Your lockdown purchases.

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Maurice
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Maurice »

GG. wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 2:02 pm Was doing ok until today (apart from work from home related items such as an office chair), but have just splurged on a second hand Devialet Expert 120 amplifier.

Not too bad in reality though as selling the old amp (and a couple of other old bits of hifi I have hanging around) will cover most of the cost. Was a mere 35% of RRP as well so a bit of a bargain really.

Will be interesting to see how this compares to the Unison Research Secondo I'm using now. Chalk and cheese in design philosophy (tube pre-amp section A/B power amp for the Unison and fully digital domain A/D amplification for the Devialet).

My room has some pretty horrible room modes being a near square so I was desperate for something with tone controls to see if I can offset some of the bass boom at around 85hz that really upsets the balance. The Devialet also supposedly has a legendary control on low frequencies and clever speaker matching tech so can't wait to see what difference it makes.
Would be interested in your thoughts on this, as my amp is playing up again and this seems like a perfect all in one solution (even with tone controls!).
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GG.
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by GG. »

OK - here goes...

Its awful and you'd be much better buying the Unison Research Unico Secondo I will shortly be selling ;)

Seriously though, its a very impressive piece of kit. The clarity and detail it manages to drag out of recordings is pretty incredible and will have you hearing things you've never heard before in music you've listened to a million times. Clearly it is a more neutral and incisive presentation than with the Unison Research so if you want a warm cuddly sound I would approach carefully - though it definitely isn't 'bright' or mechanical sounding. This will of course be speaker dependent too and it suits the Cremona Auditor Ms well (they tended to be demo'd with Krell integrateds when new which had a similar sound signature) and may also be a good fit for your Veneres.

It has a vice like grip on the low end and has in effect totally eradicated the issue I had with boomy bass. That was even before I started twiddling with tone controls, so I'm definitely a happy camper in that regard. The SAM (speaker active matching) is intelligent outside the box thinking too. It effectively extends the low bass output (my understanding anyway) by increasing the amp output below the point where the speaker has a non-linear frequency response - i.e. its a form of bass boost restricted to the part of the spectrum which is beyond what the speaker can produce with a linear output from the amp... Clever and sounds incredible with small 2 way standmounts. Even cleverer is that it can be dialled in from 1-100%. As I have too much bass to begin with I've set it to about 35% with a -2db adjustment to the bass generally (tone control set to act from 100hz and below - that is adjustable too!).

Even the phono stage which I was sceptical about (it does a A to D then D to A conversion and applies adjustments (including RIAA) in the digital domain) is amply good enough to replace the cheap Pro-ject I was using. On the base 120 model it doesn't permit adjustment to the impedence for MC cartridges. I have a Hana SL which requires 400ohm+ loading which is considerably less than the 100ohm which is standard for non-adjustable phono stages so I thought this would potentially be an issue. When I swapped out a Musical Fidelity stage for the adjustable Pro-ject, setting it at 1000ohm or even unloaded at 47k really opened up the sound. The Devialet's stage is so revealing as it is, however, that adjustable loading or not, it still sounds better than the Pro-ject.

For digital I'm feeding it a tidal stream at 44.1kHz (one thing the DAC doesn't do is MQA) through the AIR app which pulls lossless data via Ethernet so no need for a streamer or USB cables either! Altogether it has in one fell swoop replaced a phono stage, amplifier, DAC, 1 USB lead and 3 phono cables :shock:

If I were to give you any downsides, I'd say that there was a certain euphonic sweetness to the valve preamp with the Unison that has been lost with the Devialet. In reality I know that it really only made a few particular records sound better and overall the Devialet is a much better system. I'd be tempted to fiddle with a valve driven phono stage to restore some of that however the challenge would introducing that tube signature without muddying the sound. That, I expect, would require a very expensive phono stage :?

Oh and did I mention it looks pretty :D

Image

Any specific questions just let me know. You could come have a listen but so far as I know you live in Scotlandshire and also, well social distancing and everything.
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Simon
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Simon »

Why does that thing on the right look like a set of bathroom scales?
The artist formerly known as _Who_
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GG.
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by GG. »

Minimalism, innit.
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Carlos
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Carlos »

Not to be outdone by the Major Willy Waving his MacBook Pro I've bought a HP X360 Chromebook 😎

I've had time to have a really good clean out of old tech and sold shit loads of kids games, consoles etc and going to do the same with the 3 laptop's that barely get any use and see if the Chromebook will replace it for home working and browsing.

My Surface Pro 4 has has 4 chargers in the same amount of years and the latest is on its way out so that's going on eBay as well.

ETA my son loves the Empire Strikes Back print.
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Zonda_
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Zonda_ »

Carlos wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 9:13 pm Not to be outdone by the Major Willy Waving his MacBook Pro I've bought a HP X360 Chromebook 😎

I've had time to have a really good clean out of old tech and sold shit loads of kids games, consoles etc and going to do the same with the 3 laptop's that barely get any use and see if the Chromebook will replace it for home working and browsing.

My Surface Pro 4 has has 4 chargers in the same amount of years and the latest is on its way out so that's going on eBay as well.

ETA my son loves the Empire Strikes Back print.
Can they run Android apps?
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Carlos
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Carlos »

Zonda_ wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 10:29 pm
Carlos wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 9:13 pm Not to be outdone by the Major Willy Waving his MacBook Pro I've bought a HP X360 Chromebook 😎

I've had time to have a really good clean out of old tech and sold shit loads of kids games, consoles etc and going to do the same with the 3 laptop's that barely get any use and see if the Chromebook will replace it for home working and browsing.

My Surface Pro 4 has has 4 chargers in the same amount of years and the latest is on its way out so that's going on eBay as well.

ETA my son loves the Empire Strikes Back print.
Can they run Android apps?
Yes, my understanding is most if not all on the newer devices.

I had a Netbook about 6 ish years ago that could boot to Android or Windows and it was rubbish, I sent it back within 2 weeks so hoping for better, if not it's also going back.
V8Granite
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by V8Granite »

I don’t have a suitable place to fit an air-con condenser anywhere so have just ordered a cheapy mobile unit. Supposedly good for 30 square metres and with an exhaust outlet so fingers crossed it helps.

Both my boys run warm and the dog struggles sometimes so hopefully it means we can run cooler this summer.

Dave!
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mik
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by mik »

[mention]GG.[/mention] Very nice 😎

If you have any issues/questions the Devialet forum is pretty good (or it was for Phantom stuff when I was looking).
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GG.
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by GG. »

Yes there is a lot of forum activity online re their products! More than any other brand of Hifi that I've seen.

One of the owners who posts online is former Williams F1 engineer Frank Dernie. Seen here with his system in period and in full Jay Leno getup :D

Image
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Zonda_
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Zonda_ »

Carlos wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 12:33 am
Zonda_ wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 10:29 pm
Carlos wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 9:13 pm Not to be outdone by the Major Willy Waving his MacBook Pro I've bought a HP X360 Chromebook 😎

I've had time to have a really good clean out of old tech and sold shit loads of kids games, consoles etc and going to do the same with the 3 laptop's that barely get any use and see if the Chromebook will replace it for home working and browsing.

My Surface Pro 4 has has 4 chargers in the same amount of years and the latest is on its way out so that's going on eBay as well.

ETA my son loves the Empire Strikes Back print.
Can they run Android apps?
Yes, my understanding is most if not all on the newer devices.

I had a Netbook about 6 ish years ago that could boot to Android or Windows and it was rubbish, I sent it back within 2 weeks so hoping for better, if not it's also going back.
Which model did you buy as there appear to be several 360s?
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Carlos
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Carlos »

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... zIQAvD_BwE

I bought a return from eBay outlet store for £251.
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Carlos
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Carlos »

GG. wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 11:33 am Yes there is a lot of forum activity online re their products! More than any other brand of Hifi that I've seen.

One of the owners who posts online is former Williams F1 engineer Frank Dernie. Seen here with his system in period and in full Jay Leno getup :D

Image
I like music but that's not about the music is it !
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Zonda_
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Zonda_ »

Carlos wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 1:07 pm https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... zIQAvD_BwE

I bought a return from eBay outlet store for £251.
I didn't even know there was an ebay outlet store!
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McSwede
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by McSwede »

I've had a little splurge as I have been furloughed this week.
  • 4.7m multipurpose platform ladder.
  • 3M aluminium telescopic water fed brush for cleaning conservatory roof.
  • Black & Decker type work bench
That makes me feel better about jobs I won't get around to doing 😂
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ZedLeg
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by ZedLeg »

I bought shorts for the first time in about 15 years yesterday while I was buying new clothes :lol:.

Found a 50% off discount code for the RHA website so finally bought some new headphones too.
An absolute unit
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jamcg
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by jamcg »

Early on in lockdown I took opportunity to service an old Tilley lamp I found in the garden, and get it restored back to full working order
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Incase anyone is unfamiliar with Tilley lamps they’re ridiculously bright and much better than any electronic light, plus they have a very pleasing hiss when working
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Well I decided to get a Tilley heater To go with it. Needs a bit of work but should be fun :)
Image
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Orange Cola
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by Orange Cola »

I could google it but how do they work to be so bright? Looks really cool!
Mustang GT 5.0 V8 -- Jaguar F-Pace
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jamcg
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by jamcg »

Orange Cola wrote: Thu May 28, 2020 4:35 pm I could google it but how do they work to be so bright? Looks really cool!
Special fabric mantle that on first lighting turns to ash. They run on paraffin pressured with a built in manual pump- the pressure forces it up to the top to the burner which points downwards into the mantle
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mik
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Re: Your lockdown purchases.

Post by mik »

My dad used to love Tilley lamps. Always fascinating tweaking the feed and watching the impact on the colour/brightness. Bit smelly though.

I’ve never seen one as clean as that though - my dads were always battered m bruised
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