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D Premier versus 130 Expert Pro - buying NEW in 2018, what would you pick?
#11
Well my D Premiers came in today and I've got them configured and set up, finally! I've literally listened to 7 songs so far (Amy Winehouse's "Valerie" and "Body and Soul" covers from Hidden Treasures CD, side 2 of Nina Simone's Pastel Blues 1st American pressing mono in VG condition, and now spinning side 1 of Charles Bradley's Changes album).

I bought these units from Werner Musica in Spain, shipped to me in Canada. I paid by bank transfer which was gut wrenching - a store I've never been to being wired a huge chunk of money and communicating with me via Google Translate was a bit nerve wracking to say the least, but it worked out! Lluis from the store provided fantastic customer service despite the language limitations.

Super preliminary thoughts:

1. Initially I thought these were overly bright and probably fatiguing compared to my prior Myriad MP100 and MA240 amplification steps, however this was only experienced on the digital source. Vinyl didn't have the same effect. I wonder if this is really a difference in switching from line-level to digital output from my CD transport (or maybe just that particular CD/recording, as I've listened only very briefly!).

2. The configurator is both extremely easy and tricky at the same time. I meticulously built up my configuration for the dual-mono D Prems, loaded it onto SD cards, only to be repeatedly receive an error message "ILLEGAL CONFIG". Finally I thought to check the Firmware as I may be configuring features not activated - and sure enough my units were running firmware 4.something. In fact one of my units has a serial number under 120 so these are both early units and it seems that the original owner wasn't a believer in updating. After a firmware update, the config files worked fine. There are almost too many options in the configurator - will have to examine this further when I have time!

3. My kingdom for a secondary screen! I want to try changing RIAA equalizations, turning the subsonic filter on/off, and generally playing... but I can't see the main units' screens from my seat. Boy how I wish they'd built a secondary screen into the remote control face.

4. Phono stage is phenomenal, at least as far as background noise goes. My outgoing phono stage is a Clearaudio Basic Plus (fed from a modified Denon DL103 with ruby cantilever and eliptical stylus) - at $1000, no slouch. There's no real comparison. This Nina Simone record from 53 years ago could almost be mistaken for a new recording, insofar as background noise goes.

5. HDMI input will be hard to give up when I eventually upgrade these guys in a few years.

6. I suppose the D Prems are missing one feature of later Expert models - I cannot seem to configure these units to let me use the slave amp inputs. Anyone running dual mono D Premiers able to do this? I do have a trigger cable and I'm linking the units SPDIF to SPDIF. I think that I have enough inputs for my phono, AV receiver pass-through, and either CD in or sub-out. Would have liked to use the slave inputs as well, as my current CD transport has only SPDIF output and not optical and I'd also like to add a computer as a source.

As is always the case, these amps arrived 1 day before a planned trip so I won't be able to spend much time listening in detail until next week. So far, very happy with the upgrade.
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