Devialet's newest technology...?

[GuillaumeB]

My experience with the Devialets have been rather mixed. D-Premiers monos into Raidho D1 were rather decent if somewhat clinical and dry sounding. D200 into Raidho D2 lacked body, harmonics and texture plus had a mist/haze overlay - it did not help that the dealer had inadvertently swapped the L/R channels, used an unbroken in unit with the CD source some 4+ meters away from the D200.

Subsequently, at a local hi-fi show, I heard the Ensemble (D120 + Atohm). From a brief listen, it sounded quite amazing and so unlike the previous encounters. Surely an "integrated" active system with DSP crossovers would be able to improve upon that? It is conceptually similar to the Grimm Audio LS1/LS1s but at about 1/6th the price.

I think what you are effectively intimating is that setup is massively important with the Devialets. I've also heard Devialets sound thin/dry/bright, including with some decent speaker combinations.

Get them properly optimised (and in some cases that includes running in!) and they sound out of this world. Tweaker's Corner is your friend. Source is important too, even AIR can sound different depending on whether you are using iTunes, Audirvana... and as we've discovered thanks to in-depth reports shared by forum members the actual hardware you are using as a source matters too. How you connect from the source to Devialet also appears to have an impact (For e.g. USB v ethernet).

Can't speak for the D2 but Rufus on here owns the C1.1 which I believe is a very similar speaker to the D1. Perhaps he'll chime in with his experiences.

Cheers

Guillaume