09-Feb-2018, 00:36
I don't have a Phantom and I've only heard a couple of very brief demos so my comment has nothing to do with the Phantom. I've got a 130 Pro, soon to be upgraded with the CI board when they start upgrades in Australia.
I've been an Apple user since around 1990 which is a long time. I use a lot of Apple software and I usually like Apple software. I use an iPhone, an iPad, and iPod and I bought the original Apple iPod audio boom box thing (forget its name) which I thought was surprisingly good for what it was and the price, though it didn't compare to the audio system I had at the time. I've stuck with Apple through quite a few ups and downs and I'm still with them.
I like Apple computers but I don't see anything Devialet is doing as fitting into the kind of market Apple is targeting with their AV product lines. I think Apple could maintain the sound quality if they wanted to but I don't think they could do so at a price point that would work with the market they're aiming at with their audio and video products and that means that they would change things to suit the market they're chasing which isn't the people with the audio interests I have, or that I think anyone else with an Expert amplifier has. As for the Phantom, I think the Phantom White would end up as the top of the line, the Silver and Gold would go, and we'd get one or two new, lower quality models than the White to try and make inroads into the market that wants something better and/or more stylish than products like the new Apple HomePod or competitors like Sonos.
My take is that Apple are good, even very good, while they're running with a product but they have a nasty tendency to drop products without notice, leaving you wondering what you're going to do, often after leaving them without updates or support for quite a long time and without making any announcement of their plans. They dropped their Claris line of software which included a couple of good products I relied upon, they dropped Bento from the Filemaker line, they dropped Aperture, and they've dropped a lot of other things. On the hardware side they dropped the Apple Newton around about the time I was really starting to get interested in one, and that was a groundbreaking product. They took over the Be computer line Steve Jobs founded after he was forced out of Apple but when they bought Be and brought Steve back into Apple they dropped the Be line and they even dropped the Be OS, a Unix variant, while they were looking for a Unix based replacement for the original Mac OS. If Apple took over Devialet as a whole, or even just the Phantom line, I think things would soon start to languish. I think the Devialet product line would die under Apple.
Apple would not keep the new Devialet OS for the Expert range because it's Linux. They'd go for a version of the MacOS or iOS. They'd exercise a lot of control over anyone wanting to develop software for it. I don't think they'd collaborate with Roon the way Devialet has and is collaborating and they'd stop Tidal streaming because it competes with Apple's music streaming service. I'd rather have Roon and Tidal than the iTunes interface and Apple Music. Apple and the Expert line would be a repeat of Apple and Be in my view.
I also wonder whether you'd be able to download music you bought from Apple Music and store it on your computer or music server. I had Apple TV versions before the current 4K version and I had bought some TV series which I had downloaded and had stored on my Mac. When I replaced the Apple TV I was using with the new Apple TV 4K, those files were deleted from my iTunes library. If I want to watch those shows now I have to stream them. I've still got access to them but I use bandwidth from my data plan every time I watch those shows whereas I only used bandwidth once when I downloaded. If you don't have an unlimited data plan you're going to end up using a lot more data than you used to use if Apple Music runs the same way which I think it does. It's not a problem if you have an unlimited data plan, or a much bigger plan than you've been using but you'll have problems if you're running close to the limits of your plan. Apple want to put media in the cloud and they want media which comes from them to be available only via Apple's version of the cloud. I think Tidal could come up with a way to stream to a Devialet if Apple took the line over but it wouldn't be as easy or as integrated a way of doing so as it now is with Roon or as we hope it will be with the CI board when they give us Tidal functionality on that.
Finally, I think Apple would want to push the product line further towards the video/Apple TV area than keeping them as audio products. I'd love to see a Devialet with HDMI inputs and video passthrough or processing and that's where I think Apple might take the Expert line but take a look at the choices they've made with video and audio on the current Apple TV and they're not the best choices if you want high quality audio or video. We'd end up losing functionality and control options.
If you like whatever Devialet product you have, and I really like my 130 Pro, you don't want Apple to take it over in my view and I say that as someone who has used Apple computers for nearly 28 years now, is still using them, and would hate to shift to a different computer platform. I'd buy another Mac from Apple and I'd buy another Devialet from Devialet but I wouldn't buy a Devialet from Apple.
I've been an Apple user since around 1990 which is a long time. I use a lot of Apple software and I usually like Apple software. I use an iPhone, an iPad, and iPod and I bought the original Apple iPod audio boom box thing (forget its name) which I thought was surprisingly good for what it was and the price, though it didn't compare to the audio system I had at the time. I've stuck with Apple through quite a few ups and downs and I'm still with them.
I like Apple computers but I don't see anything Devialet is doing as fitting into the kind of market Apple is targeting with their AV product lines. I think Apple could maintain the sound quality if they wanted to but I don't think they could do so at a price point that would work with the market they're aiming at with their audio and video products and that means that they would change things to suit the market they're chasing which isn't the people with the audio interests I have, or that I think anyone else with an Expert amplifier has. As for the Phantom, I think the Phantom White would end up as the top of the line, the Silver and Gold would go, and we'd get one or two new, lower quality models than the White to try and make inroads into the market that wants something better and/or more stylish than products like the new Apple HomePod or competitors like Sonos.
My take is that Apple are good, even very good, while they're running with a product but they have a nasty tendency to drop products without notice, leaving you wondering what you're going to do, often after leaving them without updates or support for quite a long time and without making any announcement of their plans. They dropped their Claris line of software which included a couple of good products I relied upon, they dropped Bento from the Filemaker line, they dropped Aperture, and they've dropped a lot of other things. On the hardware side they dropped the Apple Newton around about the time I was really starting to get interested in one, and that was a groundbreaking product. They took over the Be computer line Steve Jobs founded after he was forced out of Apple but when they bought Be and brought Steve back into Apple they dropped the Be line and they even dropped the Be OS, a Unix variant, while they were looking for a Unix based replacement for the original Mac OS. If Apple took over Devialet as a whole, or even just the Phantom line, I think things would soon start to languish. I think the Devialet product line would die under Apple.
Apple would not keep the new Devialet OS for the Expert range because it's Linux. They'd go for a version of the MacOS or iOS. They'd exercise a lot of control over anyone wanting to develop software for it. I don't think they'd collaborate with Roon the way Devialet has and is collaborating and they'd stop Tidal streaming because it competes with Apple's music streaming service. I'd rather have Roon and Tidal than the iTunes interface and Apple Music. Apple and the Expert line would be a repeat of Apple and Be in my view.
I also wonder whether you'd be able to download music you bought from Apple Music and store it on your computer or music server. I had Apple TV versions before the current 4K version and I had bought some TV series which I had downloaded and had stored on my Mac. When I replaced the Apple TV I was using with the new Apple TV 4K, those files were deleted from my iTunes library. If I want to watch those shows now I have to stream them. I've still got access to them but I use bandwidth from my data plan every time I watch those shows whereas I only used bandwidth once when I downloaded. If you don't have an unlimited data plan you're going to end up using a lot more data than you used to use if Apple Music runs the same way which I think it does. It's not a problem if you have an unlimited data plan, or a much bigger plan than you've been using but you'll have problems if you're running close to the limits of your plan. Apple want to put media in the cloud and they want media which comes from them to be available only via Apple's version of the cloud. I think Tidal could come up with a way to stream to a Devialet if Apple took the line over but it wouldn't be as easy or as integrated a way of doing so as it now is with Roon or as we hope it will be with the CI board when they give us Tidal functionality on that.
Finally, I think Apple would want to push the product line further towards the video/Apple TV area than keeping them as audio products. I'd love to see a Devialet with HDMI inputs and video passthrough or processing and that's where I think Apple might take the Expert line but take a look at the choices they've made with video and audio on the current Apple TV and they're not the best choices if you want high quality audio or video. We'd end up losing functionality and control options.
If you like whatever Devialet product you have, and I really like my 130 Pro, you don't want Apple to take it over in my view and I say that as someone who has used Apple computers for nearly 28 years now, is still using them, and would hate to shift to a different computer platform. I'd buy another Mac from Apple and I'd buy another Devialet from Devialet but I wouldn't buy a Devialet from Apple.
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
