Phase problems?

[Harry O]

Many thanks to all the advice from members. I did try out the various very logical suggestions but unfortunately could not correct the problem permanently, so I ended up sending the Master amplifier back to Deviate. Customer services had asked me to go through a series of tests to determine if a fault lay in one or both amplifiers. The amplifier was returned to me after around three weeks and I was advised that a partially broken class D board had been repaired. However when I set up the system again, the same problem was clearly still there!

While I was thinking what to do next and with Christmas in full swing, I kept using the D440 and was still able to correct the problem by switching on and off a few times. I must say that when it is correctly set up, the D440 sounds superb. Strangely over the past week the problem has become less apparent. Some mornings I have switched on and the amp works perfectly straight away. This morning I only had to switch on and off once. This is progress I suppose.

I am inclined to persist with this for a few more weeks and see if the problem completely goes.

Communication with customer services has been very good and the collection and return of the amplifier was straightforward.

[markush]

There is a user here in the forum able to Analyse, edit and create cfg files. I think this would be very helpful as I guess this is not hardware based but rather a software / configurator topic.

[audio_engr]

Since you have a Dual-Mono, I would strongly recommend that you setup each monoblock ... i.e. left channel amp as Master-Left and right channel amp as Master-Right. The configurator otherwise is known to mess things up. I've been following this concept for the last few years (as helped very kindly by fellow members) and it's rock solid without any issues. If you look back on this thread, you'll notice that I earlier advised the Master Left + Master Right setup.
Have fun with your 440-Pro.

[markush]

Just out of curiosity: what is different in the configurator when configuring Master & Slave vs master L and Master R ?

[daniel.avasilichioaei]

Can you put here screenshots of the main screen of the configurator and the settings of the speakers from each amplifier? In addition, put the two configuration files that you use.

[actx76092]

Hello to all. I have not posted on this site for a few years but have certainly maintained an interest in the various discussions. I have actually only just upgraded my D400 to D440 pro and am very pleased with what I feel is an improvement to some important aspects of sound quality. Since many Devialet owners will have upgraded some time ago and will have already formed their own opinions about this, I won't go on!

However I have a problem with my D440 set up which I could do with some help resolving. Sometimes when I switch the amp on from standby or off, the sound seems to be strongly biased to the right hand speaker (powered by the companion amp). There is a loss of volume from the left hand speaker and the imaging is very poor. It sounds out of phase but how could this happen? The effect is temporarily cured by switching off again and restarting.

If anyone has had a similar experience it would be great to hear about a permanent fix!

Wow! Just got my upgraded D440 back from France last week and had exactly the same problem. Right hand speaker was 30% louder after messing around I realized that I had the speaker wires crossed. I corrected it and problem went away immediately.

[Harry O]

Just a quick update. After trying all suggestions kindly posted here, which were unfortunately to no avail, I sent the D220 which I believed to be the problem back to France. Devialet kept the amp for a week before “repairing” it and returning it. Unfortunately and to my great disappointment the problem proved not to have been resolved and the original problem persisted.
I then left matters alone for a couple of months and used various other amplifiers on my main system. At the end of this I thought I really had to get Devialet to look a bit harder at the problem and find a solution, otherwise I would be left with an expensive amplifier which only worked properly when it felt like it! To their credit, Devialet agreed to collect the D220 again. This time they kept it for 2 weeks, possibly because I had taken a lot more trouble to describe the nature of the problem in as much detail as possible. For example they would need to test several times even if the amp was ok on first switch on because the problem was random and might only occur on the third or fourth switch on.
I have had it back for a few days now and the D440 set up seems to work properly all the time. Hurray! I have asked for a repair report so that I will know exactly what the problem was and how it was corrected. If I get this I will post the findings. In the meantime I am enjoying the D440 immensely and realising how much I missed it!

[Harry O]

I didn’t get much of a report on the repair. Apparently the motherboard was replaced. Anyway the D440 now works as it should and is sounding excellent!

One thing I asked for during all this was for a basic dual mono configuration to be emailed to me so that I could see if there was a problem with my downloaded attempts.I am now using the one Devialet sent me in preference to the SAM configurations I generated for my speakers: Olympica 11 and KEF LS50, which sound really poor in comparison.

I’ve no idea why. Such are the mysteries of the configurator!