08-Jan-2015, 14:23
I have a slightly different take on all this. Firstly the part with which I strongly agree, that it is worthwhile taking the effort to listen to as many options as possible before buying expensive kit. It is not just the quest for maximum sound quality for the money, but for peace of mind, such that you can then simply enjoy the music rather than worrying about if you’ve made the right choice or not.
As to if Devialet is the best amp for the money in purely sound quality terms, to say that there are many options that are better, well, maybe or maybe not. I don’t think it is that simple. I firmly believe that if looking for the ultimate sound quality for the money, one of the key aspects is the interaction of the amplifier and speaker as a system. Speakers vary enormously in terms of efficiency, the loads they present, tonal quality etc. So where a particular Devialet amp may sound splendid with speaker A, it might not be so good with speaker B. And all this is before you take into account personal preference to how a system sounds, musical preference, volume preference, size of room and so on. Someone who is keen on chamber music is unlikely to reach the same conclusion on speaker, amp and DAC combinations as someone who likes hard core electronica, and so on.
Before buying a Devialet I had more or less decided on which speakers I would be buying. The first amplifier I heard with my chosen speaker was the Devialet, and to be honest, I was convinced that the Devialet was not the amp for me. I wasn’t particularly taken with the styling, I think I preferred the idea of an “old school” rack of boxes, giant mono blocks and similar. Also, I preferred the idea of the DAC being a separate item, that could be upgraded separately to the amps over time.
I then spent many months listening to just about every amp / pre-amp / DAC combination that I could, to find the ultimate sound quality option for my budget and chosen speaker. In the end, the Devialet was the choice. To be clear, it was fairly marginal, there were other options that I seriously considered. One piece of kit I really liked was the Chord CodeX streamer / DAC, but unfortunately this did not allow use of a phono stage, it is digital inputs only. Other amp / pre amp options would also be needed as I wanted the option to use vinyl. Clearly this would be out of the equation, hence changing the financial considerations, if I didn’t use a turntable. For what it’s worth, I’ve tried my Devialet with a couple of external phono stages, up to about 2.5k in value, and found that the Devialet built in phono stage was best to my ears, so whether or not you use vinyl is a significant factor here.
Another issue is that if you are looking to spend a five figure sum on an amp / pre amp / DAC combination, it simply is not possible to try every combination with your chosen speaker, there are just too many options, the logistics of this would lead to years of kit auditions. So one has to be practical, I know for sure that I have bought the best thing for my budget, with my chosen speakers, based on what I was able to hear. Although it is entirely possible that there might have been something better out there, but I just never got the chance to hear it. I will never know! But what I am sure of is that I bought the best sound quality product I could find, at the point at which I was becoming totally and utterly sick to death of auditioning kit every week!
Additionally, the differences in sound quality between some options I was considering and the Devialet were in some cases quite small. Since buying the Devialet I now have SAM, which has proven to be quite a big step up in sound quality for me.
So in conclusion, I doubt that for my needs there is anything out there that would substantially improve on the Devialet with SAM for my specific needs. I will never know for sure, but I am confident enough.
For others, with all the many variables being different, it could be a very different story indeed. But there are no absolutes here.
As to if Devialet is the best amp for the money in purely sound quality terms, to say that there are many options that are better, well, maybe or maybe not. I don’t think it is that simple. I firmly believe that if looking for the ultimate sound quality for the money, one of the key aspects is the interaction of the amplifier and speaker as a system. Speakers vary enormously in terms of efficiency, the loads they present, tonal quality etc. So where a particular Devialet amp may sound splendid with speaker A, it might not be so good with speaker B. And all this is before you take into account personal preference to how a system sounds, musical preference, volume preference, size of room and so on. Someone who is keen on chamber music is unlikely to reach the same conclusion on speaker, amp and DAC combinations as someone who likes hard core electronica, and so on.
Before buying a Devialet I had more or less decided on which speakers I would be buying. The first amplifier I heard with my chosen speaker was the Devialet, and to be honest, I was convinced that the Devialet was not the amp for me. I wasn’t particularly taken with the styling, I think I preferred the idea of an “old school” rack of boxes, giant mono blocks and similar. Also, I preferred the idea of the DAC being a separate item, that could be upgraded separately to the amps over time.
I then spent many months listening to just about every amp / pre-amp / DAC combination that I could, to find the ultimate sound quality option for my budget and chosen speaker. In the end, the Devialet was the choice. To be clear, it was fairly marginal, there were other options that I seriously considered. One piece of kit I really liked was the Chord CodeX streamer / DAC, but unfortunately this did not allow use of a phono stage, it is digital inputs only. Other amp / pre amp options would also be needed as I wanted the option to use vinyl. Clearly this would be out of the equation, hence changing the financial considerations, if I didn’t use a turntable. For what it’s worth, I’ve tried my Devialet with a couple of external phono stages, up to about 2.5k in value, and found that the Devialet built in phono stage was best to my ears, so whether or not you use vinyl is a significant factor here.
Another issue is that if you are looking to spend a five figure sum on an amp / pre amp / DAC combination, it simply is not possible to try every combination with your chosen speaker, there are just too many options, the logistics of this would lead to years of kit auditions. So one has to be practical, I know for sure that I have bought the best thing for my budget, with my chosen speakers, based on what I was able to hear. Although it is entirely possible that there might have been something better out there, but I just never got the chance to hear it. I will never know! But what I am sure of is that I bought the best sound quality product I could find, at the point at which I was becoming totally and utterly sick to death of auditioning kit every week!
Additionally, the differences in sound quality between some options I was considering and the Devialet were in some cases quite small. Since buying the Devialet I now have SAM, which has proven to be quite a big step up in sound quality for me.
So in conclusion, I doubt that for my needs there is anything out there that would substantially improve on the Devialet with SAM for my specific needs. I will never know for sure, but I am confident enough.
For others, with all the many variables being different, it could be a very different story indeed. But there are no absolutes here.
