18-Jun-2015, 11:43
(This post was last modified: 18-Jun-2015, 11:47 by oxfordaudio.)
Hi Confused,
Thanks for the plug, the cheque is in the post. Normal rate OK?
The dealer day was fascinating and I am deeply impressed at their forward thinking to all the features to be added over the coming years... (not sharing, I'll leave it to wild speculation...)
Valentine, who showed us how SAM lab works, was very good at explaining exactly what the 'lab measures without having to resort to crayons for us simple dealers. The 'lab plugs into the rear of a 200 or 250 and occupies both the speaker outputs and four of the digital RCA inputs. These are used to send frequency sweeps to the speakers and output data back to the 'lab to be sent to a computer. A laser vibrometer is attached via a 3.5mm input on the 'lab which measures the speed of both acceleration and deceleration of the woofer drivers given a defined power output and the driver excursion (maximum excursion is found by measuring the point that the driver no longer moves pistonically). 'Lab also measures the loudspeakers load on frequencies up to and above 200hz. Once the data has been collected the Sam program shows the speakers impedance model and phasing issues on some graphs with recommended corrections to optimise LF output and correct for phase anomalies.
The amount of vibration from the dealer's feet was enough to scew the vibrometer's results initially, so I am not surprised that initially custom SAM profiles will be done at dealer events with every care taken to minimise interaction from the room and audience.
With SAM V1, the algorithm for correction was apparently fairly inefficient and this has been improved with SAM v2, this should allow for more accurate phase correction and should explain why some have found staging performance to have improved going to FW8. With SAM v1, Dynamic compression occurred past an arbitrary level that had been set "BY EAR", I had found that with certain speakers this had seemed fairly overprotective in artificially reducing LF output with some recordings at relatively low levels. SAM v2 only restricts LF output if the desired volume with cause the LF drivers to reach or exceed the X-max of the drive unit and to my ears sounds much better than v1 with some of the speakers that I had been most disappointed by, most notably the Martin Logan Theos which had previously seemed to have had all their life sucked out by SAM.
One EXCEPTIONALLY interesting point made to us by Devialet (and one that I was fairly taken aback by) is that there is apparently no difference in how 8.1.0 and 8.0.0 process audio. The only difference in the two FW versions is in the human interface.
Hearing what's coming soon from Devialet has reassured me that they are still the David vs Goliath firm that shook everything up with D-Prem and there's some great stuff on the way.
We will be hosting two Devialet events this year for those who are interested, this isn't a shill or a hard sell (most of you have already bought your amps anyway...) The first, in July, is to launch Phantom and a second will be a SAM Lab specific event that will take place this autumn or winter where you are all welcome to bring any speakers that are not already on the list. No purchase necessary but Jon and I respond well to biscuits and beef jerky.
We fully understand that quite a few of you have lost your local dealer since the distribution changed and we'd like to help wherever we can. If you have issues with Devialet service or faults with the product, we're here to help and in most cases I feel we can get issues resolved quicker than emailing direct (he says confidently whilst tempting fate)
Alasdair at Oxford Audio
Thanks for the plug, the cheque is in the post. Normal rate OK?
The dealer day was fascinating and I am deeply impressed at their forward thinking to all the features to be added over the coming years... (not sharing, I'll leave it to wild speculation...)
Valentine, who showed us how SAM lab works, was very good at explaining exactly what the 'lab measures without having to resort to crayons for us simple dealers. The 'lab plugs into the rear of a 200 or 250 and occupies both the speaker outputs and four of the digital RCA inputs. These are used to send frequency sweeps to the speakers and output data back to the 'lab to be sent to a computer. A laser vibrometer is attached via a 3.5mm input on the 'lab which measures the speed of both acceleration and deceleration of the woofer drivers given a defined power output and the driver excursion (maximum excursion is found by measuring the point that the driver no longer moves pistonically). 'Lab also measures the loudspeakers load on frequencies up to and above 200hz. Once the data has been collected the Sam program shows the speakers impedance model and phasing issues on some graphs with recommended corrections to optimise LF output and correct for phase anomalies.
The amount of vibration from the dealer's feet was enough to scew the vibrometer's results initially, so I am not surprised that initially custom SAM profiles will be done at dealer events with every care taken to minimise interaction from the room and audience.
With SAM V1, the algorithm for correction was apparently fairly inefficient and this has been improved with SAM v2, this should allow for more accurate phase correction and should explain why some have found staging performance to have improved going to FW8. With SAM v1, Dynamic compression occurred past an arbitrary level that had been set "BY EAR", I had found that with certain speakers this had seemed fairly overprotective in artificially reducing LF output with some recordings at relatively low levels. SAM v2 only restricts LF output if the desired volume with cause the LF drivers to reach or exceed the X-max of the drive unit and to my ears sounds much better than v1 with some of the speakers that I had been most disappointed by, most notably the Martin Logan Theos which had previously seemed to have had all their life sucked out by SAM.
One EXCEPTIONALLY interesting point made to us by Devialet (and one that I was fairly taken aback by) is that there is apparently no difference in how 8.1.0 and 8.0.0 process audio. The only difference in the two FW versions is in the human interface.
Hearing what's coming soon from Devialet has reassured me that they are still the David vs Goliath firm that shook everything up with D-Prem and there's some great stuff on the way.
We will be hosting two Devialet events this year for those who are interested, this isn't a shill or a hard sell (most of you have already bought your amps anyway...) The first, in July, is to launch Phantom and a second will be a SAM Lab specific event that will take place this autumn or winter where you are all welcome to bring any speakers that are not already on the list. No purchase necessary but Jon and I respond well to biscuits and beef jerky.
We fully understand that quite a few of you have lost your local dealer since the distribution changed and we'd like to help wherever we can. If you have issues with Devialet service or faults with the product, we're here to help and in most cases I feel we can get issues resolved quicker than emailing direct (he says confidently whilst tempting fate)
Alasdair at Oxford Audio
