The Devialet D-Premier amplifier

First, I have to admit that a lot of high-end amplifiers are so ugly you'd have to be an audiophile to buy them. But there are more than a few truly gorgeous examples, like the Devialet D-Premier. It's French, after all, and the French know a thing or two about style.

In 2007, Pierre-Emannuel Calmel and Matthias Moronvalle decided to launch a new high-end audio company, Devialet, in Paris. The two men had both worked for Nortel's R&D department, and they weren't the least bit interested in crafting just another high-end amplifier.

It looks like they're off to a grand start' the Devialet D-Premier is a unique Class A/Class D hybrid design. Bona fide Class A circuits are only used in very high-end audiophile amplifiers, but Class A designs are extremely inefficient and consume huge amounts of AC power to produce low power output. Class D amps are highly efficient designs, but their sound quality falls short of the highest audiophile standards.

The D-Premier was designed to have the sound quality of Class A and the efficiency of Class D designs.

The D-Premier is an integrated amplifier and has two analog phono inputs for turntables' two analog inputs for CD, DVD, or portable digital players' two optical digital inputs' four coaxial digital inputs' one XLR digital input' one HDMI 1.3 input' and a subwoofer output. The D-Premier stereo amp produces 240 watts per channel.

It's been getting rave reviews from the audiophile press, and I'm hoping to get my hands on the D-Premier sometime next year. Judging from the pictures, it's a stunning design. Low and sleek with a highly polished chassis, the D-Premier looks like nothing else. Even the remote control is special, with a careful attention to design details.

Devialet is imported by Audio Plus, which has a network of authorized specialty dealers in North America. The U.S. price has not yet been set.

The Devialet D-Premier, with the remote control in the foreground.