No news....!? Is Devialet Chat dying in it’s boredom?

[markush]

Yeah - keep the comments going! As @Hifi_swlon once said - the only way to get attention is via public communication channels - that showcase the situation to a broader audience.
So come on!

[streamy]

No news from Devialet! The forum seems to become lethargic. No criticism, only an observation. Is this what we expect of a company that wants to make it right for their customers? Not to overpromis and underdeliver seem to stall activity here in the forum. Are we such satisfied or already in consternation or even worse jumping boat?

This forum got nothing to do with Devialet Official. Its not their offical forum, they won’t post anything here.

The section here is called Devialet News and is here for posts regarding Devialet News posted by forum members and not necessarily for Devialet to post news here, even though the forum would welcome this, most probably. Two main reasons for this thread
1) There are now news from Devialet for quite some time. There were no updates to the Phantom system for many months now and zero communication.
2) The number of posts in most sections of the forum per day have decrease quite a bit over the last 3 months. Personal observation.
Thus my question.

[Greg]

Devialet is certainly not asleep. Today they sent me an email about Phantoms. I have no interest in these speakers but for sure, Devialet is alive and kicking.

[markush]

Devialet is certainly not asleep. Today they sent me an email about Phantoms. I have no interest in these speakers but for sure, Devialet is alive and kicking.

Well there is a difference in being alive - either in view of sales efforts which Devialet keeps doing as there is pressure from investors etc.
And on the other hand alive meaning developing their products / software, which is what people feel sad about. They abandoned support of products prior to Core Infinity - ok tough decision (as it was once promised differently) but would be ok if then all efforts are put into further developing the Core Infinity Expert product line.
For months (and also far longer) there is still no remote app update, no RAAT, no Bluetooth support, room correction, ... and to sum it up: not even a feedback from Devialet about the current status and timelines ahead.
We know, Expert Pro Core Infinity Log, has been closed. And even though the new executive team promised again differently (at HighEnd in Munich) that they know that Expert Line has been neglected for quite some time and they need to regain trust of customers etc. ... silent for month is quite the worst sign they could make in that view.

[Music or sound]

For me the most significant lag in promised improvements is the configurator but there is not much complaining here either so it is likely very low on the to do list of Devialet

[Confused]

I am not entirely sure what this thread is about!  As for the forum dying in it's boredom, undoubtedly Devialet chat has been a lot quieter of late, this could be for many reasons.  For example, there are other forums that I follow, these have been a lot quieter over the (very hot) summer months.  Also, historically a lot of the posting on this forum has been regarding issues with Devialet amps, such as problems with AIR and so on.  So one way of looking at it is that less issues with the product means less posing on DC, so less posting on DC is a good thing.  That is only part of the situation I think, there was a period when the old Expert was new, Devialet ownership increased, and this was also a period of regular updates.  This is when this forum was busiest, with the new features leading to posts from those sharing information trying to make best use of the features, and of course those discovering the inevitable issues with the new features.  The introduction of SAM is a very good example of this.  So I think the forum being quiet is probably a sign that what we have now is working for most people, the platform is now relatively mature, so the ways of optimising have become more established, and not much in the way of new features or news is coming from Devialet.  So I think a quiet forum is the result of a combination of factors, some good, some not so good.  I'm quite sure things would liven up if a new feature like room correction was introduced or a new product introduced.  (Maybe a 10kW Pro Plus, that would be nice)  As an interesting point to note, we have a thread about the forum being quiet, the thread goes off topic, and we then get some genuinely interesting posts about the difference between AIR Ethernet and AIR wifi.  I certainly learned something.  Plus, it is always the case that this forum is the "go to" place for those with technical issues, even during the recent quiet phase I can think of people posting issues, with many posts then offering solutions.  I think this forum has provided an invaluable resource to the Devialet owning population, for more useful than anything Devialet have provided.  In fact, I sometimes wonder just how much busier Devialet support would be if this forum did not exist, I suspect a lot busier.  I think Devialet are much indebted to @GuillaumeB , @Rufus McDufus and @Martyn for keeping this forum alive.  In fact, I am sure that very many of us are grateful for this.

With all that said, this thread also seems to be about the communication from Devialet themselves.  Back in March we had the Munich event, which seamed to promise a new era of open communication.  Then in July we had the Oxford Audio event.  This was a very positive event, below are some extracts from what was posted after this event, one of the quotes is mine, but having attended the event I can say now that all of these quotes are fully representative of the mood of the event.

Devialet are actively considering how to improve engagement with customers.  This event was part of the re-engagement process.  They are very aware of Devialet Chat; it may feature in their plans, or they may do something independent.

this event demonstrated that Devialet are keen to get back in touch with their customers and to adopt a more down-to-earth approach about what they can deliver.

hyperbolic marketing might be out of favour and realism is seen as a good thing.

things do genuinely seem to be different now, in a very good way.

The Munich event was six months ago, the Oxford event two months ago.  Probably enough time for us to see some change?  In this time we have seen the already very limited communication logs on Devialet's website closed for comment and the website is still very much full of hyperbolic marketing speak.  In this time I have seen little communication from Devialet, a notification of a firmware update and last week a Phantom related email with much hyperbolic marketing speak.  So if we take Devialet as we find them now, there is zero change I would say.

Personally, I do not expect or even need that much from Devialet, so it is not that much of an issue.  But something really simple, maybe an email every six months indicating progress with the CI Board software, and a broad outline of future plans.  Guillaume mentioned that Devialet have 500 people now, would an email once every six months be that difficult to do?  In fact, I think with 500 people, they could even stretch to a quarterly update?  After all, the CI Board is still a work in progress, it still has bugs, the much promised Roon RAAT is still awaited, the configurator still has issues, the remote app is desperately in need of an update.  Maybe they are working feverishly on all this stuff and some exciting updates will be delivered soon, but with Devialet continuing the "wall of silence" approach, it will be as it has always been, you will know about it when it is done, and before then not even a hint as to what it might be.

So yes, the forum has been a little boring of late, but I would say it remains an extremely powerful resource for anyone who owns a Devialet, and has historically been an absolute goldmine of information for those wanting to get the best out of a Devialet product, long may this continue.

As for Devialet's communication, much promised, much optimism, but nothing delivered.

[streamy]

Thanks @Confused ,
As usual an excellent summary and objective explanations why traffic on this forum slowed down lately.

I would also add that specifically Phantom users are suffering a stall situation since the CI board came out. Long awaited minor or not so minor fixes in the Phantom firmware seem to have been put on the long queue or have been forgotten by Devialet. This includes crackling Airplay, performance drop of the optical input on Dialog (96k performance instead of up to 192k (as initially)) and HF noise every few minutes, from time to time crashing system that requires an uplugging and replugging of the Dialog, some minor bugs in Spark (e.g. suddenly empty play queue), and some other smaller things. Most confusing was the reporting from the Munich meeting that the Phantom platform is not further developed, which somehow also could mean no RAAT for the Phantoms, although they would benefit probably most from Roon. Roon would be best suited for finally being able to play multichannel (5.1 or 7.1), multiroom and if correctly implemented would allow a mixed Devialet Expert and Phantom system, a promise from first hour when Expert users even bought a Dialog that never could be made use of.

[markush]

Is there no one in contact with the new person in charge of Expert Line - who was also doing the presentation in Munich?

[Stino]

Most confusing was the reporting from the Munich meeting that the Phantom platform is not further developed, which somehow also could mean no RAAT for the Phantoms, although they would benefit probably most from Roon. 

I missed that piece of news. Surprises me a lot.

Last years we have seen so much investments of so many firms on active loudspeakers. With some great results in the end. I'm thinking of the active range of Dynaudio, the Kii Three and in some aspects similar Dutch & Dutch 8C, the Calisto range of Dali with the nice control center and so on...

In that regard I'd suspect that Devialet would move further with the Phantoms, maybe even a complete new design (standmounter) taking advantage of their ADH and Air...

[Hifi_swlon]

In terms of whether the brand or this site are less exciting, I think most people have just moved on with their lives. The latest shakeups have shown very little in terms of promised change at Devialet. They’ve abandoned the Experts prior to the pro (you know, the ones that can never become obsolete thanks to Devialet's pioneering EVO platform that simply doesn't allow it , er, oh...).

There’s seemingly little going on in Phantom arena and overall the brand is tarnished by their poor customer attitude and sloppy programming. The brand even seemingly lost a considerable amount of love from this sites founders.

Those who have a Devialet and love it stick with them no matter what. They’re content and I guess the most outrageous bugs etc have been addressed in some fashion over the past year. Those that have given up have sold and moved on, or just learned that its largely pointless worrying about it as it makes no difference.

The brand isn’t the darling it was for a short time.

My biggest surprise was that Core Infinity worked by the time I got it. Ok, not perfectly, but I’ve learned that’s the best I should hope for, and the rest will be a welcome surprise if it comes through. Beyond that there seems little point talking about it. I guess I've just finally succumbed to the Deviate way.

Perhaps they’ll surprise us yet. At the moment they’re in danger of being predicable - which we know never holds. But I also often expect to visit here and see they’ve gone under.....

My next move will be active speakers which is just a matter of time until something comes out that I like and can afford - so many great things happening there - so for now I’ll cling onto the D to save losing cash in another audio swap. But I won’t miss it when it’s gone. I’d miss this place a lot more!