HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Is the difference that the Devialet is a Class A/D amp rather than a 'pure' Class D?

What the ferk is that!!!!!!!!!

Who ever came up with that marketing crap deserves shooting, there is no such thing.

Fair enough. I don't understand the technology myself, I just enjoy the sound coming out of the speakers.

Do you have one of these Devel amps Joe.

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote:Do you have one of these Devel amps Joe.

I do. I have mentioned it before. I got it when I retired, partly funded from my pay-off, partly from selling a load of boxes including a couple of valve amps, a phono amp and a DAC (the Dev has a built-on phono stage and DAC).

Then well done joe..by all accounts yer a luck fella.

Far to rich for us mere mortals im afraid........

My commiserations Joe, but hey! if you are happy.

While I don't have one hooked up at the moment, I am a big fan of class D amps.
I've owned and heard loads with RRPs from £20 to £3000. I've not heard a Devialet, though. They all sound good to me, although each has different sonic characteristics that will appeal to different people.
Some are seriously laid back (I would call them boring, but others love them) - some are more upfront and full of pizzaz and it's those that I personally favour.

It's weird that I have such different views on these beasts to RD as we agree so much on many other areas of audio.

Hmm -- I'll just copy my post from the EOTW AOS thread as it's more relevant here and says all I want to say on the subject. ---->

_D_S_J_R_ wrote:Maybe like me, you should try an NVA amp. I'd heard good things about them but a year or three ago it was extremely unlikely I'd ever be able to try one. Things came around and I'm really glad I did. Like D amps, not for everyone, but do them right and they're something special.

Hmm, it's weird.

I too like and have owned and enjoyed NVA amps (and a lot of others of course).

But I loved the sound of class D amps from the very first one I tried - remember that £25 plastic housed TA2024 thing? ...



I bought it out of curiosity because of the fuss being made about it on TNT Audio and elsewhere - I mean, £25, why not have a listen? But driving the £5k rrp Kharma Ceramique 3 speakers I then had, my jaw just dropped in amazement.
Sure, compared to the later TA2020 amps, for example, it sounds lazy, fogged and rolled off, but for some reason (perhaps I was dropped on my head as a baby? ) all of the class D amps I have heard just do it for me in a similar way to how a really good valve amp does. They all have their own characteristics, and I have definite favourites, but they all sound musically convincing to me.
I listen to a lot of piano music, and strings - I'm a big classical fan, probably 95%+ of my listening - and for the life of me I don't hear the falseness that RD and LindsayT and some others do.

There's something about class D that just sounds right to me!
Call me baffled.

The falseness and technical difficulties are there all right (I understand and not just from the Doc!), but I do think that in the BEST current examples, it's not an audible problem any more. The Alner Hamblin amp seems to be similar to the devel (love it ) - a sort of hybrid? I'm well out of my expertise here, so shall shut up!