Devialet 200 ------my first 4 months

[Womaz]

Well here are my thoughts after owning my 200 for just over 4 months, warts and all.
First thing to say is that this will appear to be a negative posting to some who read it, but after weighing it all up the 200 has a sound to die for and you know what at the end of the day that’s the most important thing about hifi.
I do feel however that you have to be a hi fi lover to really embrace the Devialet range full. I am not really a hifi lover, but I am a music lover. I think there is a difference. I had no idea that the setting up of the Devialet would be so troublesome and the support and documentation from Devialet does really leave a lot to be desired. This forum is the only reason I got through that first week – surely this should not be the case. People on this forum took a lot of time out to help me and to them I am eternally thankful and I have no doubt I will need them again.
So 6k and AIR is simply too unstable to use – this is the biggest disappointment. I use the word disappointment but the truth is I have no idea how Devialet get away with it as it affects a lot more users than they would care to admit. I am now back to using a CD transport as my full budget and more went on the 200. This is my biggest disappointment. For me 6k is a large amount of my cash and I cant help but feel that I am not getting the best out of the 200. When using AIR I get about an hour before the white noise kicks in. This has virtually stopped me using AIR. This is a shame as I love the sound quality with AIR. It is simply the best that I have ever owned – hence the frustration.
I have got the Dialog and I am pinning all my hopes on this working and giving the same SQ as AIR…………..just have no idea when it will be available.
I guess I should have researched more before I bought the 200, as I had no idea that upgrades were prone to bugs and it is also rather time consuming. Infact I have not even upgraded to the new version 8 as it took me that long to get my configurator right at set up. I have a headphone amp and had to change all of the inputs to accommodate that, so the thought of starting all that over again do not really appeal. I know I have to do it sometime though.
The big question is would I swap the 200 for my cash back and the answer is NO. I am not really that technical and to be honest when dealing with my music I really don’t want to have to mess about with various bits of software, but when I heard the 200 it was an instant WOW. It still is 4 months later. After all this is what is really of most importance. I have not owned any other high end piece of kit so I cant compare it to those, but it blew my old M6i amp out of the water in every way. Bass and soundstage in a different league.
So pleased with the purchase , disappointed with the AIR issues and hoping Dialog solves it all.

Hi, i rarely post on forums but thought would give my tuppence worth on the subject of AIR.

First of all have you looked at your router?

I have BT home hub5. The settings need sorted out. Turn off parental controls (really bad and slows connection) and then split each channel to 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Rename each channel and keep the 2.4GHz channel for the devialet. 

Buy a long pice of J11 cable (the wire that hooks into router) and place your router exactly next to the devialet. 

Buy second hand MacBook if you can (got year old one for £400). Just better than a PC and sacrifice as music hub. 

Plug the laptop into router via cat cable, don't hook into 5GHz. 

Turn the devialet software to delay 5000ms. 

Check the wifi signal between air software and computer. 

I stream from the Qubuz desktop application (£20 a month but I assure you they digitise music better than you can). Turn latency to maximum in the settings tab. 

Turn the whole lot off. 

When you turn it all on again do not use any other applications on the Mac and in fact avoid using the 5ghz too. 

Now you can test it. 

Finally always keep in mind computers are notoriously buggy! How often at work do you press control alt delete to force a program to shut down etc. 

It's a good sounding piece of software but I think the routers are at fault. 

Best regards.

Whilst i really appreciate the time you have taken to reply to my thread, your post just confirms my belief that I need to get the Lap top out of the Hi Fi set up eventually.
I am looking to have what I used to have like a network player controlled by an I pad app, without the need to have ,y lap top in the system.

I am eagerly awaiting Dialog to see if this saves me the expense, but admit to losing patience as its a miss not having the whole music collection at my fingertips. Think the Aurender N100 is my favourite option so far.

Many thanks for the reply though