Expert 250 Pro and 1000 Pro

[Elztalbiker]

Yesterday I got the information about end of life for this Devialets. Other models are not involved. It’s not more possible to order 250 or 1000.


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[thumb5]

Do Devialet specifically state that the 250 and 1000 are end-of-life? Perhaps it's not possible to order because of a temporary halt in manufacture.

[Elztalbiker]

My dealer told it to me


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[blair.athol]

Interesting and just yesterday I got a reply to my request for any updates planned for the Expert range:

"Thank you for reaching out to us, and for your interest into our products. Indeed, the last months have seen new Devialet product released, but our team still work on each of our ranges. We don't have any information on an update for Expert for now, but a newsletter will notify you if any comes to be released."

This does not tell us anything but at least it says - as always - they are working on all product ranges.

[ada]

The customer support has told me several weeks back that 250 and 1000 came to the end of the life. They will never be produced again. I asked them several times if it is temporary or because an issue, they said no, it is just end of life for these units and they won’t come back.

I tried to know the case of others, they said, those will keep being produced and sold and there is no public end of life plan for those “yet”

I was about to upgrade my 220 Pro to 250 Pro or 440 Pro and I decided to stop because of this news actually. I am checking if there is an alternative to Expert line now. Open to suggestions.

[David A]

@blair.athol and @ada provide reports above of contradictory statements from Devialet support staff on the status of the 250/1000 amps. This is definitely not the first time that forum members have reported contradictory or conflicting advice from Devialet support staff.

Elsewhere @ada reports the departure of one of Devialet's founders, Pierre Emmanuel Calmel, from his role as President of the company and the article he links to reports that
Calmel's departure occurred a few weeks after the departure of the general manager, Franclk Lebouchard. Calmel was the person who developed Devialet's ADH technology and he was one of the 3 founders of Devialet.

Knowing what's going on at Devialet is like reading tealeaves, you take something as a sign and try to decipher what the sign means. About the only thing you know for sure when you read tealeaves is the pattern the leaves form in the bottom of the empty cup and the only things we ever know for sure about Devialet are about what they've actually done in the past.

The first amp, the D-Premier (also their first product), was released in 2010. It was replaced by the Expert range in 2013 and the Expert range was replaced by the Expert Pro range, at least in name, in 2016 but not given the CI board which delivered its promised features until the end of 2017.

That means that the first generation of the amplifier line lasted for 3 years, the second for close to 4 years before the CI board became actuality, and it's been 6 years now since the Expert Pro range with the CI board became available.

During th 6 years of the Expert Pro range Devialet have intoduced several generations of the Phantom range, the Mania, the Dione, and a range of earbuds. That's a lot of work on other lines in 6 years and nothing on amplifiers when the first 2 generations of amplifiers each lasted for only 3-4 years.

In addition there have been no firmware releases for the Expert Pro range for 3 years now, despite the fact that Devialet have never delivered the Bluetooth functionality they promised purchasers of the Expert Pro and despite the fact that there were outstanding software issues when the last firmware update was released and nothing has been done about them.

Those facts are the tealeaves in the bottom of the cup. They're indisputable but what we make of them is pure guesswork. My guesses are that:

1- after 6 years without being succeeded by a new generation of amplifiers the 250/1000 have probably reached end of life, they've lasted twice as long as either the D-Premier or the Expert range, but that's true of the other models in the Expert Pro range besides the 250/1000. If the 250/1000 is end of line then it's hard to believe that the other Expert Pro models are also end of life.

2- given that there's been no firmware update for the Expert Pro range in 3 years despite outstanding issues, that suggests that there's been no work done on software development for the Expert Pro range for 3 years. Since Devialet can't release a successor line to the Expert Pro range without software development and that one would expect that software for a replacement line would at least not have the problems of the current software, the lack of any work on software for the Expert Pro line suggests that they're not working on fixes for existing Expert Pro problems and that suggests they're not working on software for a replacement range.

Put 1 and 2 together and it would seem that Devialet are exiting the amplifier market and the Expert Pro range are their last amplifier products. From now on they're only going to focus on their active speakers and earphones. If I'm right about that then I suspect that they're not going to make any more amplifiers and that they've already run out of stock of the 250 hence one software support person saying that the 250/1000 was end of line. I would not expect Devialet to say anything publicly about the end of the Expert Pro range until they start to run out of existing stock of the 140 and 220, announcing the end of a line tends to see a drop in demand and no doubt they'd prefer to be left with as little stock in hand as possible.

I could easily be wrong, I'm guessing and I admit that, but the history of the amplifier line, the fact that there has been no new line introduced in 6 years when each of the previous lines was replaced at 3 year intervals, plus the fact that there's been no firmware updates for the Expert Pro range in the last 3 years while there's been a lot of action from Devialet in relation to their other ranges both suggest that Devialet are no longer working on anything related to amplifiers, only on their other product lines.

That's my take on things.

[Dvlt PhD]

Since we are talking about what Devialet has done…

It’s been kind of…to put it someway…a disappointment, that Devialet seems to be content with the Flagship Phantom.

I mean, there has been no follow up to the greatest performing Phantom in how many years now?

Yeah, the bass is great, but there are better sounding speakers in the other regions.


Ok, hopefully I didn’t open one of those can of worms.

[Dvlt PhD]

It’s been 12 months since an update has been made to the SAM speaker profiles blog.

[Finn]

I am afride that the compagny Devialet is a dead cigar, they promised and promised updates like expertline ,i have a 220 pro some years ago , and it was ok, after i sold it , i Think Reading this post ,that People here ,complain about things who Don,t work, it Can be the app, or other things ,now i read that some of those People who start the Devialet. Leave ,what mean that i Think there is something wrong in Devialet , who is not good. I se that they still want People to Bye phantom Line , but has there been Update to Them ? Not in some time , i Don,t hope for Devialet ovners that you one day Will sit bag with a produkt who Don,t work ,it Will be wery sad .

[Delija]

They made it too good - now they are unable to improve it any more