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One of those magic new-dawn days
#1
Whilst I have kept my own counsel on many things to do with my system changes, this weekend and particularly yesterday was one of those new dawn days. For a couple of major reasons, I moved away from a high-end Naim 500 system and decided to base my new set up around the Devialet 200, (always with the possible consideration of moving this onto a 400). I want to keep my Naim Ovator S600 speakers, so the remaining tweaks revolved around source and cables. Roon has also become my go-to music player and management system, sorry Dev but you got far too tardy with Spark / Dialogue for the Expert range.

Whilst Roon sort out RoonSpeakers for manufacturers, a MacMini (and now Tranquil NUC) has served up the goodness of Roon to my network. I have even got Air via Ethernet to work reasonably well most of the time, although skipping still occurs maybe 2-3 hours into a listening session.

So for now I was aiming at mains and speaker cables as possible sources to improve matters. Then an Uptone Regen came up and at reasonable cost, it would be silly not to try it. Concurrently, I had also bought some Tellurium Q Black speaker cables from the well known auction site.

The TQ Black arrived first, and with that slotted in, already there was a marked improvement over the Naim NACA 5 cable that I have been used to for years and years (Naim recommend nothing else). Being thoroughly impressed with the TQ via Devialet, I started aiming higher, and found used examples of TQ Black Mains Cable and also a very reasonably priced set of TQ Ultra Black speaker cables.

The TQ Black mains cable replaces the Naim Powerline, which is good, but as we know, not many mains cables fit under the back cover. My thinking was that the TQ Black uses Furutech plugs, so I could possibly change the FI 11(G) IEC connector for a FI 15(G) Plus, and that is still the intention. Notwithstanding, the TQ Black mains cable certainly seems as good as, if not better than the Powerline when plugged into the Dev.

So, for a while I was running AIR via the Dev, with TQ Black Mains and Speaker Cables to the Ovators, and already there was a marked step up in system performance, the clarity and definition had jumped up seemingly working with the Dev's lucidity that we all love.

Enter the Regen and Ultra Black speaker cables. Initially, the speaker cables sounded well-off with me thinking this cannot be right, have I bought a lemon (luckily on a sale or return basis) so I re-checked everything and re-dressed the cable routing. I also widened the Z-plug connectors, these were fairly loose at both ends. This seemed to do the trick, together with a few hours of running-in. The soundstage opened up from what the base Black was offering, not side-to-side so much, but top-to-bottom seemingly reaching right up to the ceiling. Individual voices and instruments took on a slightly enhanced texture and timbre, all of what the base Black offers but more of it, much more.

Add the Regen into it, and boy, what a remarkable little device. Obviously here I switched back to USB and thought that my reasonably expensive Sig TA USB would limit the effect as in noticeable improvements. Initially I thought yep, this does nothing much, the music seemed more 'relaxed' and 'quieter' no instant wow moment. How wrong was I, less than an hour hooked up and you realise what it is doing, the Regen literally does clean up the signal passing through into the Dev's input, everything is there music-wise, but there is no overhang, fizz or colouration, the definition of each part of the music clean and concise, not in hi-fi terms, just clean and nice!

It's an old cliche, but I am now hearing things in my music that I could not detect before, low-level stuff across all frequency ranges. I really did not expect that after having quite a few moments along the Naim road of many years. I could not tear myself away from my system yesterday, that has not happened for quite a while, in that I know I have a new dawn, something I am wholly happy with, but still leaving the area of front end source to be resolved once we know what Roon are doing.

Nice when you have days like that!

Allen
Devialet 220 Pro, TQ Black Mains & Ultra Black Speaker Cables, Naim Ovators S600, Sonore microRendu (Roon & HQP) with Uptone JS-2
TRNC (North Cyprus)
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#2
(23-Aug-2015, 08:05)AllenB Wrote: Whilst I have kept my own counsel on many things to do with my system changes, this weekend and particularly yesterday was one of those new dawn days. For a couple of major reasons, I moved away from a high-end Naim 500 system and decided to base my new set up around the Devialet 200, (always with the possible consideration of moving this onto a 400). I want to keep my Naim Ovator S600 speakers, so the remaining tweaks revolved around source and cables. Roon has also become my go-to music player and management system, sorry Dev but you got far too tardy with Spark / Dialogue for the Expert range.

Whilst Roon sort out RoonSpeakers for manufacturers, a MacMini (and now Tranquil NUC) has served up the goodness of Roon to my network. I have even got Air via Ethernet to work reasonably well most of the time, although skipping still occurs maybe 2-3 hours into a listening session.

So for now I was aiming at mains and speaker cables as possible sources to improve matters. Then an Uptone Regen came up and at reasonable cost, it would be silly not to try it. Concurrently, I had also bought some Tellurium Q Black speaker cables from the well known auction site.

The TQ Black arrived first, and with that slotted in, already there was a marked improvement over the Naim NACA 5 cable that I have been used to for years and years (Naim recommend nothing else). Being thoroughly impressed with the TQ via Devialet, I started aiming higher, and found used examples of TQ Black Mains Cable and also a very reasonably priced set of TQ Ultra Black speaker cables.

The TQ Black mains cable replaces the Naim Powerline, which is good, but as we know, not many mains cables fit under the back cover. My thinking was that the TQ Black uses Furutech plugs, so I could possibly change the FI 11(G) IEC connector for a FI 15(G) Plus, and that is still the intention. Notwithstanding, the TQ Black mains cable certainly seems as good as, if not better than the Powerline when plugged into the Dev.

So, for a while I was running AIR via the Dev, with TQ Black Mains and Speaker Cables to the Ovators, and already there was a marked step up in system performance, the clarity and definition had jumped up seemingly working with the Dev's lucidity that we all love.

Enter the Regen and Ultra Black speaker cables. Initially, the speaker cables sounded well-off with me thinking this cannot be right, have I bought a lemon (luckily on a sale or return basis) so I re-checked everything and re-dressed the cable routing. I also widened the Z-plug connectors, these were fairly loose at both ends. This seemed to do the trick, together with a few hours of running-in. The soundstage opened up from what the base Black was offering, not side-to-side so much, but top-to-bottom seemingly reaching right up to the ceiling. Individual voices and instruments took on a slightly enhanced texture and timbre, all of what the base Black offers but more of it, much more.

Add the Regen into it, and boy, what a remarkable little device. Obviously here I switched back to USB and thought that my reasonably expensive Sig TA USB would limit the effect as in noticeable improvements. Initially I thought yep, this does nothing much, the music seemed more 'relaxed' and 'quieter' no instant wow moment. How wrong was I, less than an hour hooked up and you realise what it is doing, the Regen literally does clean up the signal passing through into the Dev's input, everything is there music-wise, but there is no overhang, fizz or colouration, the definition of each part of the music clean and concise, not in hi-fi terms, just clean and nice!

It's an old cliche, but I am now hearing things in my music that I could not detect before, low-level stuff across all frequency ranges. I really did not expect that after having quite a few moments along the Naim road of many years. I could not tear myself away from my system yesterday, that has not happened for quite a while, in that I know I have a new dawn, something I am wholly happy with, but still leaving the area of front end source to be resolved once we know what Roon are doing.

Nice when you have days like that!

Allen

Hi Allen - a great post, really enjoyed reading it - and delighted that you're enjoying the Devialet.  Like you, I downsized from a multi-box British system (but the Scottish one, not the Salisbury one... ) and haven't regretted it for a moment.   I'd be interested to hear how you get on with Roon - like others on the forum, I've a Dialog gathering dust in a drawer somewhere, waiting for the fabled compatiblity to arrive.  In the meantime, I continue to use my SBT (modded with LPS) as my main source - mainly because the LMS/iPeng/Squeezepad ecosystem is rock solid, easy to use and never misses a beat.  I've ordered an Uptone Regen to add to this, which I expect to receive early next month.  
I'm also tracking this http://www.microrendu.sonore.us/
The micro rendu is expected to support 7 different configurations (including LMS, which would suit me) and a Roon Speaker option (which might suit you). It has yet to be released, MSRP is rumoured to be $500, which - given our favourable exchange rate with the USD - will convert into ...... £499.99, I would think.  So, I may yet jump off the Dialog/Spark journey - Devialet really need to get their act together on this for Expert owners and stop coming up with seemingly random release dates.


ATB, Ken
Auralic Aries G2 > Kii Control > Kii Audio 3 BXT
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#3
Hi Ken, thank you, I am currently enjoying my system as much as I did the high-end Naim sort, so I am very happy. I am currently on annual subscription with Roon, if all goes well with the imminent 1.1 update, then I will convert to life subscription. I rate it that highly, there is nothing else out there that compares in managing and controlling your music.

Cheers
Allen
Devialet 220 Pro, TQ Black Mains & Ultra Black Speaker Cables, Naim Ovators S600, Sonore microRendu (Roon & HQP) with Uptone JS-2
TRNC (North Cyprus)
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