Can you point out those so many reasons?
I'm being serious, cause I already have those KEF LS50 in white
and I'm in love with the Devialet. Most probably I'll pull the trigger in June more or less. Except... if somebody gives me a very good reason to not to (besides the "it's too much money!!!").
The KEF LS50 are legitimately good so no problem there. The problem is the Devialet amplfiier/DAC all in one and what it represents.
I haven't seen or heard it so I can't say if it's good or bad but reports on some forums suggest it's somewhat wimpy and thin. I find that claim believable since most European audiophile integrated amps don't really sound that great - mainly talking about British stuff from Cyrus, Arcam, Rega here. That's just my opinion and you might disagree and it's also very possible that the Devialet is great.
But that is perhaps subjective. The objective fact is that is bloody expensive and worth many times more than the actual hardware making noise.
I'm not a huge fan of all-in-one DAC/amp solutions as they're normally more expensive for no real benefit other than space. If the DAC or amp is bad, you can't do anything but get new hardware...but if you're going to do that, why don't you just get a better pair of seperates in the first place?
A reason he provided for getting that amp was that it has a preset or something along those lines for those KEF speakers. To me that sounds like DSP or something along those lines.
If you're messing with DSP, learning and doing it yourself will generate much better results as it can assist in room EQ and whatnot. That's why I'm fond of good professional power amps like some models from Crest Audio and Bryston that let the speakers do all of the work.
But ease of use is understandable. What I don't understand is that if you're getting that amp specifically for those KEF speakers because they work better, why not just get better speakers? I know I'm repeating myself but the KEF speakers aren't Sennheiser HD800s where they are the best un the world. There are many, many speakers better and more expensive than it.
There's also a problem with regards to current trends in speaker technology. Active speakers with proper bi-amplification, DSP per driver, and active crossovers demolish passive crossover speakers in terms of fidelity any day of the week.
$10,000 can get you almost anything active or passive. Yet 2/3 of that money is going into the amp, DAC, and cables. Not the actual speakers. This makes no sense to me.
I really have little problems with people spending lots on sound systems. But when they do things like this then encourage more people to do similar things, I get a little fustrated.
