Devialet partner with Sky!

[yangmetal]

 I'm quite happy with that so long as it doesn't impinge on support of the Expert series - and Phantom, of course, if I owned some.

Which, based on the 'silent' Expert era throughout Phantom rollout, I'd say is an unlikely outcome. Would the streamerboard and odA upgrades have been so late in the year if it weren't for this new box?  Very unlikely I'd say.

Once these things start to roll out and eat support time with updates and bug-'fixing', I'm pretty sure we'll see another void in Expert development. Purely based on past performance. Devialet may of course have changed and expanded the company to cover the new areas and put processes in place to keep all lines moving at once, but I'll reserve judgement on that until I see it. Remember, we're still waiting for that promised 'better area for communication on the website' to materialise.

guys, we need a bit more time here for such profound change. and personally i can ensure you that won't happen.

[thumb5]

guys, we need a bit more time here for such profound change. and personally i can ensure you that won't happen.

Yaohan, I presume? Welcome, good to see you here.

[Hifi_swlon]

Designed by Devialet but production controlled by Sky in China. Seems that Devialet, to a certain extent, are emulating Naim's Muso, which is definitely not a sound-bar. It'll be interesting to read about comparisons. I do have a Muso which is attached to my Sky television to in one lounge. Good for music, bad for tv.

I'd say it's a similarity, rather then an emulation.

Naim deigned and manufactured the Muso to sit alongside the rest of their range, but appealing to a wider more 'consumer electronic' type audience. It's marketed by Naim and fits into the Naim ecosystem and of course has the Naim logo. I'd say the Muso is more akin to Devialets release of Phantom (albeit less pioneering) against their Expert backdrop.

This Sky 'soundbar' by all accounts doesn't appear to be marketed or sold purely as a Devialet product. That's quite a big distinction, and in my opinion means the Devialet brand isn't as strong as perhaps Devialet thought it was. Back-ending a Sky box isn't very aspirational. It's hardly Devialet takes on Sonos or Sony or Samsung or whatever. Had this been a purely Devialet branded box, marketed and sold by them in what would be a new category of TV soundbars to rival all others, I would have been more impressed. This feels more like Amstrad making the internals for Sky boxes, which came after the brands heyday.

I could be wrong, this could be the start of something big, but it feels somehow more desperate than I'd imagined. For the shareholders, rather than part of a pure vision to take over the world under the Devialet brand name. For all the references and attempted mimickery over the past couple of years, Apple this certainly is not.

I'm not saying it won't sound good btw. Who knows, it may be great, but it doesn't quite deliver on 'everyone owning a Devialet' in my book.

[AllenB]

Could be a ploy to get the 'Devialet' name out to a much wider circle of potential customers with relatively little effort (all about Sky spreading the word). Whenever people ask me who makes my lovely chrome box, they go 'Uhhhh ...... Devialet?'

[Confused]

Yes, I think Allen is right.  With respect to Hifi_swlon's post above, I do fully understand the sentiment in what is said, although personally I do have a slightly different take on what is happening here.  For a start, comparisons to Sony and Samsung should not tell us much about what Devialet are actually trying, I think Sony is worth something like $40 Billion and Samsung something like $250 Billion.  So in this company, Devialet are indeed nothing.  Recently we have seen Samsung gobbling up Harmen Kordon, JBL, Arcam etc. like me buying a vending machine coffee with some loose change that I found in my pocket.  So my take is that this is not a case of the Devialet brand not being strong as perhaps Devialet thought it was, I would suspect that Devialet are fully aware that in the overall scheme of things, they are tiny and pretty much unknown.  OK, there is a LOT of bluster from the marketing department, but I am sure that Devialet has some very smart and sober minds in their ranks that know only too well that they are not Apple or Sony, a few numbers on a simple spreadsheet would make this clear to anyone.  Outside of the rarefied would of audiophiles and perhaps a few puzzled commuters wondering past a Devialet 'pop up shop' at London St Pancras station or wherever, nobody in the real world has the remotest idea who Devialet are.

Last night I was watching a documentary on TV, as I fast forwarded through the adverts, I noticed that there was a 'Sky Q' advert.  I have seen the same advert during sports shows and other programs.  I am sure it will not be long before the offer of this 'Sky Devialet' box will appear in similar adverts.  It is worth considering that Sky has 12 million subscribers in the UK alone and their programming appears on many other platforms, that is a LOT of market penetration. (Blame Rupert Murdoch) In a years time, I would say a fair proportion of the UK, and much of Europe, will at least have heard the Devialet name.

So I think this little box is quite important to Devialet.  For example, if it gets a reputation for being poor quality, unstable or whatever, then a lot of people will only know Devialet for this.  If it sounds superb and works as it should, then all is good.  So the strategy has much risk.  Hifi_swlon mentions the Sky boxes made by Amstrad a few years back, and for those that do not know, I can confirm from personal experience that these were desperately poor things and incredibly unreliable.  Although these were actually manufactured by Amstrad and made up of off the shelf parts, hard drives, electronics, scart sockets etc. to Sky's specification.  The only proprietary tech in those things was Sky's programming guide software, which was at the time pretty much state of the art but, has nothing to do with Amstrad.  So I see the Sky Devialet box as being very different to this, as it will surely contain much Devialet technology, ADH, SAM, ICM and so on.  

Irrespective of how this one turns out, this time next year an order of magnitude more people will be aware of Devialet relative to the 0.1% of the population that know them now.  I will try to end on a positive note.  Lets assume Devialet get this right and the little Sky Devialet box sounds excellent and works as it should, then this really could be the start of many good things for Devialet.  Consider what Devialet have publically stated, they are interested in moving into TV and in car entertainment, I do not think they are deluded about the Devialet brand, this is a start for what is in reality a relatively small company.  Personally, I am looking forward to my first ADH powered car stereo, that would be nice too!   Will I have to buy a Renault to get one?   

[Gerronwithit]

Yes, I think Allen is right.  With respect to Hifi_swlon's post above, I do fully understand the sentiment in what is said, although personally I do have a slightly different take on what is happening here.  For a start, comparisons to Sony and Samsung should not tell us much about what Devialet are actually trying, I think Sony is worth something like $40 Billion and Samsung something like $250 Billion.  So in this company, Devialet are indeed nothing.  Recently we have seen Samsung gobbling up Harmen Kordon, JBL, Arcam etc. like me buying a vending machine coffee with some loose change that I found in my pocket.  So my take is that this is not a case of the Devialet brand not being strong as perhaps Devialet thought it was, I would suspect that Devialet are fully aware that in the overall scheme of things, they are tiny and pretty much unknown.  OK, there is a LOT of bluster from the marketing department, but I am sure that Devialet has some very smart and sober minds in their ranks that know only too well that they are not Apple or Sony, a few numbers on a simple spreadsheet would make this clear to anyone.  Outside of the rarefied would of audiophiles and perhaps a few puzzled commuters wondering past a Devialet 'pop up shop' at London St Pancras station or wherever, nobody in the real world has the remotest idea who Devialet are.

Last night I was watching a documentary on TV, as I fast forwarded through the adverts, I noticed that there was a 'Sky Q' advert.  I have seen the same advert during sports shows and other programs.  I am sure it will not be long before the offer of this 'Sky Devialet' box will appear in similar adverts.  It is worth considering that Sky has 12 million subscribers in the UK alone and their programming appears on many other platforms, that is a LOT of market penetration. (Blame Rupert Murdoch) In a years time, I would say a fair proportion of the UK, and much of Europe, will at least have heard the Devialet name.

So I think this little box is quite important to Devialet.  For example, if it gets a reputation for being poor quality, unstable or whatever, then a lot of people will only know Devialet for this.  If it sounds superb and works as it should, then all is good.  So the strategy has much risk.  Hifi_swlon mentions the Sky boxes made by Amstrad a few years back, and for those that do not know, I can confirm from personal experience that these were desperately poor things and incredibly unreliable.  Although these were actually manufactured by Amstrad and made up of off the shelf parts, hard drives, electronics, scart sockets etc. to Sky's specification.  The only proprietary tech in those things was Sky's programming guide software, which was at the time pretty much state of the art but, has nothing to do with Amstrad.  So I see the Sky Devialet box as being very different to this, as it will surely contain much Devialet technology, ADH, SAM, ICM and so on.  

Irrespective of how this one turns out, this time next year an order of magnitude more people will be aware of Devialet relative to the 0.1% of the population that know them now.  I will try to end on a positive note.  Lets assume Devialet get this right and the little Sky Devialet box sounds excellent and works as it should, then this really could be the start of many good things for Devialet.  Consider what Devialet have publically stated, they are interested in moving into TV and in car entertainment, I do not think they are deluded about the Devialet brand, this is a start for what is in reality a relatively small company.  Personally, I am looking forward to my first ADH powered car stereo, that would be nice too!   Will I have to buy a Renault to get one?   

The Devialet adverts were already on Sky last night.

[Confused]

........I am sure it will not be long before the offer of this 'Sky Devialet' box will appear in similar adverts.

The Devialet adverts were already on Sky last night.

So they it looks like they gorronwithit then....?

[Jean-Marie]

Yes, I think Allen is right.  With respect to Hifi_swlon's post above, I do fully understand the sentiment in what is said, although personally I do have a slightly different take on what is happening here.  For a start, comparisons to Sony and Samsung should not tell us much about what Devialet are actually trying, I think Sony is worth something like $40 Billion and Samsung something like $250 Billion.  So in this company, Devialet are indeed nothing.  Recently we have seen Samsung gobbling up Harmen Kordon, JBL, Arcam etc. like me buying a vending machine coffee with some loose change that I found in my pocket.  So my take is that this is not a case of the Devialet brand not being strong as perhaps Devialet thought it was, I would suspect that Devialet are fully aware that in the overall scheme of things, they are tiny and pretty much unknown.  OK, there is a LOT of bluster from the marketing department, but I am sure that Devialet has some very smart and sober minds in their ranks that know only too well that they are not Apple or Sony, a few numbers on a simple spreadsheet would make this clear to anyone.  Outside of the rarefied would of audiophiles and perhaps a few puzzled commuters wondering past a Devialet 'pop up shop' at London St Pancras station or wherever, nobody in the real world has the remotest idea who Devialet are.

Last night I was watching a documentary on TV, as I fast forwarded through the adverts, I noticed that there was a 'Sky Q' advert.  I have seen the same advert during sports shows and other programs.  I am sure it will not be long before the offer of this 'Sky Devialet' box will appear in similar adverts.  It is worth considering that Sky has 12 million subscribers in the UK alone and their programming appears on many other platforms, that is a LOT of market penetration. (Blame Rupert Murdoch) In a years time, I would say a fair proportion of the UK, and much of Europe, will at least have heard the Devialet name.

So I think this little box is quite important to Devialet.  For example, if it gets a reputation for being poor quality, unstable or whatever, then a lot of people will only know Devialet for this.  If it sounds superb and works as it should, then all is good.  So the strategy has much risk.  Hifi_swlon mentions the Sky boxes made by Amstrad a few years back, and for those that do not know, I can confirm from personal experience that these were desperately poor things and incredibly unreliable.  Although these were actually manufactured by Amstrad and made up of off the shelf parts, hard drives, electronics, scart sockets etc. to Sky's specification.  The only proprietary tech in those things was Sky's programming guide software, which was at the time pretty much state of the art but, has nothing to do with Amstrad.  So I see the Sky Devialet box as being very different to this, as it will surely contain much Devialet technology, ADH, SAM, ICM and so on.  

Irrespective of how this one turns out, this time next year an order of magnitude more people will be aware of Devialet relative to the 0.1% of the population that know them now.  I will try to end on a positive note.  Lets assume Devialet get this right and the little Sky Devialet box sounds excellent and works as it should, then this really could be the start of many good things for Devialet.  Consider what Devialet have publically stated, they are interested in moving into TV and in car entertainment, I do not think they are deluded about the Devialet brand, this is a start for what is in reality a relatively small company.  Personally, I am looking forward to my first ADH powered car stereo, that would be nice too!   Will I have to buy a Renault to get one?   

I pretty much agree with this analysis. 

I see Devialet strategy, pure guesswork from my side based on their public statements, to have two legs:
1) Highest quality products, with primary requirement during the inception being driven by design and absolute sound quality (with a goal of nearing objective perfection as much as achievable given technology). I see those products being sold and marketed under the Devialet brand. The Phantom and the Expert fall in that category. 

2)Embedded technology building on the expertise gained from products of category 1 but packaged in a way that it can be put in cars, TVs, phones, computers etc.
To be successful in 2, they absolutely need to keep up with innovating on 1, make it better etc. 

If I'm taking a car analogy, they are like an engine manufacturer, they sell engines to car makers, and this is their volume market, but to be able to develop the best competitive engines, they also have smaller volume super cars brand. 
One can't really live without the other: embedded volume provides the money allowing the development of top of the line, while top of the line provides the quality and fame needed for embedded volume. 

Jean-Marie

[streamy]

I see Devialet strategy, pure guesswork from my side based on their public statements, to have two legs:
1) Highest quality products, with primary requirement during the inception being driven by design and absolute sound quality (with a goal of nearing objective perfection as much as achievable given technology). I see those products being sold and marketed under the Devialet brand. The Phantom and the Expert fall in that category. 

2)Embedded technology building on the expertise gained from products of category 1 but packaged in a way that it can be put in cars, TVs, phones, computers etc.
To be successful in 2, they absolutely need to keep up with innovating on 1, make it better etc. 

If I'm taking a car analogy, they are like an engine manufacturer, they sell engines to car makers, and this is their volume market, but to be able to develop the best competitive engines, they also have smaller volume super cars brand. 
One can really live without the other: embedded volume provides the money allowing the development of top of the line, while top of the line provides the quality and fame needed for embedded volume. 

Jean-Marie

+1

[Gerronwithit]

Whether deliberately or otherwise, Devialet appear to be following Naim's lead. Naim's first foray was into supplying the high end HiFi in the Bentley automobile. The design was Naim but production was Chinese. Then they introduced the Chinese manufactured Muso and then the successful Qb. This has given them access to a different and broader marketplace and I assume that Devialet are following this lead. Anyway, it'll be interesting to read what the reviewers have to say.