250 Expert to 250 Expert Pro – Is It Worth It?

[Leigh Hibbins]

I have a 250 Expert (upgraded from a D-Premier in 2014) which has developed a fault requiring it to be shipped back to France (from Australia) for repair – free of cost. Great service from Devialet!

Instead of the repair I have the option of upgrading the 250 to a 250 Pro at a cost of AU$6,780.

Previously I have been most pleased with the sound of my system, especially since I obtained a dCS Network Bridge for streaming from my NAS and for streaming Tidal. The dCS NB is connected to the 250 via Audioquest AES/EBU. In addition, renovations to our house to improve thermal performance (under floor insulation, 120 mm thick external wood fibre insulation, tightly closing triple-glazed windows and doors) have unexpectedly improved sound quality markedly – proof that the room makes a big difference! If I didn't have to ship the 250 back to France for repair I would probably not consider the upgrade from the 250 to a 250 Pro... but now I'm wondering. I know the Pro has additional connection options and is Roon ready but I'm not sure these would be any better then my dCS Network Bridge via AES.

Is upgrading to the 250 Pro worth it in respect of sound quality?

Past posts on this site have suggested sound quality is improved but I'm wondering just by how much?

[Damon]

'How much?' is a really hard question to answer. For me, the 120 Expert to 220 Pro CI upgrade was absolutely worth the upgrade cost. That was in 2016 (much to my surprise, I'm getting old).

But I will say that the sound character changed a great deal, and for me, that was a quality improvement. The changes in character are to me, improvements in bass definition and tone, separation and clarity of sounds, which gave even more ease to the music. I'll add again that some owners felt the upgrade diminished the midrange and vocal presence. And that is true if you consider that the other ends of the frequency range have become clearer and more distinct. So, the vocals are now are heard against a much better overall range. The Expert series, in contrast, may have had vocals which were not set against such outstanding overall clarity.

I, and another 440 owner here, received our ProCI upgrades at about the same time, and we both knew within minutes that the change was better and more than we expected.

I'm sure you have spent time on old posts about the upgrade, but check in around the fall of 2016 to see the bulk of the ProCI comments.

[mdconnelly]

When I did the upgrade to the Pro CI, I not only loved the sound of my Expert but also had high hopes for what Devialet still had in store for the Pro CI series.  And that's how I rationalized the cost.  At this point, the Expert Pro CI series is likely a legacy product and therefore not likely to receive additional updates other than perhaps the occasional bug resolution.  So the justification to upgrade to it must be solely based on the improvement in sound quality (and the support of Roon RAAT if you're a Roon user).  As @Damon indicated, I also experienced what I considered a very nice improvement. 

But hey, that was quite a few years ago and technology marches on.  If it were me, I'd likely be looking hard at the competition these days to see what else might be available at the price point.  Still, if you love the Devialet sound, I think you'd be quite pleased with the upgrade.

[Leigh Hibbins]

Thank you kindly mdconnelly and Damon for your replies. I will give the matter further consideration, however, at the present moment I'm more likely to remain conservative and opt simply for the repair rather than the upgrade.

[markush]

I would suggest if you write to support about repair or upgrade they should outline the future path you can base your decision on. There was no firmware update for nearly 2 years now - so bugs remain, promised features missing and as mentioned the CI module was announced to have a great development which so far seamed to be abandoned.

But at least there is some hope with the AIR driver update which finally happened - so there might be something happening.
You definitely deserve a concrete answer for your decision making.

[Elztalbiker]

Stay at what you have. I expect no future anymore for Expert Pro.


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[ogs]

@Leigh Hibbins
Since you already own a dCS NB and use the AES/EBU input of your 250 I doubt you'll get much sound improvement from the CI board. The CI board is very good if you use RAAT or AIR or even USB, but AES/EBU does not sound better with the CI. A little different maybe, but not better in my view.
If you need the 'Sweet room' eq or other features only available on the CI you may go for it, but only for sound quality it's not worth it in your setting.

[gray]

Thank you kindly mdconnelly and Damon for your replies. I will give the matter further consideration, however, at the present moment I'm more likely to remain conservative and opt simply for the repair rather than the upgrade.

A free repair? For an out of warranty item.
That is very generous of Devialet and I find that both surprising and commendable.
Congratulations to Devialet for standing behind you. I'm impressed.
The 250 Expert is already superb.
I'd take that offer and I hope you get many more years of reliable service from it.