What delights me about my Devialet

[Confused]

I thought the very popular "Most irritating issue as of now" thread could do with a little balance.  So hear we have a thread where we can show a little love.

I purchased my D240 back in 2013.  (Following which it has become a 250 then an 800)  I chose the Devialet purely because it offered the best sound quality I could find partnered with my chosen speakers, I auditioned many alternatives, some at higher price points, but ultimately picked the Devialet because it sounded the best.  At the time I had no interest whatsoever in it's looks, the "one box solution" aspects (in fact this put me off, I liked the idea of being able to upgrade DAC's later etc), the offer of future upgrades, shiny chrome or anything else. (Although I must admit the remote was love at first sight) The choice was made on sound quality, within reasonable budget limits, alone. 

Then came the power upgrade, OK, this was not that exciting, going from 240 to 250 wpc, but in no way a bad thing.  Next was SAM.  Now this was a big upgrade for me, not that my system was lacking in bass, but SAM gave improved bass accuracy and even managed to improve the mids and stereo imaging, which was a big supprise and a delight.  I quickly became a SAM fan.  This makes me think, if I chose the Devialet on SQ in the first place, and then get SQ upgrades, then what a fine choice this little amp is proving to be. 

Come 2015, completely out of the blue, Devialet deliver RAM.  For me, someone with a significant amount of old vinyl, RAM is an absolute gift!  We all love the odd upgrade, and if I had a different amp, I could see myself spending a substantial amount of cash on an external phono stage that would allow me to select the phono equalisation curve for specific records.  With Deialet, it arrives out of the blue and for free, the joy!  Not only that, but rather than messing around with endless configuration swaps, I can now experiment quickly, easily and live, with cartridge loadings, gain and other settings.  Extraordinarily good!

Devialet AIR, which I must admit has taken a little work to get it stable with my PC, is in itself a remarkable achievement, the sound quality this offers, together with all the flexibility of streaming from a PC is utterly remarkable.

Going back to my original point regarding sound quality, overall the various firmware updates have steadily improved the sound quality, considering the high level of the starting point, I can barely believe this is possible.  I could go on ....

On top of all this, is the fun factor.  I sometimes think what life may have been with a pair of Chord mono blocks or similar.  How utterly dull!  None of the fun of the upgrades, no comparing firmware, no redoing speaker placement due to SAM, no doing this again because SAM 2 is different,  none of the delight of getting the configurator to work, nothing!

Plus, how dull would the Chord Electronics forum be?  Every post would be along the lines of "I turned on my amplifier and it just worked", or "there have never been any upgrades and it still sounds and works exactly the same as it did last month, last year, for ever in fact".  What fun is that, you just wouldn't bother would you?  Which means neither would you get to know all the lovely, knowledgeable and sometimes slightly bonkers folk on here.

So that is my I love Devialet post.  What's the betting this thread never catches the post count in the "most irritating" thread though?  (about 2/17 I reckon, if anyone wants a bet)

[thumb5]

Good man! Proper post to follow...

[Damon]

Bravo For Balance!

I have only a D120, which I purchased in February this year. I first heard the Devialet in Sept of 2014, and was immediately struck with the clarity of the sound, the complete presentation of notes, with the micro dynamics and the expression of subtle tonal changes. It took me six months to work up the nerve, and funds, to make the purchase. I have not regretted it for one moment.

I was using a Naim UnitiQute (an all-in-one, sim. to the Dev in general utility) and I was on the path of upgrading to a Naim SuperUniti. After hearing the Devialet, I simply could not continue with the Naim, as much as I had loved, and stoutly defended it for the past 10 years.

I have done nothing to my Devialet except upgrade the firmware to 7.1.1 the day I brought it home, and try a few 'inappropriate' SAM profiles in the following weeks. I am delighted with the sound, and I stream 16/44 at best most of the time. It still sounds incredible.

Just to cross-pollinate from the 'irritations' thread (the companion thread, if you will) I think the remote is a gem. No other remote I've ever seen had a display (but the unit always did) and many other remotes had so many single purpose buttons it took high powered reading glasses to see the text, and 10 minutes of fussing to figure out what the proper sequence of button pushes needed to be to make something happen. I can find no fault with the Dev. remote, except that its design invites speculation and desire about things that no other remote does anyway.

The firmware updates via SD card is totally reasonable. I'll direct everyone here who doesn't like the SD card system to visit the Naim forum. Spend some quality time (and it will run into hours) perusing the multiple threads about buying special cables, sometimes having to track down a windows PC, then download the firmware update, the instructions, the special drivers to get the PC to talk to the Naim.... on and on. Then, read the 'Naim bricked' reports. Or the 'upgrade failed, how do I recover control of my unit' threads. Or the very numerous threads on connectivity problems. And there was no going back to earlier versions if the sound quality degraded, some feature was disabled (or enabled), or the connectivity was impaired.The Devialet is brilliant.

Dev. AIR clearly has some functionality that needs improving, but for me, the absence of UPnP is a benefit beyond belief. For three years, we always started up the Qute, and wondered if it would connect. I've never had a single connection issue with the Devialet.

I didn't buy the Devialet for the chrome finish, or on any understanding of the technology, or as a 'lifestyle' product; only for the sound it makes. I am in the 'turned it on, and it worked' camp. It does that every day, for my entire family. And delivers sound that still captivates and surprises me. I could use any number of speakers and enjoy the music. Sometimes I still swap speakers for fun. But the Devialet stays. 

I spend my time on the 'What Album Are You Listening To Tonight' thread, rather than the 'how do I make it go' categories. Beautiful design, beautiful sound, fuss free listening. 

Pinot Noir all around!

[MusicLover]

Good man!  Proper post to follow...

Love the idea, +1 more here! Bet you are now really enjoying those spectacular Blades with the new profile, eh? Last (also first) time I heard them was at Devialet HQ in Paris late last year, driven by "just" a D400, and I will never forget the bass definition at the start of "Hotel California" (a live version). Just blew me off my seat! 

[Manoet]

Its the size... and all-in-one integration! The less than 2" path from DAC to binding posts is wonderful. The remote gets honorable mention as the best I've ever seen!

[NickB]

The only reason I see this thread never being able to achieve a similar post-count to its evil twin doppelgänger counter-post is easy. The initial post only requires people react. This one requires them to 'think' before reacting! That in and of itself is a thread-killer!

For me I'm here but for one reason... size and component-count or lack thereof. The ability to clear a rack full of equipment is good... to mount on the wall even better. I'm not even crazy about the pizza box geometry. I'd do just as well if they took that .2 cu ft mass and turned it into a 7" square Borg Attack Cube and used exo-skeletal electronics. SQ is important to me but Devialet certainly has no monopoly on that at current pricing. My current 2nd system consisting of W4S MPRE w/dual MAMP mono blocks and a PSA DirectStream DAC with FW Yale beta installed sounds just as good but again its a 'pile' of equipment even if small by traditional standards. And that DAC also enjoys FW upgrades via the same lo-mem SDC's. They offer fewer releases than Devialet (who doesn't!?!) and admittedly sometimes, not without controversy. But man, oh man when they get one right its incredible... jumps out ahead and its obvious by the feedback. We haven't seen or enjoyed that kind of "right" yet! And PSA's maybe 10% the size of Devialet with an engineer or two and a couple of well-respected industry consultants that are happy to lend an ear. Devialet could learn something from them. Sometimes there's just too many chefs stirring the sous!

But I'm venturing wide of this thread's intent, taking liberties and I apologize. I struggle writing a glowing impression so I'll leave it at this; for now its the size... and all-in-one integration! The less than 2" path from DAC to binding posts is wonderful. The remote gets honorable mention as the best I've ever seen! But it ends there for me... everything else is available elsewhere, just as good SQ-wise IMHO and at my power needs target of 200wpc and for less money.

Your post belongs in the other thread.

[Confused]

The only reason I see this thread never being able to achieve a similar post-count to its evil twin doppelgänger counter-post is easy. The initial post only requires people react. This one requires them to 'think' before reacting! That in and of itself is a thread-killer!

For me I'm here but for one reason... size and component-count or lack thereof. The ability to clear a rack full of equipment is good... to mount on the wall even better. I'm not even crazy about the pizza box geometry. I'd do just as well if they took that .2 cu ft mass and turned it into a 7" square Borg Attack Cube and used exo-skeletal electronics. SQ is important to me but Devialet certainly has no monopoly on that at current pricing. My current 2nd system consisting of W4S MPRE w/dual MAMP mono blocks and a PSA DirectStream DAC with FW Yale beta installed sounds just as good but again its a 'pile' of equipment even if small by traditional standards. And that DAC also enjoys FW upgrades via the same lo-mem SDC's. They offer fewer releases than Devialet (who doesn't!?!) and admittedly sometimes, not without controversy. But man, oh man when they get one right its incredible... jumps out ahead and its obvious by the feedback. We haven't seen or enjoyed that kind of "right" yet! And PSA's maybe 10% the size of Devialet with an engineer or two and a couple of well-respected industry consultants that are happy to lend an ear. Devialet could learn something from them. Sometimes there's just too many chefs stirring the sous!

But I'm venturing wide of this thread's intent, taking liberties and I apologize. I struggle writing a glowing impression so I'll leave it at this; for now its the size... and all-in-one integration! The less than 2" path from DAC to binding posts is wonderful. The remote gets honorable mention as the best I've ever seen! But it ends there for me... everything else is available elsewhere, just as good SQ-wise IMHO and at my power needs target of 200wpc and for less money.

Your post belongs in the other thread.

Indeed so!  But never mind, it still adds to the post count in the happy thread!  Plus in this case Manoet has perhaps missed the point.  If you select the best available amplifiers and DACs at this kind of price level, then the differences in sound quality will be fairly marginal, and some may prefer other options to the Devialet, but if you then factor in SAM, RAM and other unique Devialet enhancements, it becomes a slam dunk victory for the Devialet.  In this thread this is fact and beyond dispute!

[Manoet]

Sorry for coloring outside the lines! Hopefully its more soothing now. ;-)

[Confused]

Sorry for coloring outside the lines!  Hopefully its more soothing now. ;-)

And they say that it's the English that are too polite! 

[blair.athol]

it is the sound quality I fell in love with my Devialet.
When I visited the Devialet home in Paris last year I was totally enlighted by the impression of design and sound. I listened to the great sound improvement of SAM in Paris as well. At this session only one nice chap was there to present SAM, everyone else was in Munich that time. I t was really a wonderful experience to listen to Jaques Loussier plays Bach Gavotte in D major. I never wanted to stop listening anymore. When I got. my D 200 upgraded with SAM for my speakers a new world turned up. I am now listening to. music files I never was aware of before and I am still enjoying exploring new encounters every day. By the way, Air was never a big issue for me and I am using it all day round.
Sorry for my bad English but I just want to express that I am not willing to jump on the complaining track, its still on a very high level...