I actually thought the review was quite good. As an example, some of us here might be a bit narked by the "clinical" sound comments, thinking its just accurate, not clinical, warmth is nothing more than harmonic distortion. Or something like that.
However, if you take the comments in context, she does say "the warmth I would like to hear" and "Some might, however, find the sound just a little too perfect and clinical, and lacking some depth and warmth." I would say this is about right, some do find Devialet's a little clinical, maybe preferring valve amps and similar to the ruthlessly accurate Devialet, so I think the article gets this about right, considering it is aimed at a general audience.
I do share @Damon 's comments re bass. When I was trying a whole range of amplifiers with the Blades, I could not find anything that dug quite so deep as the Devialet, or anything quite so accurate. Reading the review the comments on bass seam positive "The Enid was deep in bass", "‘The Way Up’ and the second track confusingly named “Part One” had a great top end and bass that was relaxed but authoritative. Similarly, Muse Resistance album and “Uprising” has a deep bass at the start which was clean and clinical, though no less enjoyable.", "This phono-stage gave a musical and defined performance offering a good insight into the top frequencies and with good bass extension." Then we have "Having said that, the bass was full but not as decisive as I would like." Ummm. My take on this is that "lots of bass" is very often inaccurate bass, and conversely some recording can sound like they need more bass when the system is producing it accurately, it comes back to that warmth thing.
I too was interested in the sibilance comment. One thing I have noticed with my Devialet's is that this can vary with the source. Indeed, when trying SOtM's latest firmware recently I wrote this "Of particular note were things like female vocals, in one case moving from a slightly sibilant sound to something far more natural sounding. (actually moving from slightly sibilant to ethereal sounding in one case, can ethereal be described as more natural? It is certainly better to listen to)" Of course, to a degree, the sibilance can be inherent to the recording, but other factors are involved. I note the review used a Krell KPS20i CD. A fine machine, but a little old now, and I recall it used to have a reputation of being a little bright / sibilant, although this is presumably due mainly to it's built-in DAC, rather than digital out, but it is conceivably a factor here.
Taking everything in context I think the review is good, for example, anyone reading it thinking they want a nice warm sounding amp will be put off, anyone thinking they want pure accuracy will read enough positives to investigate further. A lot of us here would be put off an amplifier if the reviewer stated it was on the warm side of neutral, that is the point of a good review, to inform with enough information that the reader can decide. On top of all this, the article is written by a woman! We seem to live in a rarified world where the primary purpose of women is the spend their time in the kitchen, only to comment on the hifi in the next room when the husband has swapped in an expensive cable. "Have you bought a new hifi dear, that sounds amazing?" "No love, it's just my new super spendy cable, I shall immediately post your observations on the internet to annoy the objectivists." So for me, it is good to see that we have been stirred up a little by an article written by a female. Why not?
However, if you take the comments in context, she does say "the warmth I would like to hear" and "Some might, however, find the sound just a little too perfect and clinical, and lacking some depth and warmth." I would say this is about right, some do find Devialet's a little clinical, maybe preferring valve amps and similar to the ruthlessly accurate Devialet, so I think the article gets this about right, considering it is aimed at a general audience.
I do share @Damon 's comments re bass. When I was trying a whole range of amplifiers with the Blades, I could not find anything that dug quite so deep as the Devialet, or anything quite so accurate. Reading the review the comments on bass seam positive "The Enid was deep in bass", "‘The Way Up’ and the second track confusingly named “Part One” had a great top end and bass that was relaxed but authoritative. Similarly, Muse Resistance album and “Uprising” has a deep bass at the start which was clean and clinical, though no less enjoyable.", "This phono-stage gave a musical and defined performance offering a good insight into the top frequencies and with good bass extension." Then we have "Having said that, the bass was full but not as decisive as I would like." Ummm. My take on this is that "lots of bass" is very often inaccurate bass, and conversely some recording can sound like they need more bass when the system is producing it accurately, it comes back to that warmth thing.
I too was interested in the sibilance comment. One thing I have noticed with my Devialet's is that this can vary with the source. Indeed, when trying SOtM's latest firmware recently I wrote this "Of particular note were things like female vocals, in one case moving from a slightly sibilant sound to something far more natural sounding. (actually moving from slightly sibilant to ethereal sounding in one case, can ethereal be described as more natural? It is certainly better to listen to)" Of course, to a degree, the sibilance can be inherent to the recording, but other factors are involved. I note the review used a Krell KPS20i CD. A fine machine, but a little old now, and I recall it used to have a reputation of being a little bright / sibilant, although this is presumably due mainly to it's built-in DAC, rather than digital out, but it is conceivably a factor here.
Taking everything in context I think the review is good, for example, anyone reading it thinking they want a nice warm sounding amp will be put off, anyone thinking they want pure accuracy will read enough positives to investigate further. A lot of us here would be put off an amplifier if the reviewer stated it was on the warm side of neutral, that is the point of a good review, to inform with enough information that the reader can decide. On top of all this, the article is written by a woman! We seem to live in a rarified world where the primary purpose of women is the spend their time in the kitchen, only to comment on the hifi in the next room when the husband has swapped in an expensive cable. "Have you bought a new hifi dear, that sounds amazing?" "No love, it's just my new super spendy cable, I shall immediately post your observations on the internet to annoy the objectivists." So for me, it is good to see that we have been stirred up a little by an article written by a female. Why not?
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
