Devialet at Oxford Audio 13th July

[Dr Tone]

I have remembered another point that came up at yesterdays launch.  Devialet's Mathieu Pernot was explaining various aspects of the new design that would improve the performance of the 1000 Pro.  Someone asked about how they verified such sound quality improvements, did they have listening sessions, and so on.  The answer was a clear no, the performance is measured using test equipment.  Mathieu made a comment about his lab equipment making precisely the same measurements on a Monday morning as it does on a Friday afternoon, whereas his ears were less accurate.  An interesting comment I thought!  OK, he then went on to say that of course they do listen to the end products.  I think the point is that during development they are measured to establish and optimise performance and accuracy, they are not 'fine tuned' by ear.  I guess views will vary with regards to this one!  I have to say though that for me, this was music to my ears.     (BTW, I may just have inadvertently written a dreadful pun )

Measurements are definitely good when trying to lower distortion, reduce crosstalk, increase output power etc etc.  But there has to be a concern for sound quality from the analog outputs.

I think we all need to take a step back do some proper side by side tests with our current amps and decide if we really need these better number or maybe the 2% Class A with it's little bit more sag makes the music sound that much sweeter.

Did they swap an 800 in and out for comparison?   If not I'm a little leary to how much of an improvement anyone says they heard in a recently changed demo room played on speakers that you don't intimately know using cables you probably don't own.

Hey, I'm just trying to save everyone a little money here.