German Analog-Forum.de comparison of D250 Pro and D400 versus some other brands

[f1eng]

I consider the Devialet the least coloured amp I have heard and that is why I bought my first.
I have other coloured amps here but I don't use them much any more.

That's interesting. Like you I have other amplifiers.

At the moment I find myself listening more to the Absolare/Totaldac combo. It just seems more enjoyable to me at this moment.

I love my O d'A too. It's probably slightly more transparent but at times I feel as though it is missing something. Difficult to put my finger on this. 

I've also heard a few tube amps with highly sensitive speakers, pretty much the complete antithesis of the Devialet approach, and I've really enjoyed these too. Yes distortion (if that's what it is) can sound really nice and I totally get why so many of you enjoy vinyl on your Devialets (I don't have a record player).

I find this hi-fi thing a real journey and I am loathe to say one thing is better than another; they are different.

But I understand your argument about transparency as the definition of hi-fi. In my mind emotions are more important though.



Guillaume

I was just being pedantic really, Guillaume. HiFi is a shortening of high fidelity, and it seems over the last 15 to 20 years fidelity within the equipment is less valued by a lot of enthusiasts than some euphonic additions.
Of course the timbre of a musical instrument is set by the combination of overtones, or harmonics, so it is entirely to be expected that harmonic distortion will change the timbre of an instrument, and that some may prefer this to the sound recorded, and of course the recorded sound is massively influenced by microphone choice and positioning, and the final sound by the mix. I have a Metric Halo recorder and I can use it to mix and add plugins. Pretty well any transfer function that the processor can compute in real time can be used in the mix. It is fun, but I always end up back with no processing (I also only use a stereo dummy head, no spot mics ear searingly close to instruments, so I already have plenty of ambience on recordings, no need to add any!

cheers,

Frank