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250 Pro vs. 250 Upgrade Review
#1
I recently upgraded my 250 (previously upgraded from a D-Premier) to a 250 Pro; in short - very happy with the outcome.

Before I paid for yet another upgrade, I brought my 250 to the Devialet SoHo store in mid-December where I scheduled an A/B demo of my unit compared to a 250 Pro (I brought my own digital music files for the demo). They had B&W speakers there (I think they were the 804's). We did an apples-to-apples setup (same firmware, same SAM configuration, etc.). While their listening space is severely lacking (hard surfaces, noise from the upstairs room, etc; they did tell me that they have plans to turn that space into a serious listening room), there was an immediate and easily discernible difference/improvement in SQ. Always difficult to put into words what you hear, but I’ll try. Vs. the 250, the 250 Pro, sounded warmer with a more “integrated” but still very well defined and forward soundstage; more intimate, more cohesive, less thin. In short, more natural sounding. Not that the 250 or D-Premier was particularly lacking, but the Pro is a definite step up. Based on this, I left my 250 at the store to be processed for the upgrade, which I received back in perfect condition about three weeks later.

What heard in the store was repeated when I hooked it up at home. This was based on listening to a variety of digital files using my Bryston BDP-2 as the source through the XLR connection, and then going out to my Stenheim 2 and REL G2 sub in a 2.1 configuration (no SAM). Still need more listening time to consolidate my thoughts, but I am very happy with this upgrade, which BTW, was a significantly greater step up than the D-Premier to 250 upgrade, in my view.

Unfortunately, I’m still not getting the quality of sound out of my turntable that I’m hoping for. While this has nothing to do with the upgrade (the phono stage did not change), it just didn’t get any better. I have an Acoustic Signature WOW XL turntable with an Ortofon 2M cartridge. Not sure if the Devialet phono stage isn’t up to it or if I need to consider a different cartridge. But I digress.

Lastly, a shout out to Amaury of Devialet who was very helpful setting up the A/B test at the store and the upgrade process.
Devialet 250 Pro, Bryston BDP-2, Acoustic Signature WOW XL with TA1000 Tonearm and Ortofon 2M cartridge, OPPO BDP-83SE, Stenheim Alumine Two, REL G2
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#2
I just did a side by side of the 250 and the 250Pro (I upgraded to 1000Pro, but also retained an Expert 250) and agree with rbsound. The 250Pro was obviously better. In fact, in many ways, the difference was similar to the difference between the 250 and the 800 -- more weight, more separation between instruments, more tonal richness. In fact, at least on first listen, I thought the difference between the 250 and 250Pro was larger than the difference between the 250Pro and the 1000Pro. (With all usual caveats: on my system, etc).
Devialet 1000 Pro Core Infinity, Magico M3, Nordost Frey 2 speaker cable, PS Audio P15 Power Plant, Shunyata Alpha EF AC cable, Mac Mini running ROON.
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#3
(27-Jan-2017, 20:04)rbsound Wrote: Unfortunately, I’m still not getting the quality of sound out of my turntable that I’m hoping for. While this has nothing to do with the upgrade (the phono stage did not change), it just didn’t get any better. I have an Acoustic Signature WOW XL turntable with an Ortofon 2M cartridge. Not sure if the Devialet phono stage isn’t up to it or if I need to consider a different cartridge. But I digress.

Hi rbsound. I realize I am replying to an old post here, but did you find a way to improve the sound for vinyl? Your 2M cartridge is moving magnet and should see a load of 47kOhms or more. I believe the input impedance of Devialet's phono stage is max 14kOhms. A better match would be a high output moving coil for MM gain or a low output MC with the phono input set for higher gain. A step up transformer +low output MC +MM gain is an alternative (like f1eng is using), but a SUT is also generally designed for 47kOhm load so care should be taken here.
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Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#4
(14-Oct-2017, 10:33)ogs Wrote:
(27-Jan-2017, 20:04)rbsound Wrote: Unfortunately, I’m still not getting the quality of sound out of my turntable that I’m hoping for. While this has nothing to do with the upgrade (the phono stage did not change), it just didn’t get any better. I have an Acoustic Signature WOW XL turntable with an Ortofon 2M cartridge. Not sure if the Devialet phono stage isn’t up to it or if I need to consider a different cartridge. But I digress.

Hi rbsound. I realize I am replying to an old post here, but did you find a way to improve the sound for vinyl? Your 2M cartridge is moving magnet and should see a load of 47kOhms or more. I believe the input impedance of Devialet's phono stage is max 14kOhms. A better match would be a high output moving coil for MM gain or a low output MC with the phono input set for higher gain. A step up transformer +low output MC +MM gain is an alternative (like f1eng is using), but a SUT is also generally designed for 47kOhm load so care should be taken here.


Where did you get the info that the MM input is only 14k?

Regarding resistance and capacitance, the tooltip within the Configurator says "useless and disabled for MM cartridges", so one can't assume the max settings available within the UI apply to MM.
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#5
From JA's measurements of the D-Premier phono input in Stereophile. To my knowledge the phono input has not been changed by Devialet so I assume this is still the spec unfortunately.
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Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#6
(21-Oct-2017, 09:08)ogs Wrote: From JA's measurements of the D-Premier phono input in Stereophile. To my knowledge the phono input has not been changed by Devialet so I assume this is still the spec unfortunately.

Thanks, just read the article, hurm, not so good.

But that was using the old Configurator method. Is it different using RAM, I wonder?
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#7
Actually I don't know. I did test vinyl some years ago (low output MC), but am not using it today.
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Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#8
I had very good results with several deferent MC cartridges with D-Premier, 250 & 800
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#9
(21-Oct-2017, 21:45)no32 Wrote: I had very good results with several deferent MC cartridges with D-Premier, 250 & 800

Good results meaning....no noise on the input?
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#10
Both SQ and noise.
Using Linn Kandid and shelter 90X
I never had noise on the input.
It’s quieter than linn klimex and kairn ml 32 and 25s
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