Devialet Predictions for 2020

[Confused]

@Stino  - You state that you don't really agree with some of my points in post #29.  Fair enough of course, and I did state that it was just my opinion, but the curious thing is that I absolutely agree with your point that there are already amplifiers that sound as good as the Expert Pro range, but often they are a bit more expensive.  It would be silly if I stated that I disagreed with you disagreeing with me, but I suspect we are saying much the same thing, there was just a different perspective in my post in terms of someone trying different solutions to get the "flavour" (or lack of it) to suit what I was looking for, I don't think there is much in the post that contradicts your view.  Yes, there is lots of good kit out there, and choosing between the better stuff can be case of selecting flavours to suit taste.  (and wallet!)  As an example, a couple of years ago I was lucky enough to sit down for an hour and listen to a the full dCS rig with D'Agostino amplifiers.  Not much wrong with the electronics there, but the value for money proposition was poor!  It is interesting though, that even listening to something like the a full dCS rig, the ultimate observations of the electronics versus the Devialet in my own system were pretty much impossible because different speakers were used.  The demo used Wilson Audio speakers.  Nothing wrong with Wilson Audio speakers, but the difference in the "flavour" between the Wilsons and the Blades made judging the absolute performance of dCS rig to be very difficult, the difference the speakers were making to the overall sound was greater than that from the electronics.  No doubt it was good though.

Much waffle there, but writing yesterday's later post reminded me of one constant when searching for amp DAC combinations versus the Devialet.  The remote.  I might be trying a Chord based system, it might sound pretty good, but there was always the case that I'd think "this remote is nowhere near as nice as the Devialet".  This is true even of dCS kit.  Although I am taking about ergonomics here, not functionality, but nevertheless, if I do ever move away from Devialet I would very much miss the remote.  A small thing perhaps, but it does make a difference.

As a thought re the competition.  In general, competition is good and provides the catalyst for improvement.  I am not sure if Devialet are listening to us, and I have no idea how closely they are watching the competition, but I presume they are and this might just provide the incentive required for them to invest a little into developing the Expert.  If Devialet do not, then hopefully the competition will provide something high performance, fully featured and low cost (or good value at least) and those that want to can simply move on.  Meanwhile, the remaining Experts will still be sounding just as good as they do now.  I very much doubt that I will be remotely interested in the NAD M33, but its successor, or the one after that, or something else one day, who knows.  We should all welcome innovation from the competition.  (except perhaps those concerned about resale value)

So as a final prediction, whatever does or does not happen in 2020, at the end of it I will still be enjoying the nice feel of the Devialet remote as I blast out some new year's eve tunes.