German Analog-Forum.de comparison of D250 Pro and D400 versus some other brands

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For some people the Devialet is like a red rag, and most people still think the Devialet is a Class-D amp. And a Class-D amp is bad...

It is daft but true.
Actually the n-core amps are superb too, much less coloured than any SET amp could be.

I have a good friend who is a simple valve amp fan. I took my D_Premier over to his place and it was much clearer and detailed but he didn't like it he said it was sterile whereas his was definitely veiled.

Funny, that you are mentioning n-core. Last weekend I did some extensive comparisons switching back and forward from a Devialet 200 to two Monoblocks NC400 that a friend of mine recently built. I was surprised how good they were. Altough the Monoblocks are a lot cheaper, they had more detail in the middle and were very dynamic and neutral. Their pure class D sound was far better than what I expected. At the end, I think I preferred the two NC400 over the Devialet. Important is also to note that I run a Antimode room correction. Room correction is  by far the biggest improvement I had during the last year.

How would you compare the NC400 to Devialet?

I have never done a back-to-back comparison between n-Core and Devialet and have never heard a Devialet 200 at length.
I have a friend with n-Cores and his system sounds great, but different speakers and room. He uses Helmholz resonator bass absorption too.
I think they are stupendous value and hear that their designer believes it is not necessary to go to the same lengths Devialet have to get good sound. I consider the Devialet uncoloured and unexaggerated, personally. Of course the n-Cores need a preamp and DAC to be as complete as the Devialet so I don't know how big a saving they are as a system, or how domestically acceptable they look.

I have an Antimode too but prefer my system without. My room is not bad already, and whilst the Antimode improves the bass evenness slightly where the microphone is put, it is worse elsewhere in the room. The most satisfactory electronic bass management I have heard had 4 bass boxes, so evenness could be improved over most of the room.
I may go the Helmholz resonator route myself since that seems by far the most technically elegant solution.