Devialet 170

[KenMoran]

I popped in to Cloney Audio yesterday and picked up their dem D170, to try with my Linn Akurate 242 speakers - so don't bother trying to get a dem of it this week, lads!

I'll be setting it up tomorrow (don't ask - cant find the Linn tool I need to unscrew the speaker terminals, so need to pop in to my Linn dealer tomorrow and borrow one). Have to say it looks beautifully built - and I've currently got a mountain of cables, interconnects, a DAC and an amp in the middle of my lounge - all of which it will, hopefully, replace.

Will report back on how it sounds later in the week.

ATB, Ken

[Diapason]

Must get my hands on this soon. Valves are too hot in this weather!

Please report your findings, Ken.

[KenMoran]

Will do. Def too hot for anything that generates heat at the moment!

[KenMoran]

OK, now hooked up to Squeezebox Touch using bog standard digital co-ax, Tellurium Blue to the Akurate 242s, and it sounds amazing. I'm crap at describing hifi - but words like effortless, organic and flowing spring to mind. Have noticed that the tendency is to play too loud - so clear and uncongested does it sound.

If it sounds like this with no optimisation, I can't wait to try AIR and maybe try Tellurium Black and get a decent digital coax interconnect. According to Ivan, it's fairly immune to power cable quality, so at least that's one variable that's, in fact, a constant.

Can't say much more in case Ivan sees this while he's on holiday - we haven't done a deal ... yet ...

Would highly recommend you dem this yourself.

ATB, Ken

[Diapason]

Thanks Ken.

[tony]

That sounds the business. When compared to a van load of power supplies and computer bits hanging all over the place. Could this be the unit that moves you on to streaming Simon? Certainly bringing it to another persons house would be very easy. Looks like it would fit in a laptop case.

[Sligolad]

Surprised you are not lining up an audition of the new Wadia Intuition Simon, by all accounts so far it seems serious competition for the Devialet.

[Claus]

Surprised you are not lining up an audition of the new Wadia Intuition Simon, by all accounts so far it seems serious competition for the Devialet.

Hmm... in terms of looks I know what I would prefer.... But it looks like the fight is on with the fancy one-box solutions...

[Diapason]

I haven't heard much about that Wadia yet. Any idea how much it costs?

[james]

http://www.stereophile.com/content/wadia-does-it-all


"...
Kevin Wolff of VANA Ltd., the US distributors of Vienna Acoustics and Primare products (left) joined Sunil Merchant (right) in his second Sunny Components room to show off the absolutely brand new, impressively slim and stylish Wadia Intuition 01 ($8500) shown atop the equipment rack. This new all-purpose baby combines 350 watts of class-D+ amplification with a 32-bit AD/DA digital preamp that, on USB, can decode both 384/32 and DSD files. Unfortunately, the unit on hand, the very first to make its way to the good ole USA, had maybe two days break-in when I heard it on Friday morning. Paired with Vienna Acoustics’ The Kiss loudspeakers ($18,000/pair) and Transparent Reference cabling, its highs were rather muffled. While bass was fleshed out nicely, that only refers to the bass that wasn’t booming. Was all this due to the room, the subwoofer that first came in at 22Hz, or the lack of break-in. . . or all three? Hey, it was a show, and this is neither a review nor 20 questions answered. To be continued. . .
..."