Open letter to devialet - input from you?

[Jamington2004]

Great letter. A simple one to add is the terrible search functionality in Spark

No intelligent search (has to spelt exactly right, albums don’t come if you search artist under album tab etc) - and often I can find something on the tidal app but not in spark with the exact same search

And the x doesn’t even work to clear the last search - you have to click in and delete the xters

[Bbnsound]

Please add my name as well.

[Taucher669]

I fully support your letter and I am in as well.
Great initiative and truly overdue.
Cheers,

Peter

[papkos13]

Please add my name as well.
Kostas

[Limtre]

Please add me as well.

[antilles]

What I would most like to know from them is whether a Dialog with e.g. HDMI, USB, Ethernet and Optical In and multiple Optical Outs that can process multichannel (or a better option to achieve same) is on the horizon. Along with making Optical Direct Mode push-button, this would eliminate my biggest issues.

[pscampbe]

I caught up with Olivier Pacteau briefly today over the phone. He describes his role as voice of the customer inside Devialet. He appreciated the feedback from us and wanted to reassure us that they were absolutely not abandoning Phantom and see it as an important part of their future. They are dedicated to Phantom. Olivier sits close to the developers and said he would pass this information across to them. Having a letter like this from us helps him get focus in the company. Unfortunately Olivier was unable to make any representations about what Devialet is doing and when. He said they are active on the forum, listening. He said they had made promises in the past around software with Expert which they delivered late on and sometimes failed to deliver all that they promised which wasn't pleasant. We agreed that this is sometimes what happens but he seems to want to avoid that in this case. I pointed out that not communicating at all looks like you are doing nothing, so I recommended that they communicate roadmap, plans and progress quarterly. I also said that they might be surprised to find their user base might be a bit more tolerant than they think to delays as long as they know what's going on. Olivier feels that it is probably time to communicate more but thinks it should come from the CEO or CTO. They are considering setting up their own forum too as hey have in the past around the Expert platform at some stage. Olivier will share the letter with the CEO and I encouraged him to be a louder voice in Devialet and get the CEO to actually say something to us. I can't report any time frames though there was a vague hint that some communications might come out this month some time - through the normal global channels. I again encouraged him to talk internally and get more specific, and get someone to tell us when we will receive an update. The challenge is Olivier is not a spokesperson for Devialet, but I'm hoping he can find one for us. So, we have found someone to listen and he does say Phantom is an important platform but now we need hm to get someone to talk. Any ideas?

[booshtukka]

We're not experts in the internal organisation structure or hierarchy of Devialet. This is something Olivier would have to influence and make happen.

All we can do is let them know how we feel, and the issues we have. I think we've done that very clearly here. There's not many groups of customers who would be so proactive and helpful to a company they feel disillusioned with! The onus is now on Devialet to demonstrate that they value us and are willing to improve and support their product.

Here's something interesting - I am not currently a Devialet customer. I bought a pair of Golds, which I loved. When I tried to use them at my dad's funeral (which he would have adored) they both completely let me down and I spent that time doing tech support instead of what I should have been doing. This lack of polish and reliability - on top of the lack of a low-latency mode, crackling and the poor UI - drove me to return them. I am a customer-in-waiting - if these problems were resolved, I would buy again in an instant. I can't be the only potential customer waiting for Devialet to demonstrate they are a real company, with real software engineering knowledge, and a real understanding of their market.

[Dvlt PhD]

Devialet is a business first. So, I'm not surprised about the silence. It's frustrating, but it's no surprise.
When you are company that looks at revenue in the "millions", they have to be careful about what they share, because a business would not want a customer to put their wallet on hold.

Sure, this is tricky. Because, a customer can simply get tired, and jump ship.

Me, I'm waiting to see what the Sf's Electa Amator III is all about, while I'm waiting for a new fantasy Phantom (or whatever). I'd like to listen to Magico's A3 at some point. I'm interested in Olympica III...

Stuff like that.

So, will I jump ship? Time will tell.

[Bbnsound]

@ pscampbe: Thanks for your time. It is surely a good start.
However, I am afraid we won't see Devialet walk the talk...

I am also starting to look around for other options. Airplay crackling is in my case a huge problem and after waiting such a long time, there are no foreseeable signs of improvement.