Devialet dealers at Axpona seem alienated

[kerkhoffd]

... the base Expert products sound great and offer excellent value for money and although the dual mono products do sound marginally better there isn't a huge difference so for many people theres not much point in upgrading...

Agree the base Expert sound great, but do not agree on the marginal better sound for dual mono. That all depends on your speakers and rest of the setup. For me double mono is a big step up as far as control is concerned. Stage is bigger and timbre blossoms more. Plays music so much more refined. The ease double mono performs with and makes music sound effortless outshines the single units as far as I am concerned.

I think dealers mostly have lost interest as the upgrade program kills their profits. Agree fully with you there. The upgrade money goes straight to Devialet, and dealers need to spend time on customers getting nothing in return.

And let's be fair. The double mono route is not for everyones budget. Yes, it is better on all criteria, but not everyone is ready to spend the amount of an Expert times two for the benefits of double mono. The single Expert s are just very good indeed not demanding the step to double mono to be set. These are quite high prices products. But as far as sound quality, naturalness and transparancy the Devialet won hands down against the Naim gear I tried (NAP250DR, NDX and NAC252 on TAD Evolution One) to my ears.

Netz welcome by the way. Well worth the drive to experience Devialet first hand.