Devialet Expert Long Term Experience?

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.

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 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)

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

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.