16-Mar-2018, 08:15
Well, I got my 130 Pro back today with the CI board installed after dropping it off at my dealer’s 2 days ago for the upgrade. I was given the option of having either the release candidate or current beta version of the OS/firmware installed and ended up with the beta which I was told was better if I was streaming using Roon AIR. The only hiccup I had when I got home was a problem with a corrupt config file but once that was fixed everything has worked fine.
I only have 1 source, my Antipodes DS server which I use to stream files from my own library stored on the server’s hard drive using Roon Core, and Tidal which I also stream using Roon. My config file set up only 1 input, ethernet, and that input appeared as Devialet-ETH in Roon’s audio settings as before, but the input shows as “AIR” instead of ethernet on the Devialet’s display window. That, and the wifi antenna sticking out at the rear of the amp, are the only visible differences I’ve noticed.
So, to the sound and my listening impressions. I do think the sound has changed slightly/subtly and for the better but pinning down how it has changed isn’t all that easy. I think the sound is slightly warmer and sweeter than it was and also that things sound somehow more “coherent” tonally over the whole frequency range which surprises me because I never thought it didn’t sound tonally coherent before. At times I have a sense of slightly less bass depth but the bass sounds better defined with more detail apparent and at other times my sense is instead that the mids, the vocal range frequencies, are more apparent with a bit more warmth and detail. I think those 2 impressions are different sides of the same coin and that which one I’m noticing depends on the music at the time. Regardless of which of those impressions I’m noticing at a particular moment, overall things just seem to hang together more convincingly. That’s what’s giving me problems with pinning down exactly what I think I’m noticing. I also think the noise floor is slightly lower and perhaps that’s contributing to my competing impressions of slightly less bass and slightly more mids. None of those shifts are big in magnitude, they’re subtle, but they add together to a feeling that things sound slightly more natural, open and relaxed. I think the highs sound a little sweeter.
Those are my impressions after around 3 hours of listening to a couple of albums from my server and a few tracks from Tidal. If I had to say whether I notice the difference more with tracks from the server or tracks streamed from Tidal I’d say that I’m enjoying music from both sources more but that where previously I thought 44.1 kHz/16 bit FLAC from the hard drive sounded better than 44.1 kHz/16 bit FLAC from Tidal, Tidal now sounds closer to files from the server. Both are improved and both are more enjoyable, but the improvement seems more welcome with content from Tidal.
As I said, I think the change is subtle. I didn’t think there were any issues with the sound I was getting before the upgrade, I thought it was great—the best sound I’d had—and there wasn’t any area I was unhappy with. I just seem slightly happier with the way they sound with the CI board installed.
I’m glad I had the amp upgraded.
I only have 1 source, my Antipodes DS server which I use to stream files from my own library stored on the server’s hard drive using Roon Core, and Tidal which I also stream using Roon. My config file set up only 1 input, ethernet, and that input appeared as Devialet-ETH in Roon’s audio settings as before, but the input shows as “AIR” instead of ethernet on the Devialet’s display window. That, and the wifi antenna sticking out at the rear of the amp, are the only visible differences I’ve noticed.
So, to the sound and my listening impressions. I do think the sound has changed slightly/subtly and for the better but pinning down how it has changed isn’t all that easy. I think the sound is slightly warmer and sweeter than it was and also that things sound somehow more “coherent” tonally over the whole frequency range which surprises me because I never thought it didn’t sound tonally coherent before. At times I have a sense of slightly less bass depth but the bass sounds better defined with more detail apparent and at other times my sense is instead that the mids, the vocal range frequencies, are more apparent with a bit more warmth and detail. I think those 2 impressions are different sides of the same coin and that which one I’m noticing depends on the music at the time. Regardless of which of those impressions I’m noticing at a particular moment, overall things just seem to hang together more convincingly. That’s what’s giving me problems with pinning down exactly what I think I’m noticing. I also think the noise floor is slightly lower and perhaps that’s contributing to my competing impressions of slightly less bass and slightly more mids. None of those shifts are big in magnitude, they’re subtle, but they add together to a feeling that things sound slightly more natural, open and relaxed. I think the highs sound a little sweeter.
Those are my impressions after around 3 hours of listening to a couple of albums from my server and a few tracks from Tidal. If I had to say whether I notice the difference more with tracks from the server or tracks streamed from Tidal I’d say that I’m enjoying music from both sources more but that where previously I thought 44.1 kHz/16 bit FLAC from the hard drive sounded better than 44.1 kHz/16 bit FLAC from Tidal, Tidal now sounds closer to files from the server. Both are improved and both are more enjoyable, but the improvement seems more welcome with content from Tidal.
As I said, I think the change is subtle. I didn’t think there were any issues with the sound I was getting before the upgrade, I thought it was great—the best sound I’d had—and there wasn’t any area I was unhappy with. I just seem slightly happier with the way they sound with the CI board installed.
I’m glad I had the amp upgraded.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
