Devialet 250 vs 400 Monoblocks

[MusicFirst]

I am wondering if anyone has compared the 250 to the 400 monoblocks.  Here in Canada they are the same price and I am torn between buying a 250 with an eye on upgrading to Devialet 800s or sticking with a pair of 400s right off the bat.

Kerry

[Dr Tone]

Why not just go with the 200 and upgrade to the 400 if you need it. Or do you need 800 watts down the road?

[MusicFirst]

I'm just not sure if 400 watts will go the trick.

[Dr Tone]

How efficient are your speakers? Are they particularly hard to drive?

[amabrok]

Dual mono is not just about power. D400 or D800 offer bigger and wider sound stage and they also improve on all other aspects of the amp in terms of THD , S/N ratio , etc...

[MusicFirst]

I don't understand why, If the D250 costs the same as the D400s, why the 400s sound that much better than the 250.

Kerry

[IanG-UK]

I don't understand why, If the D250 costs the same as the D400s, why the 400s sound that much better than the 250.

Kerry

Because the D250's price was effectively fixed in the D-Premier era.

I suspect the 200 (hence the 400) benefits from not having to amortise investment in the way the D-Premier had to, when volumes were much smaller.

And Devialet would get criticised for cutting the 250 price which would cut the D-Premier secondhand price.

[Confused]

I did speak to one of the Devialet designers at a dealer event in the UK, he claimed that the 400 sounds better than the 250, a case of distortion levels being halved with the dual mono set up. Depending on speaker demands, a 250 can sound better than a 200, I know this from past demo's. Matching the amp and speakers is always key to good hi fi, but in simple terms, the order of merit for sound quality is 800, 400, 250, 200 and so on. It should be remembered that the 250 / D-Premier is inherently a superior beast to the 200, with the very expensive case providing very rapid transient cooling of components, allowing the power supply to work the electronics harder. The 250's case is machined from solid aluminium and makes a very real difference to the amplifiers performance, in particular with difficult loads, it is not just there to look nice. Also, the 250's case is expensive to produce, which explains some of the price difference, although the point made by IanG above may also be a factor. One way of looking at this is that the 250 with it's fancy case, is essentially how the Devialet amplifier was originally designed from the D-Premier days, with the case being an inherent part of the design with respect to component cooling. The D200 is a derivative of this, giving much of the performance for a much lower price. Indeed, with the right speakers, speakers that do not present difficult loads, the D200 will give all of the performance of the D250.

At the end of the day, is is a case of correctly matching speakers and amplifiers. If you don't need the D800 capabilities, then go direct to the D400. If you think you do need the full fat D800, then the D250 would make a fine stepping stone.

[PhilP]

Its also worth bearing in mind that the 250 appears to lose significantly more in terms of depreciation (both in $ and % terms) than the 200 or 120.

This does, of course, mean that you can pick up used examples at a reasonable price

[f1eng]

I believe the difference between the 250 and 200 is the cost of the casing.
The new units have a very much simplified and cheaper to manufacture case. The more complex case has better heat sinking, so the power output, and I presume ability for sustained high power running, is better, everything else is the same, AFAIK.