Boulder 866 experience? Users?

I know this thread now borders on ancient, but I can share my experience in migrating from a Devialet 220 to the Boulder 866. As much as I loved the 220 for the seven years I have had it, the Boulder stays and the 220 will go to a new home. The seven-year itch that has been my audio system pattern since the ’80’s has been scratched.

It was not a no-brainer. The feature I miss most on the Devialet is the SAM (Speaker Active Matching) which allowed my MBL 120’s perform bass-wise comparably to my previous set-up that included REL T9i’s. Part of the deal in getting family approval for the 120’s was the removal of a bunch of boxes and cables. So out they went, but with SAM on the 120’s I was able to replicate the frequency response I had previously. And, no, it was not simply a matter of bass boost.

On firing up the 866 for the first time I thought I would do the audio-purist thing and test the turntable. Ooops. Plenty of treble and no bass. Having compared the Devialet’s built-in phono stage with the Schiit Skoll which was about to replace it due to the need for a balanced phono input in the 866, I found the Schiit to be superior in detail but less forgiving in any inadequacies in the incoming signal. Pops and clicks that had been digitally corrected within the Devialet to smoothness were on full display. But now attached to the Bouler 866 the problem was different: the same pops and clicks and much less bass. Yuck.

I rummaged around some settings to get the 866 connected to Roon via ethernet. Now it was clear that the Boulder stood heads and shoulders above the Devialet in my system. But the ultimate lack of bass extension was still there and really annoying. Decided to finally utilize the built-in parametric equalizer in Roon for the first time ever, and that solved most of the issue. I am moving to Wireworld Platinum speaker cables bought sued this week to hopefully open things up more as well.

Bottom line: I loved the Devialet. We called it the Chrome Pizza Box and it was much more than just a lifestyle product. Moving to the MBL 120’s made me want to more. The Boulder is indeed more--more power, detail, transparency. And my wife loves it, thank goodness. But I am not allowed to have any subwoofers return so let’s hope that cabling contributes to the solution for bass extension.

There’s no lack of bass in my system with 866. 
@rexie sounds as if the 866 might not be a good match in your system

I owned an 866 with DAC for several years. It’s a wonderful integrated and the DAC is fantastic, especially given the relatively minor up charge.  To better the sound, I looked listened up the Boulder line to separates, before settling on D’Agostino.  I still miss the ease of use of the 866 (and lack of cables) — streaming was seamless, and being able to control it from anywhere in the house was a bonus.