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

[yabaVR]

I would say there were no Devialet Expert experts present at the comparison. One guy discribed the Devialet sounded like pumping the sound objects to the front every time a loud sound was performed in the music.
The first thing they should have done (nobody knows if they did) cut off DPM and Standby-Modus, and all not used Inputs and give the D just 2h of 'warmup' to make it perform better espacially on transients.

It's sad, but I think the D's belong to the most underestimated amps on the market due to not being engaged the right way. I really think the D's are a 'Diva' if not treated right it gets p... off and won't perform like it could.
Or are we rather deaf here at Devialetchat? 

gui

Not sure if you need to be an expert for this but the amps had enough time for a warmup (about 3h for the 250, the 400 was connected since the day before). Only 2 digital inputs were activated. But: DPM was activated. We both had created a new config and forgot to switch it off. But honestly, the difference here is extremely small and it does definitly not cause any room pumping. I think this is simply a misinterpretation of the black background that Devialets are capable of. All analogue amps (especially tubes) have a continous noise that the Devialet does not have. If you are not used to it you may think that this is a fault of the Devialet.

Hi Vivialet,

sorry about sounding that harsh. Sure I didn't know who was doing the comparison...my apologies for that.

I would not call myself an expert on every aspect of the Ds (e.g. don't own a turntable, so know nothing about that) but since I modded some D200 and D250 to some degree and worked with it over the past 3years in several locations I have accomplished some knowledge and routine with it.

I know it's very picky on power quality, picky on digital cables, power cables, picky on the surface (stillpoints) it rests on and even picky on EMFs induced on it. A Devialet gets mad on every plus of jitter it gets fed to on the inputs and the more you use the offered processings in the configurator, the more losses you would hear on micro details/timings. These are my findings so others may not go along with it.

I would say a D is some kind of a PC itself and I made my way through PC moding hard-/software the last months...and there seems to be no end to it. I learned that every process/service (not touching audio) in the backround that is switched off contributes to a magical natural sound of the bits/bytes. So I assume and it's my experience that if you shut off every process in the background not needed even if it being the simple countdown of a signal to serve Standby (not to say DPM) you gain in performance with a Devialet.

I had a look at the pictures of comparison you made on that day. Some things I notice are as followed.

- Someone said the D250 Pro was fed by a 5m digital AES/EBU cable. I assume that the sibiliance you all heard was due to this length/quality of cable by a large amount.
- The surface the D250 Pro stood on, was it made of wood? If it was some kind of stone this can contribute to harshness/sibiliance as well.
- The D400 rested on Mark Levinson with 'something' between its bottom and the Mark Levinson ( http://www.westdrift-forum.de/t427f26-Sh...-am-5.html )
For me that's a real no go if you seriously compare two hifi-components. I understand that there was not enough space/time to do it better but it simply is not fair for the D400. While you look at the picture the owner of this place was surely aware of the importance of audiophile bases for hifi-components as there are some (even doubled) beneath the valve-monos and the Mark Levinson. I don't know if the Levinson was switched on during performance of the D400. That's even worse then.

So no personal accusation intended by me, but it wasn't a fair comparison I would say. To some my findings may sound a bit over the edge but my experience with Ds tells me quiet the opposite.
I really liked to know why the Ds are so sensitve to some implications but they are...more than most other competitors.

Ah, one last for the room pumping. I go 100% with your theory...and what's more...could it be that one is not able to hear the fade in of a single track of an instrument with a valve-amp due to its high noise background and then one is able to hear the fade in of the track with a D for the first time in his life and...he is distracted? Hence you don't hear the pumping of the Devialet but the pumping of the Studio equipment while recording if not done right?
gui

p.s. One personal question I may ask. Why didn't you bring your whole D1000 to the competition?