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+--- Thread: Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade (/Thread-Review-in-Positive-Feedback-on-D-Premier-Upgrade)
Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade - Flashman - 12-Dec-2020
Always surprising to see reviews such as this one pop up. The reviewer concludes: "With Expert 250 Pro, the musical presentation was taken to another level. What I heard now was not only singularly more resolved, there was also an atmosphere of delicacy that culminated in a new level of musical refinement. The music appeared weightless. It just hovered there, appearing to float suspended in space." In short, the upgrade was recommended.
RE: Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade - Damon - 12-Dec-2020
Interesting review. Certainly nice that it is so positive but also quite neat that it really focuses on the differences after the upgrade. I like also that it is quite a 'personal experience and impressions' approach as well as having good descriptions of the sound. I'm not aware of any other pre vs post upgrade comparison done with both amps in hand.
Thanks for linking this review
RE: Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade - Pim - 12-Dec-2020
A reviewer who has had a D-Premier for about ten years and "By-passed the internal DAC". Makes me wonder.
RE: Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade - Confused - 13-Dec-2020
(12-Dec-2020, 19:35)Damon Wrote: Interesting review. Certainly nice that it is so positive but also quite neat that it really focuses on the differences after the upgrade. I like also that it is quite a 'personal experience and impressions' approach as well as having good descriptions of the sound. I'm not aware of any other pre vs post upgrade comparison done with both amps in hand.
Thanks for linking this review
Damon - your comment above made me think back to the time I listened to a D800 versus a D1000 at Oxford Audio, shortly after the 1000 Pro was released. This got me interested in exactly what I said at the time, with a bit of searching I found the post:
Expert 1000 Pro (devialetchat.com)
Very different words and language used between myself and the positive feedback review, which I guess is normal between people describing subjective listening experiences, but I think the overall sentiment and conclusion is similar.
You make a good point though, I have read some reviews of the Pro where the reviewer is comparing to a distant memory of a previous D-Premier or Expert that they have reviewed, and I think that the said review then completely fails to pick up just how different the amps sound in some respects. So a direct comparison like this is more interesting and informative.
@Pim - I read the review last night and the "bypass the the internal DAC" bit caught my attention too. I suppose that this does indicate a lack of understanding regarding the internal architecture of the Devialet, but I find it easy to believe that the reviewer may have subjectively preferred the sound with the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge. Dare I say it, there might be a touch of expectation bias here? It happens to the best of us. The Mytek hails from the world of Pro audio and has a reputation for being very accurate, transparent and detailed. Maybe it was not actually changing the sound that much, but was making the listener feel a bit better about things. For sure it could not have been helping much. One thing we know about the D-Premier is that it measures better via it's digital inputs versus the analogue, how audible this might be is debatable, but "going direct" via digital has to be the way to go.
So here we establish that the reviewer and myself reached fairly similar conclusions, but the reviewer clearly does not know what he is doing and is riddled with expectation bias. It is a perilous game this subjective reviewing business.
RE: Review in Positive Feedback on D-Premier Upgrade - ogs - 14-Dec-2020
I've had an email exchange with mr. Balgalvis re: "bypass the the internal DAC". This has cleared the misunderstanding and mr. Balgalvis has asked his editor to remove the section discussing this from the review.