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Recommendations for switching from monoblock power amps/DAC to a one box solution

Cereal Killer said:
It appears Devialets flat rate for a/any repair is circa £3000 ( they simply replace the whole board )
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Yep, and a 3rd party working on these would have even less chance. This is what has always concerned me about these units. It is a completely different ballgame to replacing a capacitor, a relay, or a couple of transistors for a repair.

Back to the OP, I would go down to two boxes: a quality integrated like the aforementioned LFD NCSE, and a separate DAC.
 
Cereal Killer said:
It appears Devialets flat rate for a/any repair is circa £3000 ( they simply replace the whole board )
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But given that the Sale of Goods Act and Customer Rights Act provide a six-year warranty on goods purchased in the UK, why would anyone* be charged this sum?

(* excepting those vanishingly few unlucky souls who'd bought one between launch in 2010 and summer 2012 and then found it failed after six years.)
 
mattgbell said:
TBH I don't know. I used to frequent the unofficial Devialet chat room (whatever it was called), but gave up when the people running it made it clear my posts weren't welcome. I have absolutely NO IDEA what I did to piss them off. Actually come to think of it, expensive mains cables may have been involved.

The streaming thing required an expensive return-to-base upgrade. I really didn't see the point in spending big ones on a hardware-based streamer, so I didn't bother. I still think the high point of Devialet was the first D200. The later iterations of the Phantom are also really good.
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To balance this a little, my experience upgrading from a Naim 252/300 with a Linn Klimax DS to my (initially) Devialet D170, then the software upgrade to the D200 model, adding a companion to go D400 and dual-mono, and then the hardware upgrades to now 440 Pro spec has been great. With Roon, it’s a wonderful combination - you should definitely demo it as an option and there are many Devialet users with Sonus Faber out there too so it should be a great match.

Perhaps I was lucky with a very helpful dealer here in Dublin (Cloney Audio) but I would expect Oxford Audio, HiFi Lounge etc in England would be great to deal with too.
 
£3000 is DVLAs costs for most things.... example to upgrade from a D200 to D220 expert, from a D-Premier to a D250 to a D250 Expert.
 
Yomanze said:
Back to the OP, I would go down to two boxes: a quality integrated like the aforementioned LFD NCSE, and a separate DAC.
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Or a dac with volume control and a reasonable selection of inputs straight into a power amp. The choice probably depends on the range sources you use and the facilities you want. For an all digital set up the latter, if you want to keep an analogue tuner, turntable and/or tape in the system, an integrated or pre/power solution may be the better bet.
 
Cereal Killer said:
£3000 is DVLAs costs for most things.... example to upgrade from a D200 to D220 expert, from a D-Premier to a D250 to a D250 Expert.
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But as we've established, the plucked-out-of-the-air figure of £3000 would not apply to repairs, as any failed units (and I should think there have been fairly few) will have been covered by warranty.

Could you explain what the problem with your Devialet was? I don't recall you ever going into detail.
 
+1 on the Hegel. I've also had positive experiences with AVM, which is in a similar ball park (and looks very similar, too).
 
A slightly more flexible approach, which leaves the doors open to potential system additions, would be the Benchmark DAC3 HDR and their AHB2 amplifier. Neat and tidy setup, with superb sound quality AND measured performance. The DAC is a pre-amp too and has two analogue inputs which might be useful for any future additions.
 
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Someone told me of the NuPrime STA-9 the other day:

http://nuprimeaudio.com/product/sta-9/?v=79cba1185463

Can be used as mono blocks and are relatively small. No idea how they sound. Magazine reviews are good (what a surprise) but some user comments are indifferent:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...prime-sta-9-power-amplifier-mini-review.3932/

It was recommended to me to use a pair bridged to mono, or bi-amping in stereo, to give me more wattage then my current amp, so saying that I would get improved 'damping, control and dynamics'. The trouble is there does not seem to be an English dealer so it looks impossible to try them out.
 
adamdea said:
What is it that Dev have done to upset the users so much? Is it still the streaming software?
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They didn’t deliver on time what was promised to those who upgraded their old experts to Pro specification, and those who bought the Expert Pro amplifiers, ie the so called streamer board, which is now called Core Infinity.

The communication twixt manufacturer and end user has left something to be desired.

It has taken them a good while to sort out the software for the Core Infinity board. They have released interim firmware updates in response to some intense customer pressure in a beta testing program. Just last month they released an official firmware and DOS.

Actually the Core Infinity hardware and software was well worth the wait in my opinion. The sound quality and usability of the product is superb. They still have to deliver on some things that have been promised, such as making the Expert Pro series a Roon endpoint (RAAT) and the integration of Qobuz, but these are apparently on schedule for delivery by the end of the year.

For anyone looking for a one box solution the Devialet is now a very good option.
 
FYI - https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Devialet-state-‘no-further-development’-for-‘classic’-pre-Pro-CI-Expert-line

The newly appointed Devialet Expert team made the following statement at the Oxford Audio event last week:

There will be no further development for the Expert line other than for Core Infinity based Expert Pros.

That is, no further firmware or feature updates for even one generation back, despite it being sold as a product that would evolve with twice yearly updates. Also tallies with Quentin Sanniés comments in the CI factory tour video, where he stated that it was too expensive for them to develop for two platforms, hence the move to CI, to put the Experts on the same platform as Phantoms. So much for the EVO platform and the ‘no planned obsolescence’ mantra sold with all Experts.

Feel bad for Non-Pro Experts or D premier owners. Those that can afford it and want to stick with Devialet and want new features would be advised to upgrade when the program reopens. Might even be worth it for resale.

I’m sure some people will chime in with the old line of ‘the amplifiers still work and sound as great as they did when they were sold’. But that’s not really the point.

I’ve already posted this in another topic, but felt it was fair to put the info in its own post for the benefit of all Expert (and D-Prem) owners.

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A current dealer has also hinted, they will not be doing any more beyond the current expert pro series either. They want to focus/concentrate on the phantom range. The AHD (amp board) and CI (streaming/digital board) are modules to the main board so maybe these will be replaceable/updated.
 
Cereal Killer said:
Feel bad for Non-Pro Experts or D premier owners. Those that can afford it and want to stick with Devialet and want new features would be advised to upgrade when the program reopens. Might even be worth it for resale.
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The upgrade program has just been restarted. The D Premier is included, but not shown on the page link below. Registered D Premier owners will have the upgrade shown as available when logged in to their account.

https://www.devialet.com/en-gb/expert-pro-upgrade/
 
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