Haute hi-fi from the capital of chic

By LIVE REPORTER

Updated: 17:01 EST, 11 September 2010

The polished Devialet D-Premier  -  a music box that looks as good as it sounds

The main unit of the Devilat D-Premier has no knobs - instead you use the radio-linked remote control, which boasts a chunky volume dial and oh-so-discreet source-selection buttons

The hi-fi world isn't short of high-end systems designed to enthral your ears - but it's unusual for your eyes to be equally thrilled. Shimmy forward Devialet's D-Premier, a shining, Bond villain-esque slab of audio product conceived in the rarefied air of Paris's Place Vendome.

The D-Premier is both a stereo integrated amplifier - delivering a whopping 240W per channel - and a digital-to-analogue converter.

It'll power through your music collection with earth-shattering ease, while ensuring perfect sound from all your digital sources. You can also stream tunes to it wirelessly.

Marvel at its sleek, chic brilliance - and do your best to ignore its £10,000 price tag.

devialet.com

Both the main unit and the controller are hewn from single slabs of aluminium, and polished to a high shine. The D-Premier is primarily designed to be hooked up to a pair of stereo speakers, but will also happily form the sleek centre of a home cinema set-up.

Just 44.5mm thick, the main unit can be wall-mounted - the display reorientates accordingly - and features a wide range of analogue and digital connections, including HDMI. There's also an SD card slot to enable upgrades, plus a Wi-Fi option.