Devialet predictions for 2019 (The 2019 Devialet Almanac)

[K4680]

It's time for a Q2 update.  OK, it is not quite July yet, but I doubt that there will be any significant Devialet developments on a Sunday afternoon.

So what's happened over the last 3 months?  As far as I can recall, not much, have I forgotten anything?

Here is an extract from what I wrote 12 months ago:

Second, we now have the Expert "Core Team" being headed up by Joachim Fritsch, followed by an Expert "Extended Team". Personally, I am very pleased to see Mathieu Pernot in the former and Jaohan Yang in the latter. I have great respect for Mathieu, and I give top marks for bravery to Jaohan, who is to date the only known member of the Devialet team brave enough to post on this forum. Although I think it was only one post, maybe he had his fingers broken by Quentin afterwards and decided not to post again, who knows?

In other news, the CI board software has been creeping along towards stability, and many beta versions have morphed into a proper release. It is not 100% there yet, but at least progress is visible.

So here we are one year later, CI RAAT implementation has a few bugs, and Joachim Fritsch has left Devialet.

I suspect Q3 will be far more interesting.  I am sure Mathieu Pernot will have something interesting to say when he visits OAC and Hidden Systems in the UK in a couple of weeks time

Who’s Joachim Fritsch?

Hi, look here!

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Munich-2...unich+2018

[PeppaPig]

It's time for a Q2 update.  OK, it is not quite July yet, but I doubt that there will be any significant Devialet developments on a Sunday afternoon.

So what's happened over the last 3 months?  As far as I can recall, not much, have I forgotten anything?

Here is an extract from what I wrote 12 months ago:

Second, we now have the Expert "Core Team" being headed up by Joachim Fritsch, followed by an Expert "Extended Team". Personally, I am very pleased to see Mathieu Pernot in the former and Jaohan Yang in the latter. I have great respect for Mathieu, and I give top marks for bravery to Jaohan, who is to date the only known member of the Devialet team brave enough to post on this forum. Although I think it was only one post, maybe he had his fingers broken by Quentin afterwards and decided not to post again, who knows?

In other news, the CI board software has been creeping along towards stability, and many beta versions have morphed into a proper release. It is not 100% there yet, but at least progress is visible.

So here we are one year later, CI RAAT implementation has a few bugs, and Joachim Fritsch has left Devialet.

I suspect Q3 will be far more interesting.  I am sure Mathieu Pernot will have something interesting to say when he visits OAC and Hidden Systems in the UK in a couple of weeks time

Who’s Joachim Fritsch?

Hi, look here!

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Munich-2...unich+2018

Did a LinkedIn search, he just a sales manager... if a major engineer left I will worry

[K4680]

Who’s Joachim Fritsch?

Hi, look here!

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Munich-2...unich+2018

Did a LinkedIn search, he just a sales manager... if a major engineer left I will worry

https://fr.linkedin.com/in/joachim-fritsch-ba28915a

[David A]

Did a LinkedIn search, he just a sales manager... if a major engineer left I will worry

Successful companies need 2 things, they need something to sell and they need sales. A company can be profitable with low quality products provided it gets sales. A company with great products can be unprofitable if it doesn't get sales. You need good people in both product development and in sales and the loss of a good person in any senior job can be a major blow to a company

In any event he wasn't "just a sales manager", he was also their Product Manager for the Expert Pro line and managed the Product Management team. 

People here have been asking for changes in several aspects of Devialet's customer relationships for years now. There were hopes after Munich last year that he might be able to address some of the issues people keep raising but he's gone and those issues haven't been addressed. Did he leave of his own volition or was he pushed out the door?  Either way, was the reason for his departure that he tried to make changes to improve customer relations, that he didn't try to make those changes, or something else? Devialet seem to rigidly resist making any such change.

There's always a reason for concern at the very least when somebody in a senior position leaves a company and he held down two senior positions in his time with Devialet. If I were you I'd be concerned and if we knew a bit more about how and why he departed we might find we have grounds for worry.

[PeppaPig]

Did a LinkedIn search, he just a sales manager... if a major engineer left I will worry

Successful companies need 2 things, they need something to sell and they need sales. A company can be profitable with low quality products provided it gets sales. A company with great products can be unprofitable if it doesn't get sales. You need good people in both product development and in sales and the loss of a good person in any senior job can be a major blow to a company

In any event he wasn't "just a sales manager", he was also their Product Manager for the Expert Pro line and managed the Product Management team. 

People here have been asking for changes in several aspects of Devialet's customer relationships for years now. There were hopes after Munich last year that he might be able to address some of the issues people keep raising but he's gone and those issues haven't been addressed. Did he leave of his own volition or was he pushed out the door?  Either way, was the reason for his departure that he tried to make changes to improve customer relations, that he didn't try to make those changes, or something else? Devialet seem to rigidly resist making any such change.

There's always a reason for concern at the very least when somebody in a senior position leaves a company and he held down two senior positions in his time with Devialet. If I were you I'd be concerned and if we knew a bit more about how and why he departed we might find we have grounds for worry.

I think its unnecessary worry, people left job is normal, he has been in Devialet for years, he wants a change or new challenge in his life is pretty often to see in today's HR market.

A good company won't put their future on any single person, and should not. There are no best sales, there are only better or difference. I am very positive about his departure from Devialet. We see many companies' lost people, sometimes they lost really good people, but not necessary the company goes down.

In the past, I don't see how excellent of the customer relationship has been created for Devialet anyway, full of complains, especially the OdA owners. Devialet has been releasing new EXPERT line upgrade too often and making existing owner upset, either choose to spend money to upgrade or faces significant depreciation. It probably not an good idea for High-End audio brand. Instead of releasing new hardware, Devialet should enhance existing software capabilities.

[Confused]

It's time for a Q3 update. Well, not quite, Q3 ends tomorrow, but I expect to be very busy next week so I am doing it today. If by chance there is a Devialet announcement of epic proportions tomorrow, I promise to find the time for a quick edit update, although I suspect I am reasonably safe posting today.

Three month ago I wrote "I suspect Q3 will be far more interesting. I am sure Mathieu Pernot will have something interesting to say when he visits OAC and Hidden Systems in the UK in a couple of weeks time" As this is a prediction thread, I am happy to confess that I could not have got that one more wrong. Not much was announced at the UK events, and very little has happened since, as far as we can tell. The only news of note appears to be the new "Phantom Reactor Custom", or a nice new wall mounting bracket, you could say.....

https://www.devialet.com/en-gb/phantom-reactor-custom/

That said, there was some news at the OAC event. That is the planned "unified remote control" app. Apparently this will initially be for the Phantom range, then later introduced for the Expert. Perhaps this will be the topic for Q4, or maybe a popular prediction for the 2020 thread...… (I am working feverishly on the 2020 prediction thread and it should be ready soon)

Meanwhile, how are the 2019 predictions going? As pretty much nothing has happened in Q2 or Q3, the standings per post #46 stand. @nduchatel is making this look very easy with his predictions ""Stereo for Phantom reactors" and "RAAT for CI equipped Experts", but hey, nobody else has done better and so nduchatel is currently storming ahead to maximum 2019 kudus. The pending glory is becoming palpable...….

But then, Q4 might just spring a surprise...…

For those too lazy to look back at post #46, here are the current standings:

Confused = 3
Fgleason = 0
Pim = 4
David A = 4
Blair.athol = 3
Streamy = 0
nduchatel =6
K4680 = 0
Rchinn = 0
Peter-van-der-Laarse = 0
Bwaze = 1
Axel = 0
mdconnelly = 3
G51 = 0
Ron McKernan = -1

So nduchatel retains the the top spot, with Pim and DavidA lurking in hot pursuit.

[markush]

Well it’s again a shame to see actually nothing happening in previous months from Devialet.
New app will be out in November (there is already a statement from Devialet via Social Media) but I guess this will not happen before December. And the „we try to get it out for Experts next as soon as possible“ is something that many finally expect to happen in Q1/2020 but I think this might again be postponed and not happen before Q2/2020. Also I don’t expect a firmware update this year - even though there is a high need for it as RAAT problems are annoying and other things too.

To complete 2019 predictions the once again proclaimed promise of Devialet “We know how serious the situation is and haven’t forgotten our Expert Line users - we will communicate more regularly and openly and also focus on providing more resources for updates etc”
Just to sum it up: nothing again will happen in 2019, not even a new setup of people after many important managers / employees have left Devialet which still causes a lack but obviously not many care about it.
Sad to see it’s keeping the cash cow somehow on track, opening up stores, releasing new product PR messages / promises but caring not so much about customers.

[baddog]

Well it’s again a shame to see actually nothing happening in previous months from Devialet.
New app will be out in November (there is already a statement from Devialet via Social Media) but I guess this will not happen before December. And the „we try to get it out for Experts next as soon as possible“ is something that many finally expect to happen in Q1/2020 but I think this might again be postponed and not happen before Q2/2020. Also I don’t expect a firmware update this year - even though there is a high need for it as RAAT problems are annoying and other things too.

To complete 2019 predictions the once again proclaimed promise of Devialet “We know how serious the situation is and haven’t forgotten our Expert Line users - we will communicate more regularly and openly and also focus on providing more resources for updates etc”
Just to sum it up: nothing again will happen in 2019, not even a new setup of people after many important managers / employees have left Devialet which still causes a lack but obviously not many care about it.
Sad to see it’s keeping the cash cow somehow on track, opening up stores, releasing new product PR messages / promises but caring not so much about customers.

Yeah, it does seem like nothing but crickets out there...

[Snoopy8]

Everything is working just fine with my Expert Pro, EVERYTHING. I really don't get all the negativity.

Welcome to the forum.

I am relatively new here, own Phantom Golds and was just as surprised by all the negativity when I first joined.  Unfortunately, many long time members here are very disillusioned and they dominate the discussions and posts.  It is a shame because it creates a poor impression for newcomers....

[David A]

Everything is working just fine with my Expert Pro, EVERYTHING. I really don't get all the negativity.

I'm glad everything is working fine for you but that isn't the case for all people and if you were following the thread on problems with RAAT and ethernet connections here and on the Roon forums you would understand the negativity. I haven't been as lucky as you, I've had occasional problems, but there are quite a few people who are experiencing severe problems and, despite all of Devialet's promises in recent years about better communication we've heard extremely little from Devialet about the problem during the 7+ months now that it has been present and absolutely nothing about progress towards a fix.

There are most definitely reasons for the negativity, especially when Devialet have a history of introducing new firmware with problems, poor communication about those problems, and slow process on fixing their software. On the other hand, on the one occasion I had a hardware problem with my Expert Pro it was fixed quickly and the service was excellent. They're very good with some problems but they can be extremely bad with some other problems. I have no intention of giving up on my Expert Pro, in many ways it's an excellent amp, but Devialet do seem to have regular problems with their software, especially when it comes to streaming, and their response to those problems needs to be improved.

…

I am relatively new here, own Phantom Golds and was just as surprised by all the negativity when I first joined.  Unfortunately, many long time members here are very disillusioned and they dominate the discussions and posts.  It is a shame because it creates a poor impression for newcomers....

People talk about the things that don't work because they're looking for answers. They don't talk anywhere near as much about the things that do work because no answer is required. Every product related online forum I've been involved with tends to be dominated by discussion of problems and the number of posts drops off drastically when there are no problems. This forum is no different and people with problems do get disillusioned when the manufacturer's response to their problems is seen as inadequate.

Is this a shame for newcomers? I can understand why you might think that but would you rather have a forum where the problems and complaints weren't reported and discussed? Forums like this are a valuable support resource for owners when they do have issues, and when the manufacturer is also following this sort of forum they can find information in the problem reports which help them to identify and fix the problem. If you want the support forums such as this can provide, then you have to accept that there's going to be a fair bit of traffic on the forum about problems and complaints. I consider this a healthy and helpful forum, and a lot more polite and less judgemental than some other forums I've visited.