The Devialet thread

[DocG]

It is my understanding indeed: they don't behave like your average ESL. Actually there is a Devialet - Quad owner on the forum (whose name escapes me; he has a D1 and 2905s), who is over the moon with this combo.

I never heard them work together, but it must be spellbinding!

Indeed - still haven't come back from the far side of the moon, even after a year. The combination still surprises me, but never in a way that interferes with the music!

It's as if the D1 takes the natural characteristics of the 2905s (openness, clarity, coherence, holography) and doubles them.

Hi quad2905! It was you I was talking about, indeed. Meanwhile I heard their little brothers, the 2805s, and did they sound fab! And that was just through a solid state Quad amp. Now that I have my Dev110, I actually didn't dare to go back to try the combo, because our new living room won't easily house them. Frankly, I don't want to know what I'll be missing... Though it keeps nagging, I can tell you!

:cheers:

 

[DocG]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

 

[CnoEvil]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

How very (very) annoying. I hope it is put right quickly and to your satisfaction.

 

[matt49]

Yikes! That doesn't sound good. In fact it sounds like the king of inconveniences. (Sorry!)

I hope you're up and running again soon, and I hope Devialet will be able to isolate what's gone wrong; otherwise this is going to be a bit of a worry.

ray:

Matt

 

[davedotco]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

Told you you should have bought a Marantz....... :read:

 

[DocG]

Just dropped the amp off in Antwerp. He'll contact Devialet tomorrow and let me know...

Now the good news: he has borrowed a pair of Audio Note AN-Ks [must be the hardest speakers to find in Belgium] for me to demo with the Dev. Think I'll go and hear them this week.

Optimism is a moral duty!

 

[Macspur]

Just dropped the amp off in Antwerp. He'll contact Devialet tomorrow and let me know...

Now the good news: he has borrowed a pair of Audio Note AN-Ks [must be the hardest speakers to find in Belgium] for me to demo with the Dev. Think I'll go and hear them this week.

Optimism is a moral duty!

Every cloud Doc...

Good luck.

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

 

[matt49]

That'll be interesting. Obviously high sensitivity speakers, which is great with tubes, but the Dev presumably doesn't need it, so I wonder ... will the bass response be adequate? Looking forward to your report.

:cheers:

Matt

 

[Neuphonix]

Just dropped the amp off in Antwerp. He'll contact Devialet tomorrow and let me know...

Now the good news: he has borrowed a pair of Audio Note AN-Ks [must be the hardest speakers to find in Belgium] for me to demo with the Dev. Think I'll go and hear them this week.

Optimism is a moral duty!

Good luck Doc

maybe you should push them tolet you trade up to the 250 for cost! Didn't you get the 170 at demo price?

As mac says, every silver cloud.

 

[DocG]

That'll be interesting. Obviously high sensitivity speakers, which is great with tubes, but the Dev presumably doesn't need it, so I wonder ... will the bass response be adequate? Looking forward to your report.

:cheers:

Matt

I got the idea when I demoed the Avantgarde horns earlier this year. I heard the Duo Grosso (with a sensitivity of >107 dB), driven by a Lyngdorf Millennium amp (150 Wpc into 8 Ohm). Large dynamics were superb, but the quiet passages were equally impressive (courtesy of the amp's very low noise floor). IMO that's the drawback of a 2Wpc SET + HE speakers: the noise is equally efficiently rendered by the speakers -- a drawback you won't see with a 'digital' amp like the Millennium or indeed the Devialet.

Thinking of it: Avantgarde make their own (very well regarded) amplifiers, obviously to be used with their speakers. The XA power amp is not exactly flea-powered, with150 Wpc!

So the idea is to get huge headroom, still maintaining the lowest noise floor. I'll keep you guys posted, once I've eaten the pudding! :cheers:

 

[DocG]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

Told you you should have bought a Marantz....... :read:

Yes, you did, Dave! Thanks for reminding me!

 

[CnoEvil]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

Told you you should have bought a Marantz....... :read:

Yes, you did, Dave! Thanks for reminding me!

Pay no heed to the nasty man!

 

[matt49]

I got the idea when I demoed the Avantgarde horns earlier this year. I heard the Duo Grosso (with a sensitivity of >107 dB), driven by a Lyngdorf Millennium amp (150 Wpc into 8 Ohm). Large dynamics were superb, but the quiet passages were equally impressive (courtesy of the amp's very low noise floor). IMO that's the drawback of a 2Wpc SET + HE speakers: the noise is equally efficiently rendered by the speakers -- a drawback you won't see with a 'digital' amp like the Millennium or indeed the Devialet.

Thinking of it: Avantgarde make their own (very well regarded) amplifiers, obviously to be used with their speakers. The XA power amp is not exactly flea-powered, with150 Wpc!

So the idea is to get huge headroom, still maintaining the lowest noise floor. I'll keep you guys posted, once I've eaten the pudding! :cheers:

Very interesting.

I'm finding that the combination of delicacy in quiet passages and massive dynamics is one of the most impressive things about the Dev. The Cremonas have nominally 88dB sensitivity, so on the sensitive side of average.

My concern about very high efficiency speakers would be that they compromise bass resonse, unless they have a very large box and huge LF drivers. That's the theory anyway. It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the Dev + AN combo.

:cheers:

Matt

 

[CnoEvil]

My concern about very high efficiency speakers would be that they compromise bass resonse, unless they have a very large box and huge LF drivers. That's the theory anyway. It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the Dev + AN combo.

:cheers:

Matt

AN speakers are different, in that if they are designed to be placed in the corners......where they use the whole room to re-enforce the bass, to great effect.

They sound great with SET amps, but I have no idea how well they will work with the Devialet.....it's an intriguing experiment.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

hi Doc. first of all thanks for your input in my thread on CBT speakers. I saw your posts there only recently because I was most of the time away from WHF forum. I'll reply soon but don't know when exactly. I don't have too much spare time to use up on forum chatting recently.

now back to your topic. sorry for your loss. but I'd like to use this opportunity to introduce you to a product that may be of interest to you. before I start I'd like to let anyone know I got nothing against Dev. in fact, the more I read about it the more I get convinced this is the most accomplished and best performing piece of gear available to buy today. and I was considering going the way of Dev 170 myself had I not found this alternative. but why would it be a better option than Dev? simply because it takes into equation also the speakers, whereas the Dev leaves this variable alone.

I know Doc you'd welcome some well performing on-walls. have you ever heard of Opalum yet? now, what's good about it? apart from the fact that they are meant to be put on wall saving a lot of audiophile real estate, they are very thin so don't protrude much off the wall once hanged, and look super cool too (flow and breeze product line), they also pack a lot of digital and technological wizardry to boot so that they reportedly sound good too (this is a fairly new product so there's little to be found about it yet but this review on soundandvision.com is promising. note very flat frequency response of the flow.1010 not leaving a 4 dB window (+2/-2 dB) from some 75Hz to 20kHz) or here (use google translate if needed). now a few words on the digital wizardry I was just mentioning. the system consists of a control hub and a pair of speakers. the speakers are of active kind so the hub is by no means an integrated amp of any sorts. the hub's role is to receive PCM digital signals, or if it's analog signal then it's converted to PCM, and send it on to the speakers for further processing. it also sends power to the speakers on the same cable as the data stream making the whole arangement extremely neat! basicaly you get 2 speakers hanging on the wall connected with only a thin wire. you can even put the hub out of your sight since the remote communicate via RF, not IR. the hub can also control the volume. what's with the speakers then? from reading tech info on this site here's what I could gather. the speakers are powered with some sort of digital class D amps where PCM is converted to PWM to directly power the drivers. the amps seem to be of clean class D breed - read; similar in performance to Hypex modules. the speakers use some sort of digital modelling to acuraltely shape FR, impulse, crossover and LF extension (note small internal volume vs. LF extension). the internal circuitry also seems to to have movement of drivers in check and apply corrective actions if needed. this is like applying feedback on the drivers. this is not novel but rarely used and impossible to implement in any passive speakers. this is said to reduce driver distortion. me likes low distortion!

that's all I can say about the speakers for now. I love the concept of freeing a lot of living room space and getting the whole hi-fi jungle out of my sight (the hub and some streamer can well be hidden away in a board) so much that I'm really considering swaping all I have for a pair of flow.1010 or flow.4810 (if they are worth the extra over 1010). there are still many questions regarding performance that I first need to find answers for. but if I hear more or less what I want to hear then this concept is really a viable alternative for a whole stack of boxes IMO (it even makes the venerable AVI 9 speakers look cumbersome :twisted: :rofl. plus an easy way to integrate a sub, if someone needs one, is also very appealing; there's a sub out in the hub that when it sences a sub is connected the hub would automatically apply a 4th order LR xover @ 80Hz - all you need then is an LFE input and gain control on the sub. it can't get easier then that. (BTW I wish all hi-fi amps included an integrated sub crossover...). last but not least the system should also be quite toddler resistant seeing that most of it can be hidden away .

I wasn't going to mention those speakers on the forum before I was sure they are worth it. but since the initial impressions are promising enough to warrant further investigation and I'm not sure when I get a chace to speak to Opalum I thought I'd flag this product for you now Doc seing that you found yourself in not-so-nice situation with your amp.

PS. sorry for all the spelling errors. for some reason spell check is gone from my browser and I can't re-instal it despite my numerous attempts.

PS2. I need to confirm this but it seems newer versions of the hub may include some streaming device as well. if that's the case then the whole system may get even smaller by another box - the streamer. I need to find out if this streaming device is going to be some sort of DLNA renderer because that's what I'd need for my streaming needs.

PS3. check this website out, for instance, for price comparison: http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/?manufacturer=opalum. while the system isn't cheap the price is definitely competitive with relation to what a Dev costs, even if you factor in a sub and some basic streamer (remember we need only a digital out, so it's really streamer's interface and reliability that counts).

 

[davedotco]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

Told you you should have bought a Marantz....... :read:

Yes, you did, Dave! Thanks for reminding me!

Pay no heed to the nasty man!

Just because I am always right, does not make me nasty...... 8) Just a PITA.

I have pretty much always been a massive believer in headroom, the main reason, I think, that I find so many modern systems resolutely mid-fi, also, in my view, a good reason for active speakers.

I believe the AN speakers use relatively simple crossovers and of course fairly sensitive drive units. It is in the nature of things that reasonably sensitive drivers in enclosures of acceptable size will not produce great bass extension, hence the need for reinforcement from the room.

In the studio environment it was (is) pretty normal to use speakers with a sensitivity approaching the mid 90s db/w with big amplifiers, much of the time this was used to play at enormous levels or to handle uncompressed instruments but the sense of ease and 'correctness' that this brought to playback at more 'domestic' levels was always impressive.

Like ironing board covers, you can never have too many watts.

 

[DocG]

Yesterday evening, while listening to some Kings of Convenience, I noticed a penetrant smell of burned plastic in our living room.

Followed my nose and... Yep, it's the Dev! I switched it off immediately, obviously, and this morning I called my dealer (who is open on Sundays). I can bring it to him this afternoon. Not sure how we'll handle this. I might have to temporarily downgrade to a Sonos Play:3 in the living room

We'll see how it turns out... And I had just planned some speaker demos in the coming weeks :doh:

hi Doc. first of all thanks for your input in my thread on CBT speakers. I saw your posts there only recently because I was most of the time away from WHF forum. I'll reply soon but don't know when exactly. I don't have too much spare time to use up on forum chatting recently.

now back to your topic. sorry for your loss. but I'd like to use this opportunity to introduce you to a product that may be of interest to you. before I start I'd like to let anyone know I got nothing against Dev. in fact, the more I read about it the more I get convinced this is the most accomplished and best performing piece of gear available to buy today. and I was considering going the way of Dev 170 myself had I not found this alternative. but why would it be a better option than Dev? simply because it takes into equation also the speakers, whereas the Dev leaves this variable alone.

I know Doc you'd welcome some well performing on-walls. have you ever heard of Opalum yet? now, what's good about it? apart from the fact that they are meant to be put on wall saving a lot of audiophile real estate, they are very thin so don't protrude much off the wall once hanged, and look super cool too (flow and breeze product line), they also pack a lot of digital and technological wizardry to boot so that they reportedly sound good too (this is a fairly new product so there's little to be found about it yet but this review on soundandvision.com is promising. note very flat frequency response of the flow.1010 not leaving a 4 dB window (+2/-2 dB) from some 75Hz to 20kHz) or here (use google translate if needed). now a few words on the digital wizardry I was just mentioning. the system consists of a control hub and a pair of speakers. the speakers are of active kind so the hub is by no means an integrated amp of any sorts. the hub's role is to receive PCM digital signals, or if it's analog signal then it's converted to PCM, and send it on to the speakers for further processing. it also sends power to the speakers on the same cable as the data stream making the whole arangement extremely neat! basicaly you get 2 speakers hanging on the wall connected with only a thin wire. you can even put the hub out of your sight since the remote communicate via RF, not IR. the hub can also control the volume. what's with the speakers then? from reading tech info on this site here's what I could gather. the speakers are powered with some sort of digital class D amps where PCM is converted to PWM to directly power the drivers. the amps seem to be of clean class D breed - read; similar in performance to Hypex modules. the speakers use some sort of digital modelling to acuraltely shape FR, impulse, crossover and LF extension (note small internal volume vs. LF extension). the internal circuitry also seems to to have movement of drivers in check and apply corrective actions if needed. this is like applying feedback on the drivers. this is not novel but rarely used and impossible to implement in any passive speakers. this is said to reduce driver distortion. me likes low distortion!

that's all I can say about the speakers for now. I love the concept of freeing a lot of living room space and getting the whole hi-fi jungle out of my sight (the hub and some streamer can well be hidden away in a board) so much that I'm really considering swaping all I have for a pair of flow.1010 or flow.4810 (if they are worth the extra over 1010). there are still many questions regarding performance that I first need to find answers for. but if I hear more or less what I want to hear then this concept is really a viable alternative for a whole stack of boxes IMO (it even makes the venerable AVI 9 speakers look cumbersome :twisted: :rofl. plus an easy way to integrate a sub, if someone needs one, is also very appealing; there's a sub out in the hub that when it sences a sub is connected the hub would automatically apply a 4th order LR xover @ 80Hz - all you need then is an LFE input and gain control on the sub. it can't get easier then that. (BTW I wish all hi-fi amps included an integrated sub crossover...). last but not least the system should also be quite toddler resistant seeing that most of it can be hidden away .

I wasn't going to mention those speakers on the forum before I was sure they are worth it. but since the initial impressions are promising enough to warrant further investigation and I'm not sure when I get a chace to speak to Opalum I thought I'd flag this product for you now Doc seing that you found yourself in not-so-nice situation with your amp.

PS. sorry for all the spelling errors. for some reason spell check is gone from my browser and I can't re-instal it despite my numerous attempts.

PS2. I need to confirm this but it seems newer versions of the hub may include some streaming device as well. if that's the case then the whole system may get even smaller by another box - the streamer. I need to find out if this streaming device is going to be some sort of DLNA renderer because that's what I'd need for my streaming needs.

PS3. check this website out, for instance, for price comparison: http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/?manufacturer=opalum. while the system isn't cheap the price is definitely competitive with relation to what a Dev costs, even if you factor in a sub and some basic streamer (remember we need only a digital out, so it's really streamer's interface and reliability that counts).

Hi Oldric,

Another left field suggestion, they seem to be your trade mark and me likes the left field!

First of all, I don't plan to ditch the Dev anytime soon. I'll have it either fixed or replaced. Period. But if Opalum is the business, I might house the Dev in the living room, feeding some nice floorstanders, and hang the Opalums in the library :?

I first read on this system in a Belgian(!) hifi mag, about a year ago, but didn't consider it 'proper hifi' as the reviewer put so much stress on the lifestyle aspects. After reading your post (and the links), I understand the concept is more than skin-deep. The PCM to PWM conversion reminds me of NAD's Direct Digital technology. Is that correct? There seems to be quite some DSP going on inside the speakers, including 'psycho-acoustic bass' :? That doesn't sound very hifi (in theory), but my open mind says it wants to judge for itself.

So I checked the Store Locator on the website, and my Devialet dealer happens to figure on the list. I dropped him a mail. If he has a demo set available, I could have a listen later this week. How about that?

If all goes well, I'll report back. Of course.

 

[DocG]

My concern about very high efficiency speakers would be that they compromise bass resonse, unless they have a very large box and huge LF drivers. That's the theory anyway. It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the Dev + AN combo.

:cheers:

Matt

AN speakers are different, in that if they are designed to be placed in the corners......where they use the whole room to re-enforce the bass, to great effect.

They sound great with SET amps, but I have no idea how well they will work with the Devialet.....it's an intriguing experiment.

Are you familiar with the different models (AN-K, AN-J, AN-E), Cno? Do they have a similar sonic signature? I'm gonna hear the AN-K, but having read the specs, the AN-J might be more what I'm after (or even the AN-E, who knows?). But it seems to be very difficult to audition these speakers in/near Belgium, so I'll listen to what I can get...

 

[CnoEvil]

Are you familiar with the different models (AN-K, AN-J, AN-E), Cno? Do they have a similar sonic signature? I'm gonna hear the AN-K, but having read the specs, the AN-J might be more what I'm after (or even the AN-E, who knows?). But it seems to be very difficult to audition these speakers in/near Belgium, so I'll listen to what I can get...

I only heard the AN-E / LX......they sounded like they were 3 times the size.

I very much suspect they will have a "family sound".......you just go in at the level you can afford. They produce more scale as they get bigger, and you get more vibrancy / detail / dynamics, with the very expensive silver cabling.

I would also be inclined to go for one of the bigger models, if you like what you hear.

 

[matt49]

There seems to be quite some DSP going on inside the speakers, including 'psycho-acoustic bass' :? That doesn't sound very hifi (in theory), but my open mind says it wants to judge for itself.

So I checked the Store Locator on the website, and my Devialet dealer happens to figure on the list. I dropped him a mail. If he has a demo set available, I could have a listen later this week. How about that?

If all goes well, I'll report back. Of course.

If these can produce good bass, it will be an amazing engineering achievement. As I understand it, the top model, the Flow.4810, uses an array of 48 little 1" drivers. Whoah! I'll be really interested to hear your report on this.

In the meantime, I'm off some time next week to try out something much more conventional: the Marshall Choong CM-3s. A tiny manufacturer based in South London, they make a fairly ordinary looking range of classic 3-way boxes which are said to be outstanding.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Hi Oldric,

Another left field suggestion, they seem to be your trade mark and me likes the left field!

just wait a few years and you'll see that my left-field suggestions are not so much left-field anymore. I truly believe that in this age of affordable and widely available DSP modules passive speaker technology is at it's last breath. the benefits of going active DSP are simply too great to ignore.

First of all, I don't plan to ditch the Dev anytime soon. I'll have it either fixed or replaced. Period.

agreed. a Dev is a beauty to behold and performs likewise so I can see why people wouldn't want to let one go so easily. it's a shame though that it's so hard to find a pair of passive speakers with performance to match. I'd like to see an all Devialet sound system with DSP enabled speakers. that would be a treat.

But if Opalum is the business, I might house the Dev in the living room, feeding some nice floorstanders, and hang the Opalums in the library :?

wow, you have a library... I want one too. and another bedroom. and a bigger living room. and a bigger storage. and a lotto lotery wining ticket...

I first read on this system in a Belgian(!) hifi mag, about a year ago, but didn't consider it 'proper hifi' as the reviewer put so much stress on the lifestyle aspects. After reading your post (and the links), I understand the concept is more than skin-deep.

that's what it appears to be. it's like with B&O gear. lifestle design but backed up with solid engineering within.

The PCM to PWM conversion reminds me of NAD's Direct Digital technology. Is that correct? There seems to be quite some DSP going on inside the speakers, including 'psycho-acoustic bass' :? That doesn't sound very hifi (in theory), but my open mind says it wants to judge for itself.

yeah, bringing up NAD in this context is a good call. the DSP seems to be responsible, among other things, for frequency response shaping and controling of phase integrity. that alone should ensure at least good imaging, if not stellar. as for the bass, to be honest I'd opt for a sub instead. since easy integration is so well implemented why not take advantage of it? it's like with using any small speakers on their own. many tricks are used to fool you into thinking they sound bigger then they are but when stacked against reall big boys you know the small ones are just big pretenders.

So I checked the Store Locator on the website, and my Devialet dealer happens to figure on the list. I dropped him a mail. If he has a demo set available, I could have a listen later this week. How about that?

If all goes well, I'll report back. Of course.

damn you Doc! I really envy you that you have so easy access to check out things that interest me. I have hard time time auditioning things that don't interest me, not mentioning those that do. well, I guess it's time to move back to Europe then . anyway, looknig forward to hearing your impressions from the demo. I in the mean time will try to get on with Opalum and ask them a few technical questions about their products. if I hear what I expect then it really may be a viable option outside of legacy hi-fi products. let's hope Opalum are approachable and knowledgeble lot.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

If these can produce good bass, it will be an amazing engineering achievement. As I understand it, the top model, the Flow.4810, uses an array of 48 little 1" drivers. Whoah! I'll be really interested to hear your report on this.

if you do your math then you'll find out that 48 1' drivers add up to rougly 6.8' driver. that's not too bad. I guess you could easily expect a similar performance in low register that you could get from a 6.5'er in a sealed cabinet. and since the speakers hang flush on the wall you don't get typical problems with baffle step response anomaly found in typical free standing box speakers. although I admit the excurtion of even the biggest number array of 1' drivers may be a problem on high level outputs. hence I'd opt for a sub instead since integration should be seamless.

 

[DocG]

But if Opalum is the business, I might house the Dev in the living room, feeding some nice floorstanders, and hang the Opalums in the library :?

wow, you have a library... I want one too. and another bedroom. and a bigger living room. and a bigger storage. and a lotto lotery wining ticket...

Well, not that I have a pile of books or anything. We just call it "library" for the taxman :shhh:

As for the bass, to be honest I'd opt for a sub instead. since easy integration is so well implemented why not take advantage of it? it's like with using any small speakers on their own. many tricks are used to fool you into thinking they sound bigger then they are but when stacked against reall big boys you know the small ones are just big pretenders.

But adding a sub makes it less "interior-friendly". So let's first see what they do on their own.

So I checked the Store Locator on the website, and my Devialet dealer happens to figure on the list. I dropped him a mail. If he has a demo set available, I could have a listen later this week. How about that?

If all goes well, I'll report back. Of course.

damn you Doc! I really envy you that you have so easy access to check out things that interest me. I have hard time time auditioning things that don't interest me, not mentioning those that do. well, I guess it's time to move back to Europe then . anyway, looknig forward to hearing your impressions from the demo. I in the mean time will try to get on with Opalum and ask them a few technical questions about their products. if I hear what I expect then it really may be a viable option outside of legacy hi-fi products. let's hope Opalum are approachable and knowledgeble lot.

When I started my hifi-search, I thought Belgium was Europe's hifi-desert. But by now, I know my way in the desert pretty well! Having said that, the dealer didn't confirm anything yet...

Meanwhile, I'm still very interested in some more background knowledge. So if you learn anything more, please share!

 

[DocG]

In the meantime, I'm off some time next week to try out something much more conventional: the Marshall Choong CM-3s. A tiny manufacturer based in South London, they make a fairly ordinary looking range of classic 3-way boxes which are said to be outstanding.

Conventional speakers indeed, but they do look classy, with their copper plugs. Any particular reason you want to try them with the Dev (apart from making the fun last as long as possible)?

:cheers:

 

[matt49]

Conventional speakers indeed, but they do look classy, with their copper plugs. Any particular reason you want to try them with the Dev (apart from making the fun last as long as possible)?

:cheers:

They're just one of a longish list of speakers I'd like to hear before settling on a permanent replacement for the Cremonas.

Cheers

Matt