Devialet Expert Long Term Experience?

I am very interested to hear if the Devialet Expert 400 can push the Focal Sopra No 3’s ompared to the Pass Labs and Luxman gear. I’ve looked at the specs and can't figure out if the 400 can drive the Focal as sustained 2 ohm loads ? Please respond if you have actual experience with the 400 setup with Focal Sopra 3’s and can honestly providan experienced critique .

We're have the Devialet Expert 440 Pro Dual here and always use them when someone coming over to listen wants to hear everything as intended. Particularly for people who listen to classical music (i.e. music with real instruments recorded as a whole) it's no contest. The SAM feature can make a very big difference as well.

Devialet is not a revelation in audio.
It's still mostly class D, with the typical thin midrange lacking presense and body 

Hi.  I sold my Devialet 140 expert pro.
I could not live with the thin midrange which is typical of class D.
I now have a Gryphon Diablo 120/dac which is superior 

Here we are over a year later. I am looking at purchasing a used Expert 220 to pair with KEF Reference 1 speakers. At the heavily discounted prices on used Devialet amps, it seems like an opportunity. Yet, the fact that many customers seem disheartened and the existence of heavily discounted units causes concern. Curious to hear what current owners have to say. Would you buy one again, or stick with more traditional amplification?

I only heard an Devialet setup in a showroom.... just because it’s so expensive, always worth a learning experience.

Not that impressed, truly.

And I always feel confused when someone said: Hack, you didn’t get good sound because you don’t use that $$$$$ cables.

Look, an Ferrari is an Ferrari. Don’t care where you live, but you still need to feed it with Exxon or BP or Sunoco, the same gas any cheap car would use. An Ferrari doesn’t need ’racing circuit’ gas to be awesome.

So are high-end expensive audio equipment like Devialet. You may not *optimize* their potential with basic cables and power outlets, but they shall never sound average.

:-)

Months at the dealer, listening to several high class speakers, with devialet, very unimpressed, sounds a little tinny, and weak,
just my impression


always went back to the Mac amps, and their older threshold vintage stuff.  

 Devialet is so overhyped.

Hello,
I listen to 4 different devialet systems regularly. 

d1000 for movies, tv
d premier , vinyl and movies, tv
d 220 , movies, tv
d 220, CD player

i was a die hard tube fanatic and still have 3 tube systems that I enjoy very much. 

Devialet is a revelation in audio.  What I enjoy most is the consistency and superb reliability of the units.  

They sound exactly the the same as when they were first broken in. The bass is perfect especially on the 1000.  Wow that’s krell style slam.  Midrange and highs are beautiful on the blackest background ever possible for an amp. Dead quiet. 

Do i enjoy the Devialets as much as when I bought them years ago.  Yes I do.    I did find that a tube phono in front was a little nicer.  Devialet still has an excellent built in phono stage as well as a top notch dac. 

The Devialets will still amaze me with their realistic musical presentation. 

After many years of dealing with all sorts of tube gear reliability issues I finally have some peace.

There are some problems with my d400s. It is that on some days the configurator remains silent and I have then sound coming from one channel. The dealer and folks at devialet have tried different firmware and cables but the problem persists. It is not a daily occurrence but happens at the most inconvenient time. For example, I and some friends sat down to watch the Superbowl on my big screen and got sound from one of sopra 3s. Very embarrassing, but on days like today the sound was just fabulous. 

I've been using Devialet for a while now (Expert 400 & Expert 200), coming off of Pass, Krell, Mark Levinson, ARC, BAT & McIntosh and have found it to be easy-to-use, very reliable and "sonically competitive" with Preamp. / Amp. / DAC combos priced well-beyond Devialet; that on its own is a big accomplishment, plus the additional benefits of form factor, aesthetics, energy efficiency (consumes just 30 > 50 watts) and Bass quantity & quality that is "the best" that I have heard, regardless of price. 

So I auditioned the Devialet Expert Pro 220 in my home over the weekend. I listened to it against my current system, which consists of an Audio Research tube power and preamp, PS Audio DAC, and Whest phono stage.  (you can see the details in my virtual system page here on Audiogon).

The Devialet is an impressive piece.  My system is no slouch however and I was not compelled to sell everything with a jumping up and down enthusiasm.  The fact that the little Devialet could run with the more traditional system, and sound on par with it, is a great feat and kudos to the people in France that designed and built this excellent machine!

I may end up getting one, but as I said, it was not the mind blowing experience that would be required to make the decision instantly.  The temporary lack of fully Roon Ready meant that I had some connection issues.  I was able to fix them, but they came back, and I had to fix again.  I am no stranger to this, but still, it is annoying.

The phono stage sounded great.  It was interesting to hear my vinyl played through a digital device and still sounds like vinyl.  I like the idea of possibly ripping my vinyl, if I take the time and care to do it properly.  Though I am still not convinced that I should sell my record collection and turntable.  We shall see how minimal I need to go with my system.

So my overall observation was good.  I just need more time to let this sink in!

Try the Darwin Truth II PC cables with the Dev 200 and you will be amazed with what pure cryoed silver with air dielectric can do. Bass definition like you've never heard before. The wires are thick and what I think is as silver is 7% faster than copper the combination of a huge bandwidth and fast response provides for a PRAT in heaven !! 

NuForce SC-700 all copper speaker cable were an inexpensive well made sleeper that were a noticeable improvement over the Cardas Golden Reference with all the switching amplifiers I've used. 

I'm sure they're out of production by now. A thick rectangular copper ribbon wrapped in copper strands. I never found a switching amp that liked silver anything.   

marktomaras, please share your findings if you don't mind!

superpef - 

Thank you very much for the detailed report!  I have high hopes, and a scheduled demo coming soon.  I am also skeptical.  I have a pretty sweet setup with great manufactures, tubes, the works.  The little shiny square has its work cut out for it!

Hi Mark, what a coincidence, I showed this thread to my better half 3 days ago and told her I should probably get back and post some experience soon, now that I have owned the Devialet for a while.

I bought the 200 used but without a scratch (which you cannot hide and only avoid with good care) for 3650€, which is a little over half the RRP over here in Germany. This plays a big role in my satisfaction considering the above mentioned flood of overprized upgrade programs and products by Devialet. By purchasing a mint second-hand unit I bypassed the value depreciation for the most part.

Now to the 200 itself and firstly to the question of longevity that I initially raised with this thread.

I bought it in April 2017 and since the first day I have it running for hours every day. I come home from work and leave it on until I go to sleep. If we are at home on the weekends it will stay on pretty much 2 days straight. I listen to vinyl, digital music through AIR for „serious listening“ or via optical input from Apple TV streaming from my iPhone for convenience. My TV goes to another optical input. The unit gets pretty warm but not ridiculously hot. I do think it uses too much power in standby which I read somewhere but have yet to test for myself with a meter. It stays lukewarm, even in standby which is an indicator for that and also that it never really shuts off, no matter if you go standby with the display dimmed or “the other standby” with the display turned off. This could and should have easily been avoided by Devialet (will probably with the new electronics/ new core..?). This makes me wonder if it is better for the electronics to disconnect it from power when on holiday or to keep it in standby all the time. I have done both as I just don’t know. Anyway I don’t have the feeling that this thing will break on me any time soon.

Now to some more impressions as an owner of an Expert 200.

I sincerely doubt I could be happier with ANY other integrated. The package is just too perfect. It is powering my B&W CM10 s2’s and, while there are certainly better speakers out there, they sound ridiculously good with the Devialet and SAM all the way up to 100%. I am pretty sure many people would fail a blind test and think what they are hearing is a MUCH more expensive or higher tier speaker. I seriously doubt that anything could make my speakers sound better than a Devialet. If anything can, it is probably much more expensive.

Cranking up the volume it really feels like an infinite power source with nothing undesired happening to SQ. My room acoustics become the obvious culprit way before I could ever hear anything other than what world class amplification should deliver. What this tiny chrome monolith is producing is spectacular. Acoustic treatment will be the next thing I will address. To this point I do not believe in fancy speaker and power cables and even less in expensive feet for electronics, but then I haven’t tried any of those things and therefore can‘t judge.

I do think the future lies in active and that passive will sooner or later lose its place in high-end audio but if you are looking for an integrated amp I really don’t think you can go wrong with a Devialet. The overall package is the best imho. All those digital and analogue input possibilities, MM and MC phono stages, the ADH‘s ridiculously clean power delivery and sound with completely dead background (seriously, you can turn the volume all the way up, put your ear to the speaker and hear nothing at all), and everything in this form factor, along with the most gorgeous and satisfying remote you will ever use. Air streaming works flawlessly and is theoretically the best connection you can have from source to amp period. The only times Air gets unstable is when I have a lot of people over (I think many smartphones looking for wifi in 2.4 gHz become an issue). Despite some reviewers claiming that a fraction of the sound quality is lost at lower levels, for me it sounds absolutely spectacular. The deep and present bass even at the lowest levels never ceases to amaze me.

One thing to consider is headphone usage. For this you need to use the pre-out, set the needed output level in the configurator and get a cinch to single 3.5mm or 6.35mm jack adapter. When listening really loud and turning up the bass i get distortions and prefer my headphone amp. This could be related to wrong settings in the configurator, so if anyone who reads this knows what to do please let me know. I only like to turn up the bass when listening to hip hop or electronic music. Heaphone SQ is great when listening without messing with bass at very loud levels.

OP - how has the journey proceeded? Did you go for the Devialet? I am considering one myself.

I installed the D400's a few months ago along with Verity Parsifal Ovation speakers. I have also added a Naim Unitiserve ripper/streamer as part of a shift away from cd's toward streaming. The Devi combined with streaming has allowed me to replace 6 major Naim components (amp/cdp/pre) all with separate power supplies, and eliminate an outboard DAC.
Streaming cd's from a hard disc to the digital input on the D400 (via Unitiserve or others?) significantly out-performs the Naim CD555, 552 pre-amp and 300 power amp. That's saying something because the Naim gear is simply outstanding at cd replay and much more. And the D400 (new) are about half the price of the Naim cd555 alone!  While not inexpensive, the vfm is off the chart, particularly in the re-sale market.
I feel like I've crossed a time-line between the past and the future of music reproduction. 
I've never heard the D440's but those who have, say they are quantum better. 
The only downsides I could mention:

• requires patience and learning to set them up perfectly using the Congifurator
• with upgrades coming fast and furious from Devialet, depreciaiton on the re-sale market is initially quite high (no worries if you keep them)

I started my system with Verbatim 3" copper ribbon cables - all around great cable but no longer made. I then tried Nordost as they seem to get so many rave reviews, especially in the press.  First off were Heimdal, total garbage, super thin and badly tipped to brittle highs, grainy.  Next was Analysis Plus Oval 9 - total opposite and full of body with more and better bass than I'd had with the Verbatims.  Then a pair of Nordost Frey 2, better than the Hiemdal but still horribly unbalanced and thin.  After that I went back to AP and found some Solo Crystal 8's.  Meanwhile, my buddy had lent me Transparent Super, Tara Labs RFC something and a few others, non came close to the AP 8's.  The one thing that stood out was the huge differences the speaker cables were making.  I'm convinced there's a lot more to come and looking forward to trying some Crystal Cable and Siltech, though for value I'm strongly considering the Cerious Tech Graphene Extreme and the new Lessloss C-Mark.  Whichever works will dictate my power cable.  urrently I'm using Wireworld Silver Electra 7 and have compared it to $1200 Shunyata Z-tron Sigma HC which it handily beat.  The PS Audio 12 was worse again!  Both sounded like a thick veil in comparison.  So did the Niagra 1000 and Isotek power conditioners.  I've gone back to straight into the wall, though I am planning to update to a dedicated 20 amp line with Furutech GTX outlets.
I'd suggest buying used, taking time to try some of those mentioned and see what appeals.

I definitely will pursue some different cables soon. Any suggestions? @leeagc 


@jetter  That is what I was getting at. The Parasound gear was fantastic. I have a space issue because my setup is in the living room. I am very pleased with the Devialet 400 though.

Or perhaps the JC1's are just as good an audio product, which I suspect they are.

Bubba12 you might want to head down the cable rabbit-hole.  Power and speaker cables make a huge difference with the Devialet. If you're not hearing a big improvement from the JC1's it could be your system is being held back some where? One thing is for sure, the Devialet will reveal any and all changes!

My previous setup is Parasound JC 1 monos with JC-2 pre and an Exogal Comet plus Dac. i can't say my Devialet 400 blows it away. I can say they are pretty equal. I guess long term I will have a better answer. I can say that I am happy to make the swap considering all factors.

Thanks guys for your opinions. Only confirms what I found while auditioning and what I keep reading in reviews. Guess I'm sold..

I've yet to hear anything better than Devialet - the D200 is spectacular, the D400 better and the D800/1000 genuinely world class.  For real world budgets the D200 is light years ahead of anything else.  The sound has resolution and detail equal to the very best (Solution and Boulder) with perhaps even better bass.  The musicality and PRAT are again reference class.  All in all, the sonics are without reproach. Then you factor in the cost saving without an ugly mountain of separates and all the power cables and interconnects you no longer need.  Then there's the configurability and ease of use.  Full and complete sub-woofer integration better than a standalone JL Audio CR1 as well as SAM speaker matching with bass time alignment. You can pretty much control it all from ROON over wifi.  The new 220 Pro is even better.
The Parasound isn't even in the same league.
I leave mine on 24/7, sat on a granite slab on Cerabase feet.  Devialet air will run on Windows or OSX and does need a strong wifi - or Ethernet.  USB is pretty damn close but I hear wifi ( no galvanic connection/jitter) as the best of all three.  Powering my Focal Utopia 3 Diablo's with JL Fathom subwoofer, it's damn close to perfect.
One Wireworld Silver Aurora 7 power cable and a pair of Analysis Plus Solo Crystal 8 speaker cables - simple and done.

Thanks for the answers guys! I'm trying to decide between a Devialet 200 and a Parasound Halo Integrated. I couldn't audition the Halo yet as it is hard to get in Germany but my feeling is that the Devialet packs more punch than "regular" amps, even with comparable outputs. 

Does it subjectively feel like a reliable component for the long run? Like you just turn it on and have it running all day?

I just bought The 400 a couple weeks ago. I haven't noticed a degradation of sound after a few hours. The only complaint I really have is that their instructions on the website could be clearer. I haven't been able to get the wireless streaming going yet. I am a bit of a non tech person though. The prices on Audiogon for Devialet have really come down. I bought for that reason.