Devialet Expert 200 Amplifier, DAC and Streamer Review

[BDWoody]

Paid reviewers notion of "professionalism"?

 

[RigorDude]

Surprised you writing so much for this Amira guy.
He just want Devialet to pay him money,

No, I don't agree at all. I think it's borderline slanderous.

 

[RigorDude]

Come on amira , you need to wake up ( it's the middle of the night for him ) and address these ' truth bombs ' .

Your putting bad things in internet, you want to make sushi Money and make french pay for raw fish!

You are acting immortal and need to say sorry to internet.

Okay this is cheap AF but I can't help laughing anyway.

 

[Tks]

Okay this is cheap AF but I can't help laughing anyway.

Yeah this thread is great tbh

 

[infinitesymphony]

I like this idea of reverse payola. Maybe I could write a bad review about the Genelec 8351As to force them to send me a pair.

 

[gvl]

What are the typical power levels of signals above 10kHz in real music?

 

[Matias]

I like this idea of reverse payola. Maybe I could write a bad review about the Genelec 8351As to force them to send me a pair.

Amir's grand plan has finally been revealed! It is called "high end audio blackmailing"!

It's like "You'd better pay to me to test your stuff, or else I am sure going to bad mouth you!".

How ingenious.

 

[infinitesymphony]

What are the typical power levels of signals above 10kHz in real music?

Depends. Here are some quick examples:

Vocal jazz with piano, strings, woodwinds (no percussion)

Top 40 Pop

EDM

 

[gvl]

Depends. Here are some quick examples:

Vocal jazz with piano, strings, woodwinds (no percussion)
View attachment 57698

Top 40 Pop
View attachment 57699

EDM
View attachment 57700

Is this a power or voltage dB scale?

 

[infinitesymphony]

Is this a power or voltage dB scale?

Edit: It's 0 dBFS, but not sure about the particular answer to this question.

Note that the scale on the right is just a color key, it is not directly correlated to the chart. These are from a free program called Spek, most commonly used for checking if a file is legitimately lossless or converted from a lossy source.

 

[HammerSandwich]

Absolute output level doesn't matter, because it's all relative to 0dBFS. I'd be shocked if it were not signal amplitude, which is voltage.

 

[RayDunzl]

I've made a mistake, in fact today Devialet is funded by Bernard Arnaud, Xavier Niels, Jay Z and Foxconn.
I won't post again about Devialet.

I prefer not to fund Jay Z, myself.

As is not uncommon with virtually any subject that comes along, F.Z. has his own recollection of playing In France, for anyone interested, or amused by such trivialities.

 

[gvl]

Absolute output level doesn't matter, because it's all relative to 0dBFS. I'd be shocked if it were not signal amplitude, which is voltage.

It is voltage I too think. Let me try some calcs if I remember anything from my EE days.

Consider 100W FS power into 8Ohms, this needs V=SQRT(800)=28V
EDM is the most "intense" but still has HF components below -40db which is only 0.28V or about 10mW into 8Ohm. This is only for one frequency I suppose. This begs a question, do you really need more than a couple of watts for HF content under normal listening scenarios?

 

[amirm]

An update. Got a nice call from Devialet support. She said that she had spoken to engineering and they like me to send the unit back to them in France. Unfortunately they are currently shut down due to coronavirus. But once they are open, they will repair it. It was a terrible connection so couldn't converse more than the bare necessities. Happy that there is a course of action at least to get the unit back to health.

 

[Doodski]

An update. Got a nice call from Devialet support. She said that she had spoken to engineering and they like me to send the unit back to them in France. Unfortunately they are currently shut down due to coronavirus. But once they are open, they will repair it. It was a terrible connection so couldn't converse more than the bare necessities. Happy that there is a course of action at least to get the unit back to health.

Good stuff. Maybe after the repair it can be tested again.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I don't know why he says this test result was not used in the evaluation.

Perhaps since the first distortion component of 10kHz harmonic distortion is at 20kHz?
Not saying this is good, obviously, but distortion at low frequencies, like from any transformer coupled amplifier, obviously makes a big difference over the audio band and is audible whereas distortion above 10kHz is horrid looking but almost certainly inaudible - otherwise nobody would ever listen to LPs - this is typical of the distortion profile of pickup cartidges.

 

[BaaM]

An update. Got a nice call from Devialet support. She said that she had spoken to engineering and they like me to send the unit back to them in France. Unfortunately they are currently shut down due to coronavirus. But once they are open, they will repair it. It was a terrible connection so couldn't converse more than the bare necessities. Happy that there is a course of action at least to get the unit back to health.

It seems I've been pessimistic...
Great news!

 

[gvl]

Perhaps since the first distortion component of 10kHz harmonic distortion is at 20kHz?
Not saying this is good, obviously, but distortion at low frequencies, like from any transformer coupled amplifier, obviously makes a big difference over the audio band and is audible whereas distortion above 10kHz is horrid looking but almost certainly inaudible - otherwise nobody would ever listen to LPs - this is typical of the distortion profile of pickup cartidges.

If the device is horridly non-linear at high frequencies then IMD products can surely fold back into the audible range.

 

[Soniclife]

If the device is horridly non-linear at high frequencies then IMD products can surely fold back into the audible range.

Not if the amp has an output filter. These don't have a filter.

 

[Soniclife]

So now we have two other reviews confirming the issue with power delivery at high frequencies. And unfortunately more evidence of measurements in magazines brushing aside performance problems.

It is sad the way even people with the measurements don't inform their readers what they all mean, the reviews all conclude these measure excellently, and in the print version of this review there is no data to allow the reader to form their own opinion. Your commentary on each measurement is very valuable, and with the forum nature if you were glossing over things you will get called on it.

Regarding the HF distortion / power have a look at the following measurements.
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...-integrated-amplifier-dac&catid=97&Itemid=154

Chart 3 - Distortion as a function of power output and frequency

(4-ohm loading)
Red line = 2W
Magenta line = 20W
Blue line = 60W
Cyan line = 150W

This is the older original model, which was higher rated. It shows a rise at HF but it get's to 20k at 20W, but only about 15K at 60W, and only 6K at 150W.

Now look at the following.
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...er&catid=97:amplifier-measurements&Itemid=154
Chart 3 - Distortion as a function of power output and frequency

(8-ohm loading)
Red line = 1W
Magenta line = 10W
Blue line = 30W
Cyan line = 60W
Green line = 80W

This is for the newer 'pro' line, but is the model below what you tested. Other than the 80W line which is approaching it's power rating they all get to 20K without a big rise in distortion. Have they fixed it in the new generation?