Devialet 170

[HiFiFan]

Lampizator, new Big 5 DAC with volume control was at CES, with a show price of $5,895.

I'd be interested to hear some answers to Ken’s original question about people's (longer term) experiences with the Devialet 170, hopefully some of the new Devialet owners will chip in.

[DaveF]

I've had the Devialet 110 since last Sept and very happy with it. I dont need the power of the 170. I never experienced the boxiness that Ken described earlier. Mine was very fluid with an expansive soundstage right from the start. No glare or excessive highs whatsoever. Its a beautifully balanced presentation and that tight tuneful bass is just the icing on the cake. Sure, there are other amps that will beat the Devialet in certain areas but from tip to toe the Devialet just sounds right. Really important in my opinion when you have a very broad taste in music.
Part of all this sound is in no doubt down to the Audioplan speakers so ultra squeaky clean speakers might not suit this amp but really its hard to know until you sit down in front of them.
Ive barely looked at any hifi forum in months such is my content with what I have. Missing my TT though but that will come in time.

The Classe CP-800 was mentioned earlier. I had that on loan for a month sometime last year. Nice piece of kit with loads of connectivity and tweaking available but I felt that it was devoid of any particular sonic character. Would be perfect if transarency is what you're after but in my experience the Devialet was in a different league altogether.

[cybot]

I've had the Devialet 110 since last Sept and very happy with it. I dont need the power of the 170. I never experienced the boxiness that Ken described earlier. Mine was very fluid with an expansive soundstage right from the start. No glare or excessive highs whatsoever. Its a beautifully balanced presentation and that tight tuneful bass is just the icing on the cake. Sure, there are other amps that will beat the Devialet in certain areas but from tip to toe the Devialet just sounds right. Really important in my opinion when you have a very broad taste in music.
Part of all this sound is in no doubt down to the Audioplan speakers so ultra squeaky clean speakers might not suit this amp but really its hard to know until you sit down in front of them.
Ive barely looked at any hifi forum in months such is my content with what I have. Missing my TT though but that will come in time.

The Classe CP-800 was mentioned earlier. I had that on loan for a month sometime last year. Nice piece of kit with loads of connectivity and tweaking available but I felt that it was devoid of any particular sonic character. Would be perfect if transarency is what you're after but in my experience the Devialet was in a different league altogether.

Delighted to hear that the Dev/Audioplan's have done what all the others couldn't do, play music.....any genre :) Enjoy!

As an aside I finally managed to get the refinement/sibilance element of my system sorted out this very day after months of fruitless demoing. No disrespect to anyone. All I can add is, as only you know so well Dave, this hobby of ours can be so frustrating and extremely hard work at times especially when you know exactly what you're looking for and not getting anywhere near it :)

[Ivor]

As an aside I finally managed to get the refinement/sibilance element of my system sorted out this very day after months of fruitless demoing. No disrespect to anyone. All I can add is, as only you know so well Dave, this hobby of ours can be so frustrating and extremely hard work at times especially when you know exactly what you're looking for and not getting anywhere near it :)

Without going too far off topic how did you solve the issue?

[cybot]

As an aside I finally managed to get the refinement/sibilance element of my system sorted out this very day after months of fruitless demoing. No disrespect to anyone. All I can add is, as only you know so well Dave, this hobby of ours can be so frustrating and extremely hard work at times especially when you know exactly what you're looking for and not getting anywhere near it :)

Without going too far off topic how did you solve the issue?

0.5M length of Atlas Equator MK.3 interconnect solderless cable :)

[Ivor]

Without going too far off topic how did you solve the issue?

0.5M length of Atlas Equator interconnect solderless cable :)

ah right. As logical a cure as any! Of course sibilance is one of those things you can go mad trying to cure. It's often in the recording itself. I love Nina Simone but most recordings of her voice are very sibilant... small price to pay really!

[DaveF]

Had my first experience of vinyl playback through the Dev today. Adrian, to whom I sold my old TT to this time last year, sold the TT back to me recently, lol. Never thought I'd see it again but here it is back in the living room. It will fill in nicely until I eventually buy a more high end TT in the future.

I had a few glitches initially as I had to reconfigure the line inputs to be phono inputs which required me to get an SD card writer in order reprogram the Dev. Then there was constant tapping noise when phono input was selected. Turns out that you have to either lock the wifi to a network or disable it altogether. Otherwise the wifi module is constantly scanning for a network.

The sound from vinyl itself is quite impressive. The one thing that stands out is the transperancy of the Dev. The natural warmth of the vinyl really shines through and the character of each disc comes through a lot more than any other phonostage I've experienced to date.

Really impressed with the Devialet to date. It simply hasnt faltered in any way since I bought it. It will require a few more weeks to properly evaluate its vinyl playback capabilities but for now it seems well up to the task.

[Fran]

DaveF - can you add custom RIAA curves to the 170?

[DaveF]

I think you can in the 170 but not in the 110 which is the one I have. The 110 is MM cart only. From the 170 upwards, support is there for MC and MM plus advanced configuration for RIAA and the like.

[DaveF]

I think you can also contact Devialet and tell them what cart you have. They can then make a config file for you to reprogram the unit. Not 100% on this but I'm sure I came across it on another forum a while back.