Move to Devialet from LFD and Lumin?

@Thorsten_Vieth
Can you give us an update on your Devialet? How does it sound to you and will you keep it?

I love the idea of Devialet and the design. When it comes to music reproduction I personally think there are better alternatives out there for the same price or cheaper.

Get your dealer to lend you one Devialet Pro model to demo at home. Then you can hear for yourself.

I have both demoed one of the biggest one and the smallest for my main and secondary systems. Hoping I could go the minimalist way of Devialet. It didn’t work for me so I settled for a stack of hifi components as primary and the integrated and beautiful sounding Hegel H190 as secondary (buying this one from a dealer I have never talked to before, so I went out of my ordinary routine to get things right).

With all this said, or written, demoing is the way to go. You will probably be happy with just buying one (confirmation bias and all that). But you will most defiantly be happiest with choosing the one you actually perfected at home — after demoing at least two but preferably more options. :smirk:

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Worth noting for those considering going Devialet that they sent a mailshot this week opening the offer (again) to upgrade the Expert to Pro + Core Infinity. Not cheap, but given the announcement surrounding RAAT only being compatible with the Core Infinity I might finally take the plunge for my 200. Not sure if the offer is time or territory limited. Details here https://www.devialet.com/en-gb/expert-pro-upgrade/

@Kyle_Vuong Sorry for the late answer. Been traveling a lot, and my 140 Pro is still traveling to me as well. Long story… If it now goes as planned, it should be with me on the coming weekend. I’ll then comment here after spending a few days with it.

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OK, here’s the promised feedback. I’ve now spent a bit of time with my new Expert Pro 140 and believe I can give a reasonable first impression on both sound and reliability compared to my previous LFD/Lumin combination. This is now a one box setup with Roon Server running on a Synology 1817+ NAS and Roon streaming with Roon Air. I have configured the Devialet to use SAM for my speakers (Harbeth Compact C7ES-3).

Sound
During the first few hours with the system I was really not sure if I liked the sound. The bass was very nice and round, definitely extended from what I was used to without SAM, but not bass heavy at all. This part was very nice. The high frequencies, though, got on my nerves a bit. I found them a bit jarring and especially female voices had a lot of sibilance. Definitely not as nice and round as I was used to from my LFD/Lumin combo. But now after 2 weeks with the system I feel very different about the sound. No idea if this is an effect of “burn in” or I’m simply getting used to the Devialet sounding very different from my previous combo, but the trebles now are very nice. Still quite pronounced but not irritating anymore at all. I would call the overall sound quite a bit more analytical than before, with placement of instruments in space very defined. I feel it maybe doesn’t gel together as well as before, but the overall sound is fascinating to listen to, so absolutely happy with that.

Streaming Reliability
This is where Devialet with Roon at its current stage is a step back. The Lumin D2 I was using before was absolutely problem free, streaming whatever I was throwing at it. Most of the time I was upsampling material to DSD64 and there was absolutely zero hick-up ever. Mind you, this is with the streamer connected via Ethernet to a dedicated Google Wifi Pod that receives its data through the wireless mesh network from another Google Wifi Pod that’s connected to the NAS.

This is a rented home with no way to create a wired connection between the two locations. But as mentioned, never a problem streaming with the Lumin. With the Devialet, while using the exact same network setup, every once in a while I do get a bit of crackling or a stopping of streaming altogether. I’ve also seen the “device in use” error a few times, but typically just hitting play again restarts the sound. I’ve had to reboot the Devialet only 2-3 times to get sound back, so not really terrible. But definitely a step back from the Lumin. Hoping that Devialet RAAT will solve those little issues whenever it’s ready. Even with lower reliability so far, it only annoys me slightly and is currently not a show stopper.

Summary
I’m sure my impressions will keep changing more over time but I am happy with my purchase and have no regrets at all. The Devialet Expert 140 Pro is an impressive piece of kit. And it goes without saying that it also looks better in the living room.

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Hi @Thorsten_Vieth
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’m running Devialet LE 200 (not Pro) to Harbeth SHL5+. Source is QNAP NAS (1tb SSD) + SonicTransporter i5 as Roon Core. I also have quite a lot of DSD64 and 128 album and I’m not having any drop outs, clipping etc… while streaming via Roon Air.
I think you can improve that by having a dedicated Roon Core/ Music Server. Another way is you can try upgrading your Synology RAM to see if it’s better.

I run Roon on a 2012 iMac and stream via wifi to my Devialet 440PRO all controlled via an iPad. The streaming absolutely rock solid with not a single glitch. In the beginning I battled a lot of drop outs and 3 things sorted it out. (1) The Upgrade to the CI board that improved the Devialet wifi reception (2) I replaced an Apple Airport Extreme with an Asus wifi router (3) I disabled the “airtime fairness” setting in the Asus config. I have also not has a single “device in use” since upgrading to the latest firmware.

My conclusion is that most issues are actually network related.

I would 100% agree with this. Glad it’s all working well for you now.

I would agree that most dropout issue are network related. I used to have heaps of problems - not only with my Devialet setup but also with my Bluesound speakers. Since upgrading my router, these problems have all but disappeared for both Devialet and Bluesound.

I would have to add though that Roon Air provided a huge advance in stability when compared with Devialet Air - which I implemented before I got my new router.

Now here’s an interesting find. Today, I’ve reconfigured the Devialet to use its own WiFi module and switched off the Ethernet port which so far was connected to a Google WiFi pod. So, Roon Air streams direct to the 140 Pro via WiFi now.

I’ve been listening to high bitrate audio up to DSD64 for an hour now with no dropouts. That was previously not possible. No idea really why the built in WiFi module works and a connected Google WiFi pod doesn’t, but obviously very happy now.