erikm said It is kind of a pain the rear cover won't fit with most power cords but supposedly it sounds better off, which is how mine is. I also found that for my room about 3db of bass boost at 70hz worked a treat. It's great one can adjust so many little parameters! And the new firmware is awesome.. I've started to down load a few DSD files and they sound excellent!Can you guys explain or perhaps illustrate with pictures what the difference is between the rear cover being on and off?
The pic two posts up (click on it for larger view) shows left-to-right a power cord, speaker cables and a digital S/PDIF attached to the rear of the Devialet 200. In that pic you can see a black ‘leg’ just to left of AC IEC female power plug. There is another of those legs out of picture on the right side. The cover which is 3.166" from front-to-rear and extends full width of the unit clips into those and runs flush along the ‘edge’ of the top where you can see “DEVIALET” relieved into the top. When in place that cover hides all the cable terminations you now see in that picture. If you look at almost any Devialet pic you’ll see the extension cover in place beyond the DEVIALT relief printing. Due to ‘thinness’ of the Devialet it can’t accommodate most ‘high-end’ power cords with that cover in place. Of course there are power cords, including the one that comes with the unit that fit with the cover in place and even a few (very few indeed) touted as ‘high end’ with a mini IEC female plug that also fit under the cover. But I think most would agree mini AC power plug terminations would not be considered on a high-end power cord as they simply don’t have the ‘grip’ tenacity or electrical contact surface area of a full size plug termination.
Hope this helps…
As much as I choose the DS DAC for Digital - Analog conversion, there are a few things in the Devialet that I’m not going to get otherwise.
In particular, SAM.
Also Digital crossover is built-in.
I’m thinking about using a Devialet for bi-amping, in the Low Frequency section. While using pure Digital out to the DS DAC where most of the music is (in the High Frequency section; at least that’s how it sounds when I disconnect speaker cables from the Low Frequency section of my Salon2’s).
I haven’t really thought this through and it may not be possible.
If anyone has any thoughts, I’m all ears. Seems like a difficult thing to do; but would seem to be the best of all worlds.
In theory
Also, an advantage of being able to run the power light Devialet full frequency, for times when I’m not super concerned about the music.
Anyone know the average power consumption of the BHK’s ? My JC-1’s are monsters and I do love them, but… they are very hungry (for kWhr of power) …
I recently purchased a Devialet 200. The advantages to the Devialet are numerous in terms of sound quality, convenience and cost.
I purchased the Devialet strictly for the amp and had no desire to let go of my DS DAC. I was told that the combination of the digital signal for the current and the analog for the sound quality made it a great match for my Rockport Altair speakers. From the moment I played the initial track from the Devialet amp I knew I had identified a giant killer as it easily bested amps as I tried that cost twice as much as the entire Devialet 200.
After the Devialet settled in it improved and I knew it was a keeper. I then decided to try out the DAC of the Devialet which is when I discovered it was a serious competitor to the DS DAC. I couldn’t believe that a single piece of equipment that has a street price of approx $7,500 could also possibly replace my DS DAC, which is why I decided to have some audio trusted friends over to help me with some A/B listening sessions.
The Devialet DAC equaled or bested the DirectStream (DS) DAC in our listening tests of Hi-Rez & Redbook CD tracks. We used an Aurender N100H as the common music server/streamer for our listening tests. We listened to both well engineers & poorly engineered tracks. The Devialet made the poorly engineered tracks sound more listenable as it had a bit more air around the instruments instead of a wall of noise coming at you as we heard from the DS.
Bass resolution was excellent from both DACs. Mid-bass was a bit better from the Devialet. Mixed reviews of the highs as one of us thought that DS presented better sizzle, but 2 of us commented that the ‘sizzle’ was a bit harsh and favored the way the Devialet presented the highs in a more relaxed manner. Decay of piano notes and cymbal strikes were also better on the Devialet.
As I mentioned, I purchased the Devialet strictly for it’s amp but have now decided to use the Devi’s DAC to replace my DS DAC and will likely replace my phono stage and hook up my ProJect turntable directly to the Devialet.
When you consider the cost of power cables, interconnects and rack space, the Devialet represents a serious threat to all high-end audio manufacturers. Some will wake up and think outside the box and hopefully for us consumers, design and build a Devialet killer. Others will rely on the consumer naysayers and likely won’t exist within a few years.
@cycles2, which FW version did you use with the DS?
Having listened to Devialet 200, 400 (2 x 200), 250 & 800 (2 x 250), I would have to say - really - 1 x 200 (at 6 Ohms) was superior ? Really really ???
Even the people selling the Devialet gear (where I bought my PS Audio DS DAC) readily acknowledged how much better the 2 x Devialet’s sounded than the single pizza boxes.
To the extent, when I was looking at starting with 1 x 250, they were counselling me to spend a lot of time checking out the 2 x 200 (same price) and to be really sure I was going to go to 2 x 250 = 800.
And I agreed. Both: 2 x 200 way better than 1 x 250, and 1 x 200 just seemed under the weather compared to the 2 x 250’s = 800 mono’s; the DS DAC still bettered the 800’s (IMHO).
So, colour (australian spelling) me skeptical.
And if not, then with Rockport Altair speakers (what US$100k ?), do yourself a favour and go about putting in mono blocks.
Of course, by the time the Devialet is “properly specified” to 600W (at 8 Ohm) mono blocks, it come in around $23k EURO.
I think the appropriate point of comparison would be BHK Mono’s driven by DS DAC + Bridge for about the same money as the max specified Devialet system.
Paul is pretty sure (and I don’t doubt it) that the BHK’s would kill my JC-1’s, but I spent a lot of time with the Devialet, and I can assure you that JC-1 (second hand) + DS DAC (to my ear) for AU$13.5k beats the Devialet at AU$34k (list). I could even afford some cables with that.
Of course, being able to mix second hand amps with a DS DAC is part of the beauty of the separate components.
So, “cost” “convenience” etc, well, for me apples to apples involves considering not just walking out of a store with brand new boxes, but how one could put together a system.
Reminds me, I need to go looking for Manoet’s integration of DS DAC + Devialet.
Devialet does have SAM, and that was pretty cool. DS DAC sounded better (to my ear) in the higher frequencies, even before Yale Final (which drops the noise floor quite considerably).
BTW, I really wanted to buy the Devialet gear. That’s what I went to buy. The dealer would rather have sold Devialet - more $$. But they are decent people and want repeat customers and referral business (if you’re in NSW, get in touch, I went to them all and would only deal with one of them).
Also, as mentioned many times, my conclusion was quite common, according to the dealer. Many were picking DS DAC over Devialet.
I still wanted to want to Devialet. So much easier. Appealed to my desire to tinker. Wall mounted.
But, I wanted the detail the DS DAC offered, and also I trusted what I read about PS Audio, that they would continue upgrading the FPGA into the future.
Convenience vs Quality, well that’s a personal choice, but one should not be confused for the other.
There’s room for both : Devialet and PS Audio stack are very different.
But, in no real world situation could it be said that the Devialet is ‘obviously better’. That’s all I wanted to make sure was on the record.
(and personally, I couldn’t be happier that I choose PS Audio, despite the extra ‘hassle’ of separates).
The Devialet devices are indeed marvelous and there is much to like about them but it has been my experience that the DS DAC has superior sound quality. This is backed up by my friend, who has a Devialet 250, who comments that the DS does things that his Devialet cannot, especially when it comes to detail and soundstage. What I suspect may be going on in your comparison is that the DS DAC was connected to the analog inputs of the Devialet for comparison purposes. This would convert the analog output of the DS DAC to digital inside the Devialet and then back to analog at the output. I can’t see this as a good way to compare the two if this is in fact how it was done. In both cases you are still listening to the DAC in the Devialet.
wglenn is absolutely correct. There’s no way to compare any DAC to the DAC component of the Devialet as once you put the Devialet into the system, you can’t avoid the Devialet digitizing your source, meaning there’s no way to disable the DAC component of the Devialet.
I can tell you that I demo’d a DS late last year with the current firmware upgrades and although it’s an excellent DAC when I compared it to my Antelope Zodiac Platinum DAC the SQ was very comparable. With the addition of an external atomic clock on the Zodiac Platinum DAC, the Zodiac Platinum pulled way ahead. A friend and me knew it the moment we listened to Miles Davis ‘So What’ track on the ‘Kind of Blue’ album. I have the HDTracks 192k/24 bit version and we never heard Paul Chambers bass line in the opening minute as clear and distinct as when we listened with the Zodiac Platinum DAC with the external atomic clock engaged. The difference was jaw dropping and it’s become one of my listening comparison references.
I’ve since upgraded the Zodiac Platinum DAC / Clock to a dCS Paganini DAC, Upsampler & external word clock as it slightly bested the Zodiac Platinum DAC/Clock combo, which you would expect at approx 4 times the cost. Then the Devialet entered the picture. I was actually auditioning the Devialet for the amp as I was searching for an amp to manage the 15" woofers on my Rockport Altair speakers. WOW is all I can say. No other tube or solid state amps I’ve owned has made my Altair speakers sound so good. I was still using my dSC Paganini DAC/Upsampler/Clock and the dCS DAC served as the pre-amp. I was in audio nirvana, hearing new artifacts in music I’ve listened to hundreds of times.
After a few weeks I tried the Devialet DAC & preamp portion and it was hard to tell the difference between the Devialet DAC ad the dCS stack. As wglenn has noted, the reason is probably due to the fact that you can’t really avoid the DAC portion of the Devialet as it digitizes everything that is sourced to it. Didn’t matter as the overall sound quality of the complete Devialet system DAC/Pre-amp/Amp was the best sound my system has ever produced by a wide margin. Oh BTW the Devialet has a world-class phono stage.
Hopefully I was clear that over the past year or so I demo’d or owned a DS, Zodiac Platinum DAC/Clock and a dCS Paganini stack and now the Devialet. Each change represented a better DAC. With the Devialet, the change represents a better system.
I think the key is to see if the Devialet mates well with your speakers. If it does, I can assure you that the Devialet’s DAC & pre-amp won’t disappoint. With the money you’ll save in purchasing separate components, power/interconnect cables you can take the next upgrade path and replace your computer with an Aurender music server and still have lots of cash in your pocket. The Aurender blows away any computer-based music server and the Aurender’s iPad app has the best TIDAL integration I’ve ever seen.
cycles2 said The Aurender blows away any computer-based music server . . .For $17,000 I would hope so.
$17,000 is the price for the flagship Aurender W20. If you only need a USB input, you can purchase the N100H which includes an internal 2TB drive for a street price of less than $2,500.
And a minimum of $8,000 just to add S/PDIF.
I’m sure they are competitive with other dedicated music servers.
How does the Aurender N10 compares with an Intel based music server, like the CAPs v4 w/ linear power supply & running the best of the s/w - Windows Server 2012, AO, Jplay or even a Mac based system ? It seems like N10 is sitting at a sweet spot in their chain. Does anyone know what operating system they run inside - Linux ?
Sometimes I feel that just buy a commercial version of a music server and be done away with it instead of this endless tweaking of a pc based server. The problem with digital is its ever so changing with new technologies that its hard to put down $8k just to find out that its superseded by something else in another year or so. With PC, there is atleast options to upgrade parts of the system with better h/w - like usb interface, hdd, memory, etc.
Some reviews place the N10 ahead of CAPs. I don’t have any experience with Aurender myself. At theses prices I feel like I will wait for technology to catch up in the less expensive devices. These days that is usually a brief interval in the computer world. Remember, these devices are just computers underneath the skin. Some are executed better than others.
Indeed. The wait time is often very short.
My continuing impression is that the bespoke dedicated servers do a bit better than a purpose-built computer employing off-the-shelf components, but it is close. Additionally, even with dedicated servers, the returns diminish even more quickly than usual once one spends $2,000 or so.
I also have the Revel Ultimate Salon 2 - having followed Kevin Voecks for decades, starting with the Snells - and was trending towards the Devialet 200 (my dealer advised 400) when I decided, for now, I would stick to my KT120 based tube mono blocks but could envision to get the 200 or 400 in the foreseeable future.
Did you audition the 200/400 with the Salon 2s? If so, very interested to hear your impressions.
With the upcoming Devialet Zero, just announced, Devialet might reverse the previous advantage offered by the Directstream.
Will be very interesting to hear the new Class A amplifier and new Class D amplifier in concert together, in addition to the new, more accurate ADC. Rumoured to be a substatial step in sound quality.
And see how the pricing comes out, whether they’ve spent the decreasing cost of compute and manufacture on better computing components or decreased price.
And whether they are able to keep their global power supply (superb engineering ? or not that hard to do ?)
https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2016/06/17/devialet-announce-massive-upgrades-with-new-zero-models/
Polyglot said I also have the Revel Ultimate Salon 2 - having followed Kevin Voecks for decades, starting with the Snells - and was trending towards the Devialet 200 (my dealer advised 400) when I decided, for now, I would stick to my KT120 based tube mono blocks but could envision to get the 200 or 400 in the foreseeable future.No, I bought the Salon2's after auditioning the Direcstream and the Devialet.Did you audition the 200/400 with the Salon 2s? If so, very interested to hear your impressions.
(claim of controlled driver output down to 13.2Hz)
http://en.devialet.com/speakers/revel/revel-ultima-salon-2
ADH and SAM on Devialet:
http://en.devialet.com/assets/Systems/Devialet-White-Paper-EN.pdf
With a new, third generation platform due out soon,
if they follow Chord and PSAudio into FPGA for the ADC, on top of the new Class A and new Class D amplifiers, it will be very very interesting.
SAM and the Salon2’s, and all the consolidation eliminating cables, boxes, etc, would mean that if the rumoured increase in Sound Quality is there, then it would be very hard to ignore.
Of course, it might be very expensive. We’ll have to see !
Green Machine said With the upcoming Devialet Zero, just announced, Devialet might reverse the previous advantage offered by the Directstream.What advantage are you referring to?
Sound quality.
One might want to revisit those comparisons with the DS DAC, now that Torreys is available.