2. amps-preamps
  3. 128892-95886

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?

128x128superpef
arcticdeth's avatar
arcticdeth
1,572 posts
 


Months at the dealer, listening to several high class speakers, with devialet, very unimpressed, sounds a little tinny, and weak,
just my impression


always went back to the Mac amps, and their older threshold vintage stuff.  

 Devialet is so overhyped.
bsimpson
167 posts
 
I only heard an Devialet setup in a showroom.... just because it’s so expensive, always worth a learning experience.

Not that impressed, truly.

And I always feel confused when someone said: Hack, you didn’t get good sound because you don’t use that $$$$$ cables.

Look, an Ferrari is an Ferrari. Don’t care where you live, but you still need to feed it with Exxon or BP or Sunoco, the same gas any cheap car would use. An Ferrari doesn’t need ’racing circuit’ gas to be awesome.

So are high-end expensive audio equipment like Devialet. You may not *optimize* their potential with basic cables and power outlets, but they shall never sound average.

:-)


racecoach
6 posts
 
Here we are over a year later. I am looking at purchasing a used Expert 220 to pair with KEF Reference 1 speakers. At the heavily discounted prices on used Devialet amps, it seems like an opportunity. Yet, the fact that many customers seem disheartened and the existence of heavily discounted units causes concern. Curious to hear what current owners have to say. Would you buy one again, or stick with more traditional amplification?
sorensen
2 posts
 
Hi.  I sold my Devialet 140 expert pro.
I could not live with the thin midrange which is typical of class D.
I now have a Gryphon Diablo 120/dac which is superior 
sorensen
2 posts
 
Devialet is not a revelation in audio.
It's still mostly class D, with the typical thin midrange lacking presense and body 
More to discover