15-Mar-2020, 13:55
It's curious that a) AudioStream decided to review the Expert Pro series, and b) Devialet decided to send the reviewer a second amp for a dual-mono review possibility. This suggests to me that the Expert Pro series is at least on life support and not dead. The upcoming putative firmware fix for the Devialet-Roon gigabit handshake issue is further proof.
It's also interesting that the reviewer chose to use AIR (as he used Roon, I am assuming it was Roon AIR) for his listening tests. Had he done some checking, he might have discovered the problem many of us have had with a direct gigabit connection for Roon Ready listening. I think that was a bit of a miss not to report on this but maybe that's too much to expect.
Finally, it's puzzling that the reviewer said he chose asynchronous BitPerfect as the preferred output of AIR, with the other possibility being asynchronous fixed broadband. My understanding is that the choice between the two is made by the Devialet OS and is not a check-the-box option.
It's also interesting that the reviewer chose to use AIR (as he used Roon, I am assuming it was Roon AIR) for his listening tests. Had he done some checking, he might have discovered the problem many of us have had with a direct gigabit connection for Roon Ready listening. I think that was a bit of a miss not to report on this but maybe that's too much to expect.
Finally, it's puzzling that the reviewer said he chose asynchronous BitPerfect as the preferred output of AIR, with the other possibility being asynchronous fixed broadband. My understanding is that the choice between the two is made by the Devialet OS and is not a check-the-box option.
Devialet Expert 220 Pro Kinki EX-M7 power amp tethered to a fiber-fed Lumin X1 streamer via Grimm XLRs, Vivid B1 Decade speakers in Rosso Barchetta red (only 200 produced in a limited edition), Roon Nucleus with a Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SSD, etherREGEN switch fed by a Sonore opticalModule (and Sonore-supplied transceivers and 1M optical cable) with a SOtM dCBL-Cat7 cable to my Nucleus and a DH Labs Reunion Cat8 to my Lumin T2 streamer, Keces P8 linear power supply feeding a (to come) NUC and EtherREGEN switch with an external AfterDark OCXO clock., and opticalModule (5V/1A), AudioQuest Niagara 1000 power conditioner, ASI LiveLine loom (purchased directly from Franck Tchang when I lived in France), Less Loss Firewall for Speakers and Roon lifetime license with Tidal streaming.
