11-Nov-2020, 00:03
Having asked above whether it's possible for something to be both a lifestyle product and an audiophile product, i'll answer my own question by saying "yes".
As quite a few above have since commented, the "lifestyle product" attribution tends to be appliesd on the basis of physical style, size, and ease/convenience of use whereas "audiophile product" tends to be attributed on the supposed basis of sound quality.
Let's take 2 other products, the McIntosh range and the D'Agostino amplifiers. Both have extremely strong visual styling, they're immediately identifiable and their meters are just as much a styling feature as the Devialet's chrome piazza box. When it comes to size, they're both large and heavy, just as much a statement as the Devialet's small size and weight. As to ease of use and convenience, I haven't used McIntosh or D'Agostino products but I doubt there's much difference in the ease of use/convenince stakes in practical terms. I'd say anyone who buys McIntosh or D'Agostino amps is making just as much of a "lifestyle" statement when they put them on display in their system as anyone who buys a Devialet is making.
When it comes to sound quality, well I'm going to fall back on Stereophile's recommended product listing. McIntosh and D'Agostino amps get Class A ratings on Stereophile's list. So does the Devialet Expert 140 Pro. That indicates that all of these products deliver the level of sound quality that audiophiles demand, even though they do sound different because of their different electrical design approaches.
There's one big reason for buying a Devialet over a big "audiophile" amp. You will never get a hernia lifting a Devialet, or run into the problem I ran into when I helped a friend by lifting a big and heavy McCormack power amp a couple of months after having my prostate removed. If you don't know what kind of problem that might have been, don't ask - the answer would prompt a "too much information, I didn't need to know that" response but trust me, you wouldn't want to have it.
I can remember the ads for body building products which I saw in my youth, the ones that talked about disparagingly about "90 pound" weaklings. The Devialet is a 20-40 lb product depending on model and some Audiophile amps run to 3 and 4 times that sort of weight. They probably don't play any louder and they don't sound better, just different. The Devialet is probably more expensive on a lbs per dollar scale and a lot more effective on a dB per dollar scale but it also costs less than many" audiophile" amps and it's better for your health whenever you move it. What better recommendation could you want? :-)
As quite a few above have since commented, the "lifestyle product" attribution tends to be appliesd on the basis of physical style, size, and ease/convenience of use whereas "audiophile product" tends to be attributed on the supposed basis of sound quality.
Let's take 2 other products, the McIntosh range and the D'Agostino amplifiers. Both have extremely strong visual styling, they're immediately identifiable and their meters are just as much a styling feature as the Devialet's chrome piazza box. When it comes to size, they're both large and heavy, just as much a statement as the Devialet's small size and weight. As to ease of use and convenience, I haven't used McIntosh or D'Agostino products but I doubt there's much difference in the ease of use/convenince stakes in practical terms. I'd say anyone who buys McIntosh or D'Agostino amps is making just as much of a "lifestyle" statement when they put them on display in their system as anyone who buys a Devialet is making.
When it comes to sound quality, well I'm going to fall back on Stereophile's recommended product listing. McIntosh and D'Agostino amps get Class A ratings on Stereophile's list. So does the Devialet Expert 140 Pro. That indicates that all of these products deliver the level of sound quality that audiophiles demand, even though they do sound different because of their different electrical design approaches.
There's one big reason for buying a Devialet over a big "audiophile" amp. You will never get a hernia lifting a Devialet, or run into the problem I ran into when I helped a friend by lifting a big and heavy McCormack power amp a couple of months after having my prostate removed. If you don't know what kind of problem that might have been, don't ask - the answer would prompt a "too much information, I didn't need to know that" response but trust me, you wouldn't want to have it.
I can remember the ads for body building products which I saw in my youth, the ones that talked about disparagingly about "90 pound" weaklings. The Devialet is a 20-40 lb product depending on model and some Audiophile amps run to 3 and 4 times that sort of weight. They probably don't play any louder and they don't sound better, just different. The Devialet is probably more expensive on a lbs per dollar scale and a lot more effective on a dB per dollar scale but it also costs less than many" audiophile" amps and it's better for your health whenever you move it. What better recommendation could you want? :-)
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
