17-May-2015, 21:51
Leaving aside any discussion of sound quality changes, and with the caveat that I haven't yet had a chance to try v8.0 firmware myself...
...it bothers me that if the experiences on this thread are anything to go by, Devialet haven't really thought through the practicalities of the upgrade process.
First of all, I haven't seen any instructions from Devialet stating definitively whether or not configuration files built with previous versions of the configurator are or are not compatible with the new firmware. Without any clear statement (e.g. on the firmware download page) to say that a new configuration must be built, I would expect that existing configuration files should be usable and the amplifier should work exactly as it did before -- obviously in that case without any of the new features enabled. In other words, the firmware should recognise an "old" configuration file and apply appropriate, safe defaults for things that it doesn't specify. That seems to me to be the best and safest approach, but based on what people have reported here, it isn't what's happening in practice.
If, as it seems, we are supposed to build new configuration files to work with new versions of firmware, Devialet need to do two things: (1) state clearly with each firmware update whether or not updated configuration files are required, and (2) make it possible to do this in the configurator by importing an existing configuration file and automatically converting it in place to the latest form (or adding whatever new is required). Although someone here has commented that it "only takes a couple of seconds" to re-build a configuration file, in practice it takes longer than that for any non-trivial configuration and is an error-prone process (easy to forget something).
Sorry this has turned out to be a bit of a rant, but to be blunt: I think it's unacceptable for Devialet to put the burden of working this out from scratch on their users.
...it bothers me that if the experiences on this thread are anything to go by, Devialet haven't really thought through the practicalities of the upgrade process.
First of all, I haven't seen any instructions from Devialet stating definitively whether or not configuration files built with previous versions of the configurator are or are not compatible with the new firmware. Without any clear statement (e.g. on the firmware download page) to say that a new configuration must be built, I would expect that existing configuration files should be usable and the amplifier should work exactly as it did before -- obviously in that case without any of the new features enabled. In other words, the firmware should recognise an "old" configuration file and apply appropriate, safe defaults for things that it doesn't specify. That seems to me to be the best and safest approach, but based on what people have reported here, it isn't what's happening in practice.
If, as it seems, we are supposed to build new configuration files to work with new versions of firmware, Devialet need to do two things: (1) state clearly with each firmware update whether or not updated configuration files are required, and (2) make it possible to do this in the configurator by importing an existing configuration file and automatically converting it in place to the latest form (or adding whatever new is required). Although someone here has commented that it "only takes a couple of seconds" to re-build a configuration file, in practice it takes longer than that for any non-trivial configuration and is an error-prone process (easy to forget something).
Sorry this has turned out to be a bit of a rant, but to be blunt: I think it's unacceptable for Devialet to put the burden of working this out from scratch on their users.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK