05-Dec-2023, 01:21
@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.
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.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
