New Dione owner - Not impressed so far

[JLB]

Interesting post. What did you replace it with?

I have an old Libratone Lounge that are going to be replaced. My use may be a little bit odd for this kind of speaker as it’s situated in a large kitchen/social room and playback is only about music. It gets a lot of use though and it has to be able to provide some volume and sound reasonably good, it has to look ok, be wall mounted and of course I’m not interested in a lot of speaker boxes, cables and electronics in this room. We stream with different sources so the third party equalizer that I used on my computer doesn’t solve the sound for all sources since it’s only active when using the computer. I have a dedicated room for serious listening and are used to good sound reproduction. I didn’t expect hi-fi reproduction from the Dione but absolutely better tonal balance and not just bass for the money it costs.

The Dione ticks all other boxes and I haven’t found anything else usable yet. It’s almost that I have come to the the conclusion to force everyone in my house to accept that we only can use the computer for music in this room. It feels stupid that Devialet has chosen to exclude the possibility to manage the output, then it would have been a no brainer.

//JLB

Am no apologist for Devialet but when I read your critique of the Dione I thought I would give my own a shakedown. If a production is poor the Dione will undoubtedly reproduce its failings but I have to say that most of my random choices from the 60s to Peter Gabtriel’s latest wonderful I/O album were pretty well balanced with excellent vocal clarity. As a soundbar it obviously has to compromise on a number of levels but I am quite happy to sit in my living room and use it for television or music.

Thanks for sharing, and it’s very interesting since you have a nice pair of B&W that has a rather flat curve given a good room and placement, and even if you don’t you would still have an open sound, not like someone singing inside a box. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect hi-fi reproduction in parity with the B&W, just something that don’t mess things up totally. I tested two Dione just to make sure it wasn’t a faulty unit. After finding the review with their comments and saw the measurement of the frequency response that looked like a slope. It matched perfectly with what I heard and I am certain that unfortunately this is how Devialet wants it to sound. Funny enough the testers also made Devialet send them another unit to make sure it wasn’t broke but both units sounded the same.

Like I wrote before, maybe I just have to use my computer with the equalizer settings that also looks like a slope, just the other direction. Dione has a lot of strengths going for it, it’s impressive to get that kind of bass and output out of such a slim package and it’s good looking compared to all other soundbars.

Regarding recordings, that’s the beauty with a nice balanced system. They all sound different and they should, otherwise you have a lot of coloration and other faults in your reproduction chain.

//JLB

[Gerronwithit]

Hi,

I agree with you about your impression regarding the sound quality, actually I returned it because of the poor sound. The room calibration did nothing and the bass was just too much and the treble sounded muffled. I used a third party equalizer and got it to sound real good so the quality exists in the package it is just poorly tuned. I contacted Devialet about the option of including an equalizer in the app but they had no such plans which is a pity. I’m still interested in the speaker if they fix the tonal balance or include a way so I can tune it myself. It has no competition in looks and performance if they fix the tone curve.

After I had returned it, I started to research if I was alone in my conclusion and found a year old test on YouTube through this forum and found their review spot on. They also present measurements which confirms what I heard and it’s a shame that Devialet won’t listen to the feedback they’ve got.

//JLB

Interesting post. What did you replace it with?

I have an old Libratone Lounge that are going to be replaced. My use may be a little bit odd for this kind of speaker as it’s situated in a large kitchen/social room and playback is only about music. It gets a lot of use though and it has to be able to provide some volume and sound reasonably good, it has to look ok, be wall mounted and of course I’m not interested in a lot of speaker boxes, cables and electronics in this room. We stream with different sources so the third party equalizer that I used on my computer doesn’t solve the sound for all sources since it’s only active when using the computer. I have a dedicated room for serious listening and are used to good sound reproduction. I didn’t expect hi-fi reproduction from the Dione but absolutely better tonal balance and not just bass for the money it costs.

The Dione ticks all other boxes and I haven’t found anything else usable yet. It’s almost that I have come to the the conclusion to force everyone in my house to accept that we only can use the computer for music in this room. It feels stupid that Devialet has chosen to exclude the possibility to manage the output, then it would have been a no brainer.

//JLB

Am no apologist for Devialet but when I read your critique of the Dione I thought I would give my own a shakedown. If a production is poor the Dione will undoubtedly reproduce its failings but I have to say that most of my random choices from the 60s to Peter Gabtriel’s latest wonderful I/O album were pretty well balanced with excellent vocal clarity. As a soundbar it obviously has to compromise on a number of levels but I am quite happy to sit in my living room and use it for television or music.