One is a streaming all-in-one and the other is an amplifier. Judge them on how many boxes you want and what you already own, not on the spec sheet alone.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 150W against 165W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Speaker load rating | B | Devialet Expert 220 Pro is rated down to 2 ohms against 4, so it is the safer partner for a low-impedance speaker. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board. Naim Nova PE goes higher - 384kHz against 192kHz. Very few recordings exist above 192kHz, so treat this as headroom, not as sound quality. |
| Streaming | A | Only Naim Nova PE has AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (2). |
| Phono stage | depends | Devialet Expert 220 Pro has a built-in phono stage (MM,MC) and Naim Nova PE does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Naim Nova PE has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Naim Nova PE is Class D and Devialet Expert 220 Pro is ADH (Analog Digital Hybrid). Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | Naim Nova PE takes up about 25% less shelf area (1145cm² against 1521cm²), and it is 132mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
A Naim Nova PE B Devialet Expert 220 Pro
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Naim Nova PE has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If you play records, Devialet Expert 220 Pro saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.