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Devialet Expert Long Term Experience?

Would love to hear some more long term experience on the Devialet 200 or other of the Expert series amps. Many flattering reviews but few real life stories.

I recently heard two of the 200s as 400W monoblocks with the B&W 800 D3s and was blown away. I will listen to a single Expert 200 soon with some more speakers and am pretty sure I'll like it. I am a bass head and loved the tightness, accuracy and speed but at also loved the resolution and width of the mids and highs.

What I would like to know is how the Devialets feel and behave long-term in daily usage. They seem to run quite hot and some seem to experience some loss in SQ while running hot. Does it, despite the whole running class A/D in parallel thing, deliver class A quality with class D quantity and does it do so reliably at high temps over many hours and years of use? Any other bugs in this rather unconventional approach to an amp?

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bubba12's avatar
bubba12
190 posts
 
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.
leeagc
56 posts
 
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!
jetter
1,035 posts
 
Or perhaps the JC1's are just as good an audio product, which I suspect they are.
bubba12's avatar
bubba12
190 posts
 
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.
leeagc
56 posts
 
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.
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