Astra reviews

[ada]

Seems like Devialet started to pay for some people to come here and talk about how a downgraded spec Astra on any aspect being AMAZING Fun to see the desperateness.

[blair.athol]

You are so right, I got the same impression!

[spater]

New Astra review, via Stereonet:

https://stereonet.com/reviews/devialet-a...ier-review

It read a bit gushing to me, not really a critique.

The Astra is phenomenal. Try listening to one and dont watch and read reviews.

Are you Devialet PR in disguise?!

[Axel]

Struth chaps! Steady as yer go! This seems to have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest!
I’d like to have a listen to an Astra and make my own mind up. We all have different opinions to which we are entitled, but it doesn’t do anyone any favours to start slinging one line comments. I’d like to hear anyone’s input as to the sound of the Astra, but it’s all subjective I guess, until I’ve made up my own mind.

[Factory Films]

Seems like Devialet started to pay for some people to come here and talk about how a downgraded spec Astra on any aspect being AMAZING Fun to see the desperateness.

I can assure I am not paid and do not work for Devialet. In fact, I bought an Astra while I was actually shopping for an Accuphase E-4000 or a Luxma 590 AXII MK 2.    I played those for hours in a store, got up to leave and say the Gold Leaf Astra Pro.  I had only heard about it, it isnt released in the US until August 4th.  They hooked it up to the same exact speakers I have a home, Fyne 702SP's.  I immediately realized that this was not from this earth.  It was not an old 75-year-old tech dressed up in a new box.  I knew I needed this; I could also solve three issues: Phono, Streamer, and unfatiguing clarity.  I bought it.   When I came on here and saw everyone trying to DOG IT as a bad amp, I felt it was completely unfair to the product.  It seems like everyone wants to judge it based on their White Papers rather than what their ears are telling them.   I have a VERY clear understanding of how this sounds vs. an Accuphase, several Luxmans, Yamaha S-3200s, Marantz Model 10 and 30.   IT IS VERY SPECIAL and I want to hear from people who have benched this thing for 300hrs, not from write ups.

[moreno1973]

Matthieu Pernot confirmed at the Oxford Audio Consultants Astra launch event last November (when he was still at Devialet) that the ADH core in the Astra is based on the TI PCM1792, as it is still the best-performing part for that application.

1792 is one of the ,,most musical and best sounding" Ti PCM's used in many high-end CD players and standalone DACs (ARC CD8 & ARCD CD9)

[ada]

Seems like Devialet started to pay for some people to come here and talk about how a downgraded spec Astra on any aspect being AMAZING Fun to see the desperateness.

I can assure I am not paid and do not work for Devialet. In fact, I bought an Astra while I was actually shopping for an Accuphase E-4000 or a Luxma 590 AXII MK 2.    I played those for hours in a store, got up to leave and say the Gold Leaf Astra Pro.  I had only heard about it, it isnt released in the US until August 4th.  They hooked it up to the same exact speakers I have a home, Fyne 702SP's.  I immediately realized that this was not from this earth.  It was not an old 75-year-old tech dressed up in a new box.  I knew I needed this; I could also solve three issues: Phono, Streamer, and unfatiguing clarity.  I bought it.   When I came on here and saw everyone trying to DOG IT as a bad amp, I felt it was completely unfair to the product.  It seems like everyone wants to judge it based on their White Papers rather than what their ears are telling them.   I have a VERY clear understanding of how this sounds vs. an Accuphase, several Luxmans, Yamaha S-3200s, Marantz Model 10 and 30.   IT IS VERY SPECIAL and I want to hear from people who have benched this thing for 300hrs, not from write ups.

Have you ever listened an Expert Pro? There are a lot of things that were trimmed down from Expert to Astra like ports (no AES/EBU), AIR and recently we discovered internally Astra operates at 24/96 while Expert is 24/192 etc. What we all say here is, the price is doubled, the tech is from 2017 (there is no single improvement on the tech pieces from Expert to Astra, SAM is the same, MAT is downgraded, Bitrate is downgraded, DAC is the same etc etc.) with cuts. That's it.

Expert 440 Pro are much more capable amps then a dual setup Astra and they are half priced in retail and today they are actually almost 25% of the Astra's price.

We are all trying to understand Devialet as we weren't able to achieve it for last 5 years I assume. Congrats on your purchase and we are all happy to see that you made a great investment, Experts are exceptional amps, carrying the 90% of the DNA we are all sure that Astra's are exceptional too. Don't feel bad about them but also understand others, we are trying to find reasons to upgrade but we weren't even able to see Astra as an upgrade over Experts and Devialet is not helping us to do so.

[douglas]

The fact that AES-EBU is omitted is already a deal breaking for me.

[ray1234]

The fact that AES-EBU is omitted is already a deal breaking for me.

X2 for me..... especially considering that with AES input, there is an option to ground lifting and that improved tremendously the soundstage of the Devialet. I have just a D400, but without the ability to do ground lifting for both the RCA-AES connection between the two D200 and the ground lifting for AES input on source, I doubt if the Astra really sounds better than the old D400.

Out of all the reviews I have read so far, none of those have ever compared Expert Pro series to Astra, I wonder if that is something Devialet suppresses reviewers to mention.

Another question I always have in mind is how the old D400 compares to the CI 440. I never connect the network of the D400 as I find that connection via a DDC and an external clock to the DDC fed via AES to the D400 sounds better than D400's network. I know for sure if one uses the network the 440 sounds better than 400. However, if I just use the AES input, is the CI really helping that much?

[markush]

Seems like Devialet started to pay for some people to come here and talk about how a downgraded spec Astra on any aspect being AMAZING Fun to see the desperateness.

I have a VERY clear understanding of how this sounds vs. an Accuphase, several Luxmans, Yamaha S-3200s, Marantz Model 10 and 30.   IT IS VERY SPECIAL and I want to hear from people who have benched this thing for 300hrs, not from write ups.

So how does it compare to Accuphase 5000 and Marantz Model as well as a Devialet Expert 440 Pro?