27-Jun-2015, 15:55
I tried 8.1.2 today. Not a success. I was expecting (for those who believe in expectation bias) that the differences from 7.1.3 to be subtle at most. However, not the case. In my system (D800 / KEF Blades) 8.1.2 sounded utterly dreadful. This is not subjective, it sounded awful and I could only listen to three track before tuning the system off, feeling a little grumpy.
The problem? Bass. With SAM enabled something very strange was happening to the bass. Take the first track I tried, the Pixies "Where is your Mind". The lowest bass from the bass drum was very prominent, but after the bass drum hit the lowest bass sound continued to hang in the air, it sounded most odd, although this low bass was in time with the drum and very slowly faded out, it was almost a continuous drone going up and down slightly in volume. Even trying SAM at 0%, this effect was reduced but not eliminated. SAM off, things sounded normal, but of course without the benefit of SAM.
Quite bizarre, in fact I am starting to wonder if there is some problem with the specific SAM profile for the Blades and SAM V2. This is not a case of preferring one firmware to another, one was unlistenable.
Most odd! It is also very disappointing, assuming this issue cannot be rectified I am now stuck on 7.1.3 for ever. No bad thing you could argue, because I have already reported that I realy like 7.1.3, but it does mean that I either have to abandon SAM, or do without any new features or upgrades that might come along. As someone who has a lot of old vinyl, I was particularly excited about RAM, so this for example I cannot use of stuck with 7.1.3.
I will be corresponding with Devialet and see what they have to say. I think I might get my dealer to try 8.1.2 SAM with the Blades also. This would at least serve as a check that I have not done something wrong. Although the firmware upgrade went without a hitch, both amps showing upgrade successful and 8.1.2, new configurations were made etc. I'm as sure as I can be that I've done nothing stupid. Annoying!
The problem? Bass. With SAM enabled something very strange was happening to the bass. Take the first track I tried, the Pixies "Where is your Mind". The lowest bass from the bass drum was very prominent, but after the bass drum hit the lowest bass sound continued to hang in the air, it sounded most odd, although this low bass was in time with the drum and very slowly faded out, it was almost a continuous drone going up and down slightly in volume. Even trying SAM at 0%, this effect was reduced but not eliminated. SAM off, things sounded normal, but of course without the benefit of SAM.
Quite bizarre, in fact I am starting to wonder if there is some problem with the specific SAM profile for the Blades and SAM V2. This is not a case of preferring one firmware to another, one was unlistenable.
Most odd! It is also very disappointing, assuming this issue cannot be rectified I am now stuck on 7.1.3 for ever. No bad thing you could argue, because I have already reported that I realy like 7.1.3, but it does mean that I either have to abandon SAM, or do without any new features or upgrades that might come along. As someone who has a lot of old vinyl, I was particularly excited about RAM, so this for example I cannot use of stuck with 7.1.3.
I will be corresponding with Devialet and see what they have to say. I think I might get my dealer to try 8.1.2 SAM with the Blades also. This would at least serve as a check that I have not done something wrong. Although the firmware upgrade went without a hitch, both amps showing upgrade successful and 8.1.2, new configurations were made etc. I'm as sure as I can be that I've done nothing stupid. Annoying!
