a month to dip my toe in the water. I bought a pair of new Atohm GTSE1 speakers on this forum and had an offer of a new D250 to go with them for a total of £7,500 (€10,000), so I went for it. I sold the D120 on for what I paid, £3200.
I would have got a D200 otherwise. I'm v happy with the 250, but probably wouldnt have paid the extra otherwise.

[DVLA]

My preference is the D-400, which I think represents the best sound-cost tradeoff.

By the way, those are very good prices.

[f1eng]

I bought a D-Premier first in 2011 then a second a few weeks later and ran them as mono amps. I did eventually update them to 250 spec and so am now running them as a 800 but, in retrospect, the update was not worth the expense for me.
If you want to use SAM, USB or Ethernet inputs don't get the D-Premiers otherwise that price is a bargain for the sound quality IME.