Ncore -vs Devialet?

[gbegland]

I haven't paid too much attention to the Devialet products due to price and their form factor, but after reading this review over on Ultra Audio, I am very curious. I find Jeff Fritz to be insightful and sane compared to many hi-fi reviews, so I kind of trust what he says about the Devialet being a game changer. Has anyone heard the Devialet gear? Seen any third party measurements to back up their claims? I know Jon posted some fabulous measurements of the Ncore modules many months ago and that got me thinking about future projects.

http://www.ultraaudio.com/index.php/features-menu/opinion-menu/494-devialet-sam-and-the-changing-of-the-high-end-guard

Greg

[5th element]

There are measurements of a Devialet amplifier over on Stereophile. It measures very well for a class D amplifier, you can compare Atkinson's measurements to the nCores at your leisure to see which one might be best. From what I can tell after a quick peruse the nCore is certainly the better amplifier for driving tougher loads.

They are both good technical performers but I'd rather go with the nCore simply because it's less expensive and I enjoy building stuff. There's no denying though, the Devialet stuff does look quite nice.

[JonMarsh]

This is one of those things where I'd normally start off by saying, measurements are important but may not tell the whole story- you really need to listen, as well as compare functional features. I'm sticking by that admonishment.

But....

I would certainly listen to the Devialet, but not if I had to put down money first for the privilege.

While rated at 240W/ch, the power supply or DSP limiter kicks in on continuous output tests, limiting the power to lower levels.




For more standard testing protocols, the output looks like this:




A good thing to say about this curve is that the output THD+N (THD plus noise) appears to be dominated by noise, witness the steadily falling levels


OTOH, the intrinsic noise level appears to be higher than desirable- compare with the DIY nCore 400 module.



At 5-10 watts, THD+N for the Devialet is about 0.01% for the 1 kHz test signal- certainly very respectable results. OTOH, for the nCore 400, it's about 0.0005. Superlative, I'd say... Mmmm, which one do you think might be closer to offering 20-22 bits of real resolution in the playback chain? It isn't the Devialet.....

the nCore intrigues me because it has a killer "First 50" as regards output power- that is a very useful and desirable characteristic. Though output stage nonlinearity has the THD climbing above the 50 watt level (probably output inductor nonlinearity), it's still actually lower at 240W output than the Devialet. That's why it gets my priority, and why I have all the parts on hand to complete a build once work slows down a bit.

Now, they're also completely different beasts as regards feature set and pricing, so nothing about this is an apples to apples comparison- all I'm looking at is the power stages- that is fundamental.

BTW, just back from the hinterlands- the wilds of Washington woods up by Mt. Rainier, with no phone or communications since the beginning of the week! :B