Why is the D400 "better" than the D200

[Confused]

Hi Gui, your guess is as good as mine, it has puzzled me since the 170 was released.

Think of a D120 being economically profitable for the company and you achieve the sound of it by only downsizing the original technical concept by software to block its full capability.
That would give (and it does) Devialet an enormous economically profit on the bigger models. Gosh...they are all the same inside and the better cases of the 250/1000 cost a penny more on aluminum...ok, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't...

gui

I was told that the D250/1000 cases (or more accurately the case per the original D-Premier) are actually very expensive to produce and account for a significant proportion of the cost of the units that have them.  So the original D170, as it was, offers a way of making the units far more affordable, albeit with some compromises from the original design.  It's worth remembering that the D-Premier came first, and even today is a very fine amplifier.