Do you use SAM?

[Dr Tone]

If Gui is right, that delays (did you mean jitter only, Gui?) have major impact on SQ, then phase alignment by SAM should have positive influence on sound (correcting phase delays), too. Improvement in bass seems just side-effect.

Obviously, implementation is key. If SAM implementation changes more than Devialet admits, then it might have impact on non-bass frequencies.
If Devialet's implementation is good, then maybe, maybe those reporting worsened SQ with SAM are just complaining they are missing inaccuracies they got accustomed to love?

I am wondering, who is right? I don't have SAM-ed speakers myself nor heard any with SAM on. Hence, the speculations.

By looking at waveforms of the best speakers on SAM page, it seems that the best ones really don't need the time alignment.

I think it's been mentioned before but speaker makers don't necessarily design their cross overs to be exactly perfect as they are going for a particular sound & feel.  Devialet is all about measurements and perfection, so any adjustments done in the digital domain might mess with the voice the speaker manufacturer is going after.

For me with SAM some detail was missing, narrowing of the sound stage occurred, along with a bit of life was sucked out of the music.  SAM did give me a slighly warmer sound (could be good or bad), a fuller more focused center image and slightly better bass control but those didn't trump the losses for me.