Hifi+ 140 Pro review

[Antoine]

Hmm, just started reading the review and I see that the reviewer sums up the changes made by the ‘Pro’ upgrade and ‘Core Infinity’ board upgrade all under the same moniker of ‘Core Infinity’ while for me this is just the ‘streamer board (which also holds other things like ASRC’s and DSP logic). Just making this distinction because in my previous post I really meant the fitting of the CI board. The Pro upgrade was done one or two years earlier. I did not notice the brightness issue back then, rather the opposite if I remember well.

[Sailor4W]

Hmm, just started reading the review and I see that the reviewer sums up the changes made by the ‘Pro’ upgrade and ‘Core Infinity’ board upgrade all under the same moniker of ‘Core Infinity’ while for me this is just the ‘streamer board (which also holds other things like ASRC’s and DSP logic). Just making this distinction because in my previous post I really meant the fitting of the CI board. The Pro upgrade was done one or two years earlier. I did not notice the brightness issue back then, rather the opposite if I remember well.

Good point, that struck me too! I also thought the CI board would be for streaming. But the reviewer makes the point that the CI board digitizes the amp’s voltage with 10 bits, rather than 8 bits in previous versions, that translates to less distortion. That made me think if there‘s more to the CI board than just the streaming issue?

Maybe someone is savvier than me?

[Sailor4W]

Just a thought; If I’m not mistaken this is the second review of the new Pro CI platform that mentions this brightness. It is something that I also noticed back in December after I received my 250 Pro back with the CI upgrade. I actually blamed it on being new and later my SR-7 PSU (feeding some devices in my system) since that had developed a defect. I also wasn’t sure it wasn’t there before the upgrade and I had not seen reports of others mentioning this.

I hear this brightness/glare/upper mids resonances in certain recordings (but too many to blame it on the recordings themselves) mainly in womens voices.

I’ll search the forum again later for similar reports and will also read the reviews, had not done that yet.

Would nice if you could pull out this review!

[Antoine]

Hmm, just started reading the review and I see that the reviewer sums up the changes made by the ‘Pro’ upgrade and ‘Core Infinity’ board upgrade all under the same moniker of ‘Core Infinity’ while for me this is just the ‘streamer board (which also holds other things like ASRC’s and DSP logic). Just making this distinction because in my previous post I really meant the fitting of the CI board. The Pro upgrade was done one or two years earlier. I did not notice the brightness issue back then, rather the opposite if I remember well.

Good point, that struck me too! I also thought the CI board would be for streaming. But the reviewer makes the point that the CI board digitizes the amp’s voltage with 10 bits, rather than 8 bits in previous versions, that translates to less distortion. That made me think if there‘s more to the CI board than just the streaming issue?

Maybe someone is savvier than me?

Well I mentioned it but only because I did not feel or experience the brightness after the Pro upgrade. Of course nowadays one can only buy a ‘Pro CI’ model and I suspects (close to all) all Pro’s are now also outfitted with the CI module so I don’t blame Alan Sircom.

The 8 to 10 bit class A processing upgrade BTW is done in the ADH processing core/CPU and that’s on the mainboard. I quickly searched for the press release but could just find some Export Pro reviews/news articles (from 2016) that mention it.

[Sailor4W]

Hmm, just started reading the review and I see that the reviewer sums up the changes made by the ‘Pro’ upgrade and ‘Core Infinity’ board upgrade all under the same moniker of ‘Core Infinity’ while for me this is just the ‘streamer board (which also holds other things like ASRC’s and DSP logic). Just making this distinction because in my previous post I really meant the fitting of the CI board. The Pro upgrade was done one or two years earlier. I did not notice the brightness issue back then, rather the opposite if I remember well.

Good point, that struck me too! I also thought the CI board would be for streaming. But the reviewer makes the point that the CI board digitizes the amp’s voltage with 10 bits, rather than 8 bits in previous versions, that translates to less distortion. That made me think if there‘s more to the CI board than just the streaming issue?

Maybe someone is savvier than me?

Well I mentioned it but only because I did not feel or experience the brightness after the Pro upgrade. Of course nowadays one can only buy a ‘Pro CI’ model and I suspects (close to all) all Pro’s are now also outfitted with the CI module so I don’t blame Alan Sircom.

The 8 to 10 bit class A processing upgrade BTW is done in the ADH processing core/CPU and that’s on the mainboard. I quickly searched for the press release but could just find some Export Pro reviews/news articles (from 2016) that mention it.

Good to know you didn’t perceive sound brightness after upgrading to the Pro. Nevertheless, I see if the dealer can provide me with a 140 Pro loaner. The upgrade is about 4500 Euros, so Iwant to make sure it‘s worth the money.

[Antoine]

Would nice if you could pull out this review!

Did you mean the other of the two reviews I mentioned? That’s linked to here, it’s a review about the 220 Pro: https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Hifi-Pig-220-Pro-Review

Good to know you didn’t perceive sound brightness after upgrading to the Pro. Nevertheless, I see if the dealer can provide me with a 140 Pro loaner. The upgrade is about 4500 Euros, so Iwant to make sure it‘s worth the money.

Oh my, so Devialet did make the upgrade more expensive after the initial offer. Ouch, 4500 is a lot! I think for that kind if money a home audition is indeed wise!

(PS: I’m still not sure if it is the CI upgrade that caused the brightness in my system so I would not consider this in your deliberations.)

[Damon]

@Sailor4W
There are some threads, now a few years old, in which many posted their impressions of the Pro and CI upgrades. I'm not able to recall clearly what my own impressions were for the two separate upgrades, but I did have a time, after the Pro work, I think, where I had a 'brightness' issue. I traced it to having power cables crossing over coiled speaker cables. A gentle but important improvement came from getting the wire bits cleaned up and organized. I think that sometime in that upgrade era I also changed speaker cables, and that helped.

Brightness may be something to be aware of with these amps, as the highs are certainly not rolled off. But AS puts it in the review, it is something that needs to be considered as part of the normal matching of components, including amps, speakers, cables, sources, power quality. I do believe that the Pro and CI amps are much more revealing of all the associated parts of the system as well as the wide variation in recording quality.

[Pim]

@Pim ,

How far do you have the C1s from the wall behind them?

Prior to getting my Sopras, I used a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.3SEs for close to 16 years and they were the speakers I was using when I got my Devialet. Dynaudio recommended placing my 1.3SEs around a metre to a metre and a half from the wall behind them. When I originally bought them I was living in a house with a relatively small room and couldn't get them that far out from the wall but when I shifted to my current house I could get them out that far and actually ended up with them a fraction under 2 metres from the wall behind them. I expected when I pulled them out from the wall in the new room that I would loose bass but actually I lost very little. What I got was a lot sweeter top end which lost a bit of brightness and no longer sounded "in your face". When I replaced the amp I was using with my Devialet a couple of years ago I got more detail because the Devialet was a brighter amp than my previous amp but even so, once it had "burned in" I found I was getting more detail but not any return to the "in your face" feeling.

I'd suggest trying to pull your C1s out a bit further forward into the room than you currently have them. I think you can eliminate a lot of the "in your face" feeling by getting the speakers a bit further out into the room than where people normally seem to think of placing them.

David, they're back in the living room where I have a completely different set of acoustic issues to deal with but that's for a different thread.

[Pim]

Here:

https://www.audiostream.com/content/rob-...odcast-no6

is an interview with Rob Darling from Roon. He talks a lot about his career as a recording engineer. Just over half way into the chat, he explains how even to this day, lots of producers still don't know how to get the best out of digital because they don't understand how different it is from analog tape. Have a listen from (as I said) just over half way where he talks about an album that was recorded in analog but had only one digital track on it and how the recording process had to change for that particular track only.

The 'in your face-ness' I'm talking about when I had my speakers set up in my bedroom is very similar to how Rob explains the mistakes made with digital recording. With this set up I get everything there is on the recording, good AND bad. Initially it's really great to hear things in the recording you had never heard before but after a while it get tiring. It's not the Devialet's fault for being so revealing but it is an issue you need to be aware of when purchasing a D (or speakers)

[Sailor4W]

Here:

https://www.audiostream.com/content/rob-...odcast-no6

is an interview with Rob Darling from Roon. He talks a lot about his career as a recording engineer. Just over half way into the chat, he explains how even to this day, lots of producers still don't know how to get the best out of digital because they don't understand how different it is from analog tape. Have a listen from (as I said) just over half way where he talks about an album that was recorded in analog but had only one digital track on it and how the recording process had to change for that particular track only.

The 'in your face-ness' I'm talking about when I had my speakers set up in my bedroom is very similar to how Rob explains the mistakes made with digital recording. With this set up I get everything there is on the recording, good AND bad. Initially it's really great to hear things in the recording you had never heard before but after a while it get tiring. It's not the Devialet's fault for being so revealing but it is an issue you need to be aware of when purchasing a D (or speakers)

Haven‘t listened to Rob Darling‘s interview, will do that. Thanks for the link!

Sometimes I do feel tempted to put together a completely analog system, starting from a turntable to pre-/ power amp. And forget about all the discussion regarding DACs, filters, sample rate conversion, etc. But analog has its own problems, and re-building my audio library with vinyl just wouldn‘t be possible. There‘s no turning backwards from digital?