802 Diamond - D200 vs D400

[Confused]

Stigmater - I recall an earlier post of yours where you mentioned it is difficult to audition speakers (not sure if you meant in general or due to your location?). What could you get to listen to where you are?

I guess there is 7-10 dealers that I could go and listen to brands that they have, what exactly they have in demo I don't know but I can check.
Except Wilson Audio I can't really think of something that I  wanted to listen to , other then what I already had.
The problem with this particular Wilson dealer as opposed to other dealers is that he way overprice the brands that he distribute, I didn't checked yet but I think beyond my budget.

My dilemma right now since I'm relatively new in this hobby ,don't have much experience and already invested quite big amount of savings, is where stands Devialet relatively to other High-End Amps brands? I already asked this question in some way or another in other threads but didn't really feel that I got answered.
I want to understand in what direction to dig, speakers or AMP, and which are ?

This is probably not the place to ask how Devialet relates to other high end amp brands.  I would say the Devialet is the best in the world, does any one on here agree with me?  Being more serious, I have always thought that the key to a decent system is having and amplifier and speaker combination that work well together, this is a more subtle point than just sating product A is 15% better than product B.  Also, I think the one component that makes the biggest difference to the character of a system, and by far I would say, is the speakers.  Try speaker A vs speaker B, you may get a big difference, much of this difference will still be apparent with any reasonably compatible amplifier.  You will never get speaker A to sound like speaker B by switching amps.  So I always think the best approach is to establish exactly which speaker suits your own personal preferences, budget, listening room etc.  Once you have decided on the speakers, then look at which amplifier drives it best within whatever budget you set.  Of course, you have already gone down the Devialet route, but I would say that this should not be a big issue for you.  One thing that amasses me reading some of the posts on here is the shear range and variety of speakers that people have chosen to attach to the end of a Devialet, it must be a significant percentage of every reasonably respectable speaker available on the planet.  So if you decide on a different speaker, there is a good chance that the Devialet will remain a good choice.  You state that you have 7 to 10 dealers within range, that is quite a lot these days!  So I would say that it would be well worth your time booking a few appointments to listen to a few speaker options.  I know many will state that you have to demo at home, and I would agree once you get to the point of pulling the trigger on a significant purchase.  However, I don't think it is practical, or even fair on the dealers to try to home demo maybe 10 different options.  Logistically difficult and very time consuming.  But spending some time with the odd visit to different dealers to try a few options is surely worth while, with a view to narrowing down to a very short list, or even just one for that home demo.  How you approach this is up to you of course!

The other issue when asking the question "how Devialet relates to other high end amp brands?", is that the DAC is an integral part of the Devialet architecture.  So lets say you wanted to try Devialet vs Chord vs Bryston mono blocks, you then have to decide what DAC to use with the Chord and Bryston options.  I have actually done this, amongst other comparisons.  One conclusion my ears reached, is that Bryston with Chord DAC or Chard Amp with Chord DAC can get close to a Devialet at similar money.  The same with Bryston or Naim Dac's, nowhere near as close.  I concluded a while back that my ears like Chord DAC's, and Devialet's DAC, the difference with amps of similar power and quality is of lesser influence in my view.  (Although still a factor) 

From my experience trying to find something to drive the KEF Blades, is that I could find DAC / Amp combinations that would run the Devialet close, but this was consistently coming out at a price that was more than the D240 I was considering at the time, so I ended up buying a D240.  Since then "SAM" has been added, as this improves SQ even further, that original decision starts to look even better.  One key point to note here, I did also try a D200 with the Blades.  The result was poor, somewhere through the frequency / loading curve of the Blades there was clearly something that did not work with the D200, so as I said at the beginning, it is about system matching, getting an amp that works well with your speakers.

Subsequently, I have also heard the Blades with much more expensive amplification, and concluded that the end result was inferior to Devialet power.

So in summary, the Devialet is pound for pound the best amplifier on the planet, and once you get to D800, it is the best in the world in absolute terms.  (a slightly tongue in cheek summary I would admit! )