Can the Devialet D-Premier outperform everything?

To Doug Schneider,

I’m considering the purchase of a digital converter such as the dCS Debussy to be connected directly to a new power amplifier (I was thinking about a pair of Simaudio Moon 400Ms or the Parasound JC1s). The sources are my PC (USB out) and my CD transport (XLR digital output). I was then very interested in reading your review about the Devialet D-Premier amplifier/DAC and my question is basically this: In your experience, can the Devialet D-Premier perform better than the pairing above mentioned? Or, for instance, better than the combo of Simaudio Moon Evolution 650D DAC and Simaudio Moon 400Ms? I have a Placette Audio RVC attenuator to adjust the volume.

I hope to receive your comments.

Best regards,
Stefano Consoli

If you’re wondering if it’s possible that the Devialet D-Premier outperforms the combinations you mentioned or any others like them, the answer is yes. The D-Premier and my Revel Ultima Salon2s (my Sony laptop was the source) delivered the best sound ever in my room. That pairing was also the highest-resolution system I’d ever heard anywhere -- I could hear things in my CDs that I had no clue were even there.

I'm assuming from your questions and the kind of equipment you're looking at that you're trying to set up a system with the simplest path for the purist sound. That's the kind of system I like as well, and it doesn't get much simpler than a D-Premier-based setup. I believe that has a lot to do with the high resolution I was hearing. But does the Devialet outperform all the combinations you mentioned? I don’t know. Unfortunately, I don’t have the Debussy DAC, although I know it’s supposed to be outstanding. I have the 650D in for review right now, but the 400Ms have long been returned to Simaudio. Besides, I don’t have the attenuator you mentioned. As a result, I can’t know for sure how any of that will work, so I can't really answer the questions you present. Sorry I can’t be of more help than that. . . . Doug Schneider