I am reluctant to be too blunt here, but it has to be said. Dealers making comments such as the lower power models sound sweeter or stating that the higher powered models are 'slower' are basically talking rubbish. It is not inconceivable that they might be being totally honest and genuine, in that the differences here may well be very small, and if you then expect the lower power model to sound 'faster', maybe it will, but only because of expectation or confirmation bias. Consider some facts, the 400 and 800 have the same internals, the electronics are the same. So how does the 'big power amp is slower' theory work here? Technically it makes no sense at all.
In addition, I recall the 1000Pro launch at Oxford Audio last year. Devialet's chief engineer and 1000Pro designer Mathieu Pernot spent a long time explaining exactly why power is so important. It is easy to look at your speakers and think I have 90dB efficiency for just one watt, I listen at about 90dB, so I only need one watt and maybe a few more for headroom. The reality is very different, speakers will utilise very large amounts of power, albeit in very short duration transients. It is far easier to hit clipping than you might think. Plus, it is the ability to produce these transient current increases very quickly that is important to the dynamics of the music, and this needs power. Mathieu Pernot spent some time talking about his theoretical 'perfect amplifier', which has (obviously in theory only) infinite power. With this in mind, consider that the only difference between a D400 & D800 is restrictions in the power supply for the D400, in line with the lower cooling capability of the 400's case.
Having said all the above, lets say your chosen speaker is a reasonably amplifier friendly type of speaker, the margins between the D400/800 or 440/1000Pro in terms of ultimate sound quality performance are going to be tiny. So could you consider the 400/440 the 'sweet spot' in the range? Yes, absolutely. Indeed, the price difference is so large that you would need to think about how else you could spend that price difference, a better front end, go up the model range for speakers? There are many ways of looking at this.
Also, never trust everything your dealer says! Beware! He might just be telling you what he thinks he needs to tell you in order to get a sale. Not always the case I am sure, but entirely possible.
A final thought I have on this power thing is that the first Devialet I listened to was a D240, then later a 'D500', which was the £20K top of the range dual mono made up of two D240's. I can remember being very impressed that something so small could run to 500wpc RMS. We now have the 440Pro as the more 'affordable' offering, a mere 60w down on this. Not only this, but the 440Pro has the audibly superior V6 ADH versus the old Expert, so with the vast majority of speakers the 440Pro should outperform the 'old' D-Premier / Expert D500's. Impressive progress in not many years. I wonder where this will go next?
In addition, I recall the 1000Pro launch at Oxford Audio last year. Devialet's chief engineer and 1000Pro designer Mathieu Pernot spent a long time explaining exactly why power is so important. It is easy to look at your speakers and think I have 90dB efficiency for just one watt, I listen at about 90dB, so I only need one watt and maybe a few more for headroom. The reality is very different, speakers will utilise very large amounts of power, albeit in very short duration transients. It is far easier to hit clipping than you might think. Plus, it is the ability to produce these transient current increases very quickly that is important to the dynamics of the music, and this needs power. Mathieu Pernot spent some time talking about his theoretical 'perfect amplifier', which has (obviously in theory only) infinite power. With this in mind, consider that the only difference between a D400 & D800 is restrictions in the power supply for the D400, in line with the lower cooling capability of the 400's case.
Having said all the above, lets say your chosen speaker is a reasonably amplifier friendly type of speaker, the margins between the D400/800 or 440/1000Pro in terms of ultimate sound quality performance are going to be tiny. So could you consider the 400/440 the 'sweet spot' in the range? Yes, absolutely. Indeed, the price difference is so large that you would need to think about how else you could spend that price difference, a better front end, go up the model range for speakers? There are many ways of looking at this.
Also, never trust everything your dealer says! Beware! He might just be telling you what he thinks he needs to tell you in order to get a sale. Not always the case I am sure, but entirely possible.
A final thought I have on this power thing is that the first Devialet I listened to was a D240, then later a 'D500', which was the £20K top of the range dual mono made up of two D240's. I can remember being very impressed that something so small could run to 500wpc RMS. We now have the 440Pro as the more 'affordable' offering, a mere 60w down on this. Not only this, but the 440Pro has the audibly superior V6 ADH versus the old Expert, so with the vast majority of speakers the 440Pro should outperform the 'old' D-Premier / Expert D500's. Impressive progress in not many years. I wonder where this will go next?
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
