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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Showing 1 response by moguls

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)