New firmware 8.1.3

[brit]

If you want the short version, I'm more than happy with 8.1.3.  Is it as good as the now almost legendary 7.1.3beta?  To be honest, I'm not 100% sure, but at the very least it's close, and you know what, with SAM 2 I'm begging to think it might just be better..

Now the long version for anyone who might fancy a bit of reading .....

This has been a long journey for me though, 8.0 was unusable due to SAM bugs, I missed 8.1.1 altogether, with 8.1.2 I had bonkers low bass SAM effects, this was "corrected" by Devialet in a few days, who advised they had found an issue in their KEF Blade SAM profile, now this was an improvement but SAM was still doing some very odd things with the lowest bass, it was usable but only with SAM on about 20% max.  Devialet then sent me what they billed as 8.1.3beta (though it was not designated as beta).  This seemed to be a big improvement.  Yesterday I had time to do much critical listening, mostly things were good but I still had some minor reservations as to what SAM was doing.  Today I decided that for good order, I would load the latest "official release" 8.1.3.  I also noticed that due to the endless SD firmware and configuration swapping I had been doing recently, I had used some 8GB SD cards for the configurations (not the firmware).  Now these 8GB cards did appear to work fine, however noting recent posts advising against using more than 4GB cards, again for good order, I remade the configuration cards using 4GB cards.  I did also think it possible that Devialet may have made some further tweaks to the Blade profile, unlikely perhaps, but possible.  So today, latest firmware and configurations updated via 4GB cards, and the odd reservations from yesterday have gone, all is fine and sounding most splendid!  I recall a while back, NickB advising that 8GB cards didn't work in his 400's, now they did appear to work in my 800's but I am wondering....   Unfortunately, I have broken on of my own golden rules of not changing two things at once, i.e have have reloaded the configurations on 4GB cards at the same time as switching from the beta 8.1.3 to the official version.  It definitely sounds much better now, with SAM 2 working as it should for the first time, the trouble is I don't know if it is the firmware switch or the 4GB SD cards that have done the trick.  (the firmware files look identical except for file "ihm_0800.hex" which is a later date than the beta version I had, although I haven't a clue what "ihm_0800.hex" might do.  Anyone know?)

So one thought, if anyone out there (with OCD) has managed to load configurations using SD cards larger than 4GB, it might just be worth redoing these with smaller capacity cards.

Now I finally have SAM 2 running as it should, it does seam a little more subtle than before.  Trying different SAM percentages does change the level of bass, but in a very small and subtle way.  I have found the odd piece of music where SAM 2 does appear to be exaggerating the very lowest bass frequencies a touch too much, and here reducing SAM percent does eliminate the issue.  So it does look like SAM % is, for me at least, doing exactly what Devialet claim in the 8.1 manual, and adjusting the level of bass extension.

To sum up, I have finally got a version of 8..x.x firmware that is actually usable, and it's sounding very good.  At last!  Now I can start trying the new RAM feature, which I have been most looking forward too.

As a final thought, some have mentioned that 8.1.3 is a little forward in the treble, listing to a couple of tracks today, I have thought the same.  The thing is, I suspect that if I had listened to these tracks before reading the comments in this thread regarding treble, I would have just put this down to bad recording or mixing, or maybe not, I'm not sure.  The thing is, all this firmware switching and critical listening can genuinely drive you crazy.  I enjoyed reading Windler's comment "I also not sure that reverse form 8.1.3 back 8.1.2 is without leftovers from 8.1.3".  Now I can't be 100% sure, but I reasonably confident this isn't technically possible.  But the thing is, I know exactly what Windler is referring too, I have noticed this too, but I think it's this hifi business messing with your mind (mine at least, I can't comment about Windler's brain).  So, you might notice something after a change, just because you happen to notice it, not because the change itself has invoked it, and then when you switch back, hay presto, it's still there!  Frustration and the drift into insanity follow.

Anyway, now that I'm a happy 8.x.x user, I have a cunning plan.  I'm going to forget all about this stuff and get back to simply turning the system on now and again and enjoying some music.  Maybe after a very long few months, I might just dig out the my old 7.1.3beta firmware and configuration cards and see if it really was any better, I wont be doing this until I used 8.1.3 for a long time though.

As a last thought, I am still wondering if getting your particular speakers "SAM Lab'ed" might jus be better than using "old" SAM profiles with 8.x.x firmware?  Things are sounding pretty good now though, so I wont be worrying about this too much.

Yes, a long and tortuous journey for you, but glad that it seems to have come to an end - at least for the moment . Time to enjoy the music, after all that is what it is all about  .


David