Review Dione soundbar

[David1]

Review from the dutch website Hifi.nl

https://hifi.nl/artikel/31027/Review-Dev...rimeur.htm

You can translate with google.

David

[Gerronwithit]

Having just bought a Samsung QLED tv and awaiting a new stand for it, was beginning to ponder what soundbar I might buy to accompany it. My Expert Pro drives the front speakers in my AV setup so no need for a lot of bells and whistles in the back sitting room. In fact I have an early Muso which kind of worked with my old tv.

As I could not get a quick translation of the above article via my iPad, although I note it was given 5 stars, I will await a few more critiques before tempting the wife’s wrath by “investing” in more Devialet gear.

[daveyjung]

https://youtu.be/hNwNiJpbQfU

Video review in French- I used the CC to translate to English

[Borain]

Bonsoir, je suis français et j'ai reçu la barre de son Devialet hier, je teste, après calibration qui analyse la pièce, le son est très détaillé, ce qui impressionne le plus ce sont les basses, profondes et que l'on ressent physiquement. Scène sonore très large et profonde, parfois j'entends des sons venant de gauche ou de droite, mais c'est souvent en profondeur et ses graves qui sont sublimes, ça envoie du lourd, je mets le son à 50 et même plus, pas besoin d'augmenter ou de diminuer le son pour bien comprendre, petit son venant de derrière, plutôt un écho, on comprend tous les détails de la scène sonore dans les films. La barre de son décode automatiquement le son spatial et fonctionne bien en stéréo aussi, je possède deux Devialets 103 DB pour la musique et un haut-parleur Focal, je suis content pour autant que j'ai possédé une barre de son Yamaha YSP avant 2200 et aussi une barre de son Samsung avec satellite.

[Borain]

Here are details on the location of the Dione soundbar:

I am in a rectangular room 5 meters long by 3 meters wide with a ceiling height of 2.4 meters.
The soundbar is installed across the width and is located below my 65 inch Samsung 8k TV bought in 2018 and which is hung on the wall, the soundbar is 1 meter from the floor and 15 centimeters away from the wall back.
On the left side of the soundbar I have a door opening 80 centimeters wide by 2 meters high which leads to another room of the same dimensions as the first, there is no longer a door there .

For the walls, it's half plywood and a smooth wall, for the ceiling it's more like a smooth false ceiling that resonates slightly if I knock on it, it resonates a little.
It's hard to explain, because it's an old house, the materials we used before are not the same as now, however I know that the room is quite neutral from an acoustic point of view, I have a excellent sound with my two Devialet 103 DB speakers which are located on either side of the TV, my two Focal speakers are in the same place.

I have always been looking for the best sound, for headphone listening I have a TEAC UD-501 DAC accompanied by the TEAC HA-501 headphone amp, I use Senheiser HD 800 headphones for listening.
Another headphone amp is connected to my DAC, it's a STAX SRM-323A electrostatic headphone amp, accompanied by its STAX SR-303 electrostatic headphones.

I am no longer very young, I am 63 years old, however I have always kept a musical ear despite my age, I organized parties in the 80s, I still perceive approximately 35 hertz to 8000 hertz using a sound generator to speakers at a moderate volume, I did this quickly little by little so as not to damage the ears, because continuous high-pitched sounds are dangerous.

I use Amazon music, I tested the sound bar which surprised me with its sound quality while playing music.
For this I first used Amazon music with a setting in the settings for normal HD/Ultra HD playback and then I activated Dolby Atmos/360 Reality Audio in playback, I deactivated the audio normalization which slightly distorts the sound for me.
The sound is diffused by Bluetooth, because by AirPlay I do not have the possibility of choosing between the mode cinema and voice, in AirPlay the diffusion is only in music mode.

Audio quality in normal HD/Ultra HD mode:
Music mode on sound bar, the voice well centered, more bass.
Voice mode on sound bar, a little less bass, voice still well centered, but better musical balance, for me the best choice, because everything is well detailed, you don't miss the slightest sound, left and right stereo impeccable, however, I would have liked a little more bass.
Spacial mode on Dione, more spatial, but slight shift of the voices to the right, we also lose some detail of the music, but the sound is still surprising, works well with certain pieces of music, I would also like to point out that slight lag is certainly due to the location of my soundbar as well as the configuration of the listening room.

Now with Dolby Atmos/360 Reality audio enabled:
Music mode with more balanced bass.
Voice mode, as above, the best for me and I found the bass that was missing, it's surprising the broadcast quality for a soundbar.
Spacial mode now I love, wider stage, the voice is less shifted to the right.
The music broadcast in HD or Ultra HD is superb, but when you broadcast music that is in Dolby Atmos in voice or spatial mode it's sublime, in spatial mode there is more depth, I love it makes me think about the sound of my speakers minus the clarity.

On the other hand, the music broadcast in 360, the sound bar is not made for that, at least to broadcast music, the sound is very wide, but not balanced, sorry for my English which is not good, I hope you understand what i write.

For now I'm continuing the tests, it's being run in for the moment, I'll let you know later about the qualities and flaws of this sound bar, but so far it doesn't disappoint me, I'm also waiting for Devialet to do updates, I'll explain that later.

[denis]

The sound is diffused by Bluetooth, because by AirPlay I do not have the possibility of choosing between the mode cinema and voice, in AirPlay the diffusion is only in music mode.

Sorry to say, but you cannot get any HD Audio or dolby Atmos or spacial audio with a Bluetooth connection, you need to get the audio through the HDMI eARC input...

[Borain]

Hello,

I agree with you, a Bluetooth connection does not allow the transmission of CD quality audio files, its bit rate is reduced to around 400 kb/s, even if lossless compression such as FLAC is sent.
Devialet's soundbar uses Bluetooth 5.0 with only SBC and AAC compatible codecs.
It allowed me, however, to assess the sound quality of the Devialet soundbar despite everything.
Of course, I noticed when listening that some sounds were diffuse, because the soundbar has a slightly accentuated high midrange, which is what gives it its signature when watching a movie, but honestly I didn't never heard this sound quality on any other sound bar so far while streaming music.

To have a high quality sound in Bluetooth, two formats are possible, the aptX HD (24 bits/48kHz) developed by Qualcomm and the LDAC (24 bits/96 kHz) invented by Sony.
If your computer is equipped with an older generation Bluetooth controller, you should consider using an apt-X or apt-X HD Bluetooth transmitter to significantly improve listening quality.

I still have in my possession two Focal Easya wireless speakers which have Bluetooth aptX, purchased 8 years ago and which are no longer on the market.
I keep them, because they sound different compared to my Devialets, I admit that I listen more often on the Devialets, my search for the best sound stopped there.

For less than 100 euros, as an example, you can possibly turn to a receiver like the NorStone BT Connector Hifi APTX which brings together analog and digital connectivity, moreover it is switchable as a Bluetooth transmitter to possibly send the sound from your television. to a Bluetooth headset.
Furthermore it is very important that the transmitter and the receiver are both compatible with the desired codec, otherwise the SBC compression technology (of lesser quality) is used.
Owners of iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can take advantage of the AAC codec, of an intermediate quality, provided that the Bluetooth receiver supports it.

For the wireless broadcasting of sound if we go through Airplay, we will have an audio quality limited to 16 Bits / 44.1 kHz even if the file is encoded in 24 Bits / 96 kHz, it will always be delivered in CD quality at 16 Bits / 44.1 kHz.
With DLNA, this wireless broadcast is able to accept all files up to 24 Bit / 192 kHz as well as DSD 5.6 MHz, if your equipment is compatible, you also need a good high Wi-Fi connection .
And as I mentioned, Bluetooth with APT-X codec has a resolution equivalent to an audio CD (16 Bits / 44.1 kHz), it is of course necessary that all Bluetooth devices are APT-X certified.

[Borain]

I have had this Dione soundbar for ten days, here are my first observations for my connections.

The soundbar is connected by HDMI eARC to a 2018 Samsung TV, I have not tested the optical connection.
In TosLink optical link, we will have a speed of up to 96 kHz at 24 bits for two uncompressed channels thanks to the S/PDIF standard.

The Earc HDMI connection can reach a speed of 37 Mbit/sec and accepts all audio formats, in addition you can adjust the volume with the TV remote control and when you turn the TV off or on, the sound bar do the same.
For clarification, in HDMI ARC you will have compressed 5.1 and a lower bitrate than HDMI eARC which can have high bitrate and uncompressed, object-based up to 24bit/192kHz.

Due to bandwidth limitations, high resolution audio formats such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio cannot pass through the optical or coaxial digital audio output. A reduced version of the high-resolution audio track will be sent instead to take advantage of the audio formats.

I noticed that sometimes the soundbar does not turn on at the same time as my TV, you have to turn the soundbar off and on again, this is specified by Devialet, this may be due to the model of my TV, I think Devialet will fix this in future updates.
I noticed that my TV decoder connected to an HDMI input on the TV, I only have 8 TV channels broadcasting in multichannel, this is indicated on the Devialet application.
The YouTube app installed on the Samsung TV only streams in stereo, no multichannel, however the YouTube app I have on Xbox Series X streams perfectly in multichannel.
The prime video application installed on my television broadcasts all the films in multichannel.
I tested San Andreas, Oblivion, The Fifth Element, the sound reproduction is superb, no need for a subwoofer, the voices are well centered and sound superb, the two passive radiators on each side of the orb allow and accentuate this diffusion of voices impeccably, many details are transcribed, we are in the film.

When I listen to music and then want to turn off the sound bar, you have to use the Devialet application or one of the sensitive keys located above the sound bar.
If you want to reactivate it later, you have to go through the sensor button on the sound bar.
For the moment, we do not know how to use the remote control of the Devialet speakers and there is no possibility of multiroom audio either in the Devialet application.

When streaming music by Airplay, there is no choice to switch to voice mode as well as cinema mode, these modes only work so far by streaming music via Bluetooth.

However, I am continuing my tests, I am going to compare the broadcasting of films with my two last generation Devialet 103 dB speakers, I formerly had two Reactor 900 W speakers which I replaced, because I wanted a broadcast on three-way, they were very musical, but I felt something was missing for me, however I think I will only have stereo broadcast for movies.
I also have to compare against the two soundbars I've owned before, a Yamaha YSP 2200 as well as the Samsung HW-K950 soundbar.

I took the Dione because I wanted a simple all-in-one system and so far I'm satisfied with its sound, it's true it's very expensive, for the price you can turn to something else, it will not appeal to everyone, it's like for Devialet loudspeakers.
There are some improvements to be made, it has just been released and I am sure that Devialet will improve the sound reproduction and rectify the imperfections with updates, I will report the rest of my report on the forum according to my impressions, See you soon.

[npman]

Borain, thanks much for your review. Very helpful. Any experience with Atmos yet, notice any sounds coming from "above" on supported titles?

I have a couple of Golds, that I cannot connect to my satellite decoder or Apple TV because reasons, so I have two options. 1) Get a couple of Archs to connect them to the Golds, or get the Dione. Since you have both, is the Dione worth it in addition to the Golds, in your opinion?

[Delija]

I noticed that sometimes the soundbar does not turn on at the same time as my TV, you have to turn the soundbar off and on again, this is specified by Devialet, this may be due to the model of my TV, I think Devialet will fix this in future updates.

Thanks for report.


This would be a showstopper for me for any soundbar.
It may happen once in a few months, but in so short period - absolutely not.

I have both Samsung and Hisense soundbars and they both work flawlessly.