Details of Devialet tone control system etc.

[srima]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

Your nervousness about the lack of concrete information is quite understandable - Devialet's web site is glossy but rather light on down-to-earth details.  Apart from asking here, one of the best ways to answer the kind of questions you mentioned above is to have a nose around the on-line configuration tool at http://en.devialet.com/configurator/welcome.  In particular once you get into the advanced configurator you can see exactly how the tone controls and cartridge matching work, amongst many other configurable settings.  (Tone controls are under General Settings: Balance & Tone Control, by the way.  They give boost and cut at configurable frequencies, rather than tilt.)

I must say, I do find Devialet's marketing claims a bit hyperbolic and they rather wash over me these days.  The Phantoms are a very impressive feat of engineering, and sound very good to be sure, but even so...

A couple of things to be aware of: firstly, there is a newly-introduced set of "Pro" models so you might want to look at those rather than the current D400 or D800 - at least, if you're buying new.  Secondly, if you're thinking of using the built-in AIR network streaming protocol, it works very well for some people and not so well for others: if you search the site you'll see many discussions about this.  Devialet are working on fixes but they have been a very long time coming, and as yet there are no guarantees that all the problems will be resolved.

I'm sure if you have other questions people here will be very happy to help - it's a very friendly place.

By the way, whereabouts in the world are you?  Maybe someone on the forum might be able to suggest how you might get to hear a Devialet?

Best of luck...

Ian

Hi Ian, 

Thanks for the info. I live in an idyllic college town in New England (USA) called Amherst. Rolling hills, beautiful woods and lush green forests everywhere, and famous writers at every turn (Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson etc.). 

I was planning to use the Devaliet with my existing servers (I have several Squeezebox Touch'es, and Sony HAPZ-1ES) using either optical connection or AES-EBU. I also was planning to try the option of playing music from my NAS through a hardwired Ethernet. I do have fast wifi throughout my house as well (as any self-respecting computer scientist would!). 

I found the closest dealer is about 90-100 miles away, not very near, but not impossible either (this is after all the land of the automobile and fast highways). 

- Sridhar