Robert Harley on the D200/400

[thumb5]

Yes indeed; almost embarrassing in its enthusiasm. But it is nice to have another complimentary review, and it always surprises me when someone compares a Devialet with amplification costing $150,000.00. Of course, $150 K on electronics is a bit amazing anyway.

But RH notes the D120 is not capable of supporting MM cartridges, or variable cartage loading. I checked the configurator, and it appears to me that the current firmware does both MC & MM as well as offering variable resistance settings.

Have I missed something, or is this discrepancy likely an equipment update that occurred between review and printing? It is not a big issue to me as I'm not using a TT at the moment, but I am probably going to give it a go again in the future.

I might well be wrong, but I recall the 110/120 originally had a simpler phono stage (MM-only, without adjustable loading) but has since been upgraded to support the "advanced" MM/MC phono stage with adjustable loading.  Not sure whether this was simply a firmware upgrade revealing capabilities of existing hardware, or whether it was a change to the hardware build.

Devialet's web site doesn't seem to be self-consistent about this: the comparison table shows MM-only phono support, whereas the 120-specific page (probably more recently updated) says it supports both MM and MC.

Maybe someone who has a 120 can nail this down?