ICON

MARCH 2016
WWW.HIFINEWS.CO.UK
THE HOME OF REAL HI-FI
Exclusive
VI
VINYL ICON REVIEW
N
DAVID
BOWIE
Cutting-edge tinge
dgeki
kitf
from
the greatest show on Earth
2016
McIntosh C1100
Two-box tube preamp
Budget Esoterica
Mini hi-fi from Pro-Ject
Air apparent
Roksan’s new Oxygene 30
Diamond update
B&W’s 803 re-imagined
Naked digital
CAD’s filterless DAC
INVESTIGATION
• PLUS 18 pages of music reviews & features • VINYL RE-RELEASE Tubeway Army’s Replicas on 180g
• OPINION 12 pages of letters & comment • VINTAGE REVIEW Rotel’s RCD-865 Bit Stream CD player
• SHOW BLOG We report from CES 2016 in Las Vegas • READERS’ CLASSIFIEDS Hi-Fi bargains galore
UK £4.50 US $12.99 Aus $10.99
001_Mar16 Cover_v10_SPPM.indd 1 29/1/16 14:41:35

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Integrated ADH bridged mono amplifier. Rated at 900W/6ohm
Made by: Devialet SAS, Paris, France
Supplied by: Devialet UK Ltd
Telephone: 07469 717778
Web: http://en.devialet.com
Price: £22,900
Devialet Original d’Atelier
Six years on from HFN’s review of Devialet’s inaugural D-Premier amplifier, the brand’s
new flagship fairly bristles with connectivity and boasts three times the power
Review & Lab: Paul Miller
Blink and you’ll have missed the
latest firmware update, feature
release or new product to have
slipped from the digital divas in
uptown Paris. While all attention has been
focused on the brand’s astonishing all-inone
Phantom music player/loudspeaker,
Devialet’s engineers have not ceased
refining the core technology that launched
its inaugural D-Premier ADH (Analogue/
Digital Hybrid) amplifier [HFN Apr ’10] to
such overwhelming acclaim.
Greater flexibility, a revised digital amp
stage and PSU to deliver more power, and
a glorious rose/copper-gold mirror coating
are the headline features of this new,
limited edition model dubbed the Original
d’Atelier (literally, studio or workshop).
Only 100 samples of this Wi-Fi enabled and
DSD-compatible £22,900 amplifier will
be produced, and this is likely to be the
only in-depth review, but we’ve featured
it for one very important reason: almost
every new advance flagged by Devialet is
inevitably trickled-down through its ‘Expert’
range in very smart order...
TAKING THE HEAT
In common with the silver-mirrored ‘Le
800’ monoblocks, the Original d’Atelier’s
milled-from-solid casework is culled from
a solid billet of alloy, affording it better
heatsinking over the slimmer 120, 200 and
400 models. Externally the chassis is readily
distinguished by the aforementioned
copper-gold finish, a glorious colour that’s
extended to Devialet’s iconic table-top RF
remote with its weighted rotary.
Internally, however, the thermal
performance of the 900W/6ohm-rated
Original d’Atelier has been further
reinforced by a new cast alloy enclosure for
the switchmode PSU (the fluted black box,
top left in our inside shot) and a doubling
of the thermal exchange area between the
key PCBs and internal metal surfaces.
Devialet’s DPM (Dynamic Power
Management) utility allows its custom
switchmode supply to track the demands
of the audio signal – it’s the ‘green’ option
and assists in reducing waste heat, but
even sitting idle the Original d’Atelier can
get very warm. If you switch DPM off, it’s
worth physically separating the two units.
Two other key facilities significantly
extend the versatility of this and Devialet’s
other top Expert amps. SAM, or Speaker
Active Matching, now in v2 guise, allows
users to implement a software model
of their loudspeaker’s low frequency
performance, provided it’s one of the 600+
currently listed on Devialet’s website.
SAM adapts the audio data in real time to
accommodate issues of group delay, low
frequency extension and maximum output.
RAM, by contrast, stands for ‘Record
Active Matching’ and is a fine-tuning utility
for a similarly huge number of MM and MC
pick-ups. It even includes standard RIAA
(1953 and ’76) alongside 11 other legacy
equalisation curves!
DEFINE YOUR DEVIALET
The operation of the Original d’Atelier may
be extensively customised via Devialet’s online
‘Configurator’ [see http://en.devialet.
com/configurator/welcome]. Not least,
this graphical web script allows owners to
define the three pairs of RCAs (analogue
line/phono, digital input or output), the
maximum power output, and Wi-Fi network
settings for the AIR module. The Wi-Fi
antenna is visible through the top surface
of the amp and while I’ve used this option
to achieve glitch-free streaming of music
files up to 96kHz/24-bit I’d still recommend
sticking with the hard-wired network or
USB connections for ‘serious’ listening.
RIGHT: Devialet’s Analogue/Digital Hybrid
output sits at the heart of this amp, surrounded
by an equally innovative switchmode PSU (top
left), network and USB inputs (bottom right)
REPrinted FROM HI-FI NEWS | www.hifinews.co.uk
032-035 Devialet Original d'Atelier_v8_PFSPCBPM.indd 32 2/9/16 4:05:11 PM

Owners are able to save their personal
settings onto an SD card which is loaded
into a reader on the rear of the amp. Using
the middle ‘Bass’ button on the remote
control it’s also possible to adjust various
of these settings on the fly – including the
SAM level (0-100%), mute, absolute phase,
subsonic filter, ICM (Intelligent Cinema
Mode), DPM, high pass and input trim for
line inputs, and RAM (eq, input sensitivity
and loading) for the MM/MC phono input.
Enabling or disabling
inputs, however, can
only be achieved via the
Configurator utility. I
have found some slight
subjective advantage in
disabling the Wi-Fi, S/PDIF,
network and analogue
functions when intending
to use either this amp, or the ‘Le 800’,
via its USB port with, in this instance, the
Melco N1A media library [HFN Aug ’15].
Depending on the range of inputs you
really intend to use, it’s worth defeating
the rest. Oh, and I’ve one request of
Devialet – when are we going to see
THE ‘MAGIC WIRE’
‘It’s a digital
instrument that
projects a huge
analogue vista’
some visual feedback of level or input on
that big, blank space in the centre of the
handset’s dial?
pOWER WITH PANACHE
Interestingly, I felt less inclined to invoke
Devialet’s ‘Speaker Active Matching’
– already available for B&W’s 802 D3
loudspeakers [HFN Dec ’15] – with the
Original d’Atelier than I had with its lowerpowered
‘Expert’ stablemates. Sure enough
the deep, almost subsonic
bass rhythm and thrilling
samples that bind Massive
Attack’s ‘Unfinished
Symphony’ [Blue Lines
(2012 remaster), 96kHz/
24-bit download] ripped
from my B&W 802 D3s
as if it were preparing to
tear the drivers from their frames.
With SAM, of course, the amplifier is
programmed to take the loudspeaker to
its limits, but never beyond, and yet the
performance was just a little freer, more
refreshing with SAM removed from the
configuration. Bass, you see, is neither in
All Devialet’s ADH amplifiers represent a unique twist on Quad’s ‘feedforward’
Class A/B Current Dumping technique, first applied in its 405 power amp over 40
years ago [Wireless World, Dec ’75]. In this new-age implementation, a very high
quality analogue Class A (voltage) amplifier is directly coupled to the speaker
while a digital Class D stage provides the current to maintain this voltage across
the speaker load. Hence the term ‘ADH’ or ‘Analogue/Digital Hybrid’.
In practice the Class A preamp is a transconductance stage that converts the
current output of the amplifier’s PCM1792 DACs into a voltage. By keeping all its
processing in the digital domain until the final output, Devialet has engineered
an analogue stage with a minuscule signal path. It calls this its ‘Magic Wire’.
It’s this Class A voltage preamp – not the rugged Class D dumpers – that defines
the quality and performance of the amplifier as a whole, and this includes the
filtering of its switched PWM output. So, unlike conventional Class D amps, the
Original d’Atelier is free of an invasive LC filter network just ahead of its speaker
outputs and its performance remains unaffected by speaker load impedance.
ABOVE: Each rose-gold coated Original d’Atelier
case is fashioned from a single alloy casting –
32mm thick, gently radiused and polished to a
perfect mirror finish. White gloves are supplied!
short supply or under-damped with this
hugely capable incarnation of ADH in the
driving seat.
Midband clarity, too, is typically
breathtaking. This particular quality of the
Original d’Atelier’s CV was illustrated by
two tracks in particular – Livingston Taylor’s
‘Isn’t She Lovely’ [World’s Greatest... Chesky
96kHz/24-bit download] and Gregory
Porter’s ‘God Bless The Child’ from Be Good
[Motéma 233488]. The closed-miked,
whistled harmonies of the former sounded
exquisitely realistic, and it took little very
imagination to feel his breath tickling my
cheek as it passed by.
Porter’s throaty baritone, by contrast,
I could feel in my chest, the tails of each
word revealing a dark and ambient
acoustic lit only by the booming power
of his voice. Once again, the Devialet
amp – and B&W 802 D3s – crafted an
astonishingly open and polished sound,
sharply focused but never ‘sharp’, always
in control but never coerced. The resonant
colour of instruments and voices alike were
painted true-to-life, its depiction that of a
large format photograph rather than the
euphony of an impressionist oil.
READY, STEADY, GO...
Moreover, the Original d’Atelier has an
indefatigable energy, a robustness that
refuses to be blunted by the most ferocious
of recordings. And by ferocious I don’t
mean messy, although it’ll unpick the
densest of recordings with the best of ’em.
Listen to Yello’s Touch [Polydor, 48kHz/
24-bit DVD-A rip] and the terrifying pace of
reimagined classics like ‘The Race (2008)’
will, loudspeakers permitting, thunder forth
with a disarming intensity.
www.hifinews.co.uk | REPRinted FROM HI-FI NEWS
032-035 Devialet Original d'Atelier_v8_PFSPCBPM.indd 33 2/9/16 4:05:20 PM

Lab
report
ABOVE: Three pairs of RCA sockets are configurable as digital ins or line/phono
analogue ins. Other digital ins include USB, Ethernet (RJ45), AES/EBU (XLR), optical
(Toslink and 3.5mm socket). Single sets of 4mm speaker cable binding posts are
included alongside SD card slots (configuration/firmware updates) and trigger ports
Modern scores do not come
more taxing than the cinematic
output of Hans Zimmer, and that
written to accompany Inception and
Interstellar in particular [Silva Screen
SILCD 1362; Sony Music 88875048-
122]. The former with its roaring
trombone theme and tempo based
on subdivisions and multiplications
of Edith Piaf’s ‘Non, je ne regrette
rien’ runs the gamut of emotions
from hope to dread, all explicitly
conveyed by the Original d’Atelier.
Interstellar’s ensemble is more
complex still, combining 34 strings,
24 woodwinds, four pianos, and
60 choir singers plus a 1926
four-manual Harrison & Harrison
organ that will scatter any less
than capable amp/loudspeaker
combination to the four winds.
In this instance, and in front of
the 802 D3s, I was utterly transfixed
by the sheer scale of this work and
by the Original d’Atelier’s almost
casual ability to delineate every
thread, every nuance of Zimmer’s
spectacularly vivid imagination.
On more than one occasion
I blinked in a game of chicken
played with the Devialet’s most
powerful amp to date – was I going
to be mowed down by the sheer
momentum of the music as its mass
and energy swelled by the second?
I would reach for the tabletop
remote ready to spin the dial
anticlockwise only to pull away
at the last moment. The Original
ABOVE: Each Original d’Atelier’s copper
baseplate is numbered and signed by
chief architect Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel
d’Atelier will take you right to the
edge, its sound so palpable, so
visceral, so fast and yet it’ll stop and
turn on a sixpence.
A NEW ORTHODOXY
Devialet has engineered an amplifier
that delivers a controlled intensity
as every note, every synthesised
sound is locked into its space
within a realistically proportioned
soundstage. There’s no bloom or
blur, no intermodulation between
instruments or performers to clutter
the soundfield. It does what any
modern amplifier should do: take
digits in at one end and project a
precise analogue vista out the other.
But it does this with such style
and panache that it regularly
outstrips the old-school orthodoxy.
Fortunately, the audiophile world is
an inclusive and inherently forgiving
environment, so I don’t imagine
any of these ‘established’ analogue
amplifier technologies going extinct
any time soon!
But once heard, especially heard
loud, the grand rose gold Original
d’Atelier is not an experience easily
forgotten. Mine was delivered, then
collected again and sold within a
few weeks. Ah, but parting is such
sweet sorrow...
HI-FI NEWS VERDICT
The original D-Premier offered
165W, so the fact this new kingpin
can sustain 640W from within
ostensibly identical, slimline
casework is testament to the pace
of Devialet’s technical evolution.
In practice, all its ‘Expert’ amps
are exemplars of the digital art,
their combination of features,
flexibility and performance both
unique and outstanding at the
price. And the rose-gold Original
d’Atelier is a stunning flagship.
Sound Quality: 90%
0 - - - - - - - - 100
Devialet Original d’Atelier
Astonishing though it seems for an amplifier of such slim
stature, and regardless of the ADH technology’s efficiency,
Devialet’s 900W/6ohm specification for its Original D’Atelier
is broadly met at 640W/8ohm, increasing to 650W, 1.13kW
and 1.5kW into 8, 4 and 2ohm under dynamic conditions. Into
1ohm, however, the limit is 670W – the same as recorded for
the smaller Devialet 170 [HFN Sep ’13]. Nevertheless, the fact
that distortion barely increases with reducing load impedance
beyond 0.003% [see Graph 1, below] is quite spectacular, as is
the vanishingly low ~0.003ohm output impedance. Frequency
response is unchanged by loading – analogue (sampled at
192kHz) and digital inputs yielding the same –5.2dB/90kHz
treble extension. Digital media inputs do exhibit a slight treble
lift, however, amounting to +0.2dB/20kHz and +0.25dB/30kHz
with 44.1/48kHz and 96/192kHz sample rates, respectively.
There’s a slight difference in S/N ratio too: 92dB (analogue)
versus 95dB (digital) re. 0dBW or 115dB re. 100W/8ohm.
Through bass and mid frequencies, ‘digital’ distortion
is lower than that of the analogue inputs, the former
achieving 0.0003% as opposed to ~0.0015% for the same
1kHz/10W/8ohm output. The opposite occurs at very high
frequencies where the line input reaches 0.006%/20kHz
and the digital inputs, regardless of sample rate, increase to
0.04%/20kHz (10W/8ohm). Jitter is very low and PSU-related at
~85psec/10W via both S/PDIF and USB inputs [see Graph 2] but
increases at lower power (350psec/1W) and higher frequencies.
Readers may view an in-depth QC Suite report for Devialet’s
Original d’Atelier by navigating to www.hifinews.co.uk and
clicking on the red ‘download’ button. PM
ABOVE: Dynamic power output versus distortion into
8ohm (black trace), 4ohm (red), 2ohm (blue) and
1ohm (green) loads. THD is lower still via digital ins
ABOVE: High resolution 48kHz/24-bit jitter plots. USB
input (red) versus S/PDIF input (black) at 10W/8ohm
HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONS
Continuous power (