Hi,
I am a new member of this forum, so please forgive me in case of stupid questions. I am neither an IT expert, nor a HiFi guru - just enjoying music in a good quality. So a pure "end user". Let me tell you my problem.
I am proud owner of a Devialet 200 since 6 years. And since these 6 years I was really exited every day about the sound quality of the Devialet 200 (together with B&W 803 Diamond). This year I decided to replace my Devialet 200 by a 250 Pro. So since a couple of days I now have my 250 Pro and I am completely unhappy with the bass sound. It changed completely and I am missing especially the (ultra-) lower bass area which was I enjoyed by my old Devialet.
So my "hope" is that this change in the sound is related to the firmware update which I did along with the HW change. In my old Devialet 200 I used 10.1.0 as this was the last Firmware version for the old HW. And on my new Devialet 250 Pro I am using the very latest Firmware 13.1.3.
So what I now want to do in a first step is to roll back completely to "my" old Firmware 10.1.0 to check whether I get back my previous sound.
I downloaded the old Firmware version 10.1.0, rebooted the SD card and did a reset of the Devialet. But still its not loading the old Firmware.
Can you help me with some tricks / hints how to get my old Firmware installed on the Devialet. There may be some older posts about this in the Chat, but I searched it now for 2 hours but did not find it.
Thx in advance for the support of this community!
The 10.x and older firmware is not compatible with your new 250. When your amp is running 13.x firmware you have the CI (Core Infinity) version.
You can change the bass settings under 'General Settings' of the online configurator
One thing I can definitely tell you @
J3C is that the 250 Pro doesn't lack bass and there just isn't enough of a difference in any of the firmware versions to 'fix' this. Your problem is more likely that the 250 has more control over your bass drivers and makes the bass tighter. I own a 200 and Od'A and the bass is much more pronounced at lower volumes through the Od'A because of the extra power reserve it has. Even without SAM activated. Turn them both up the the difference is less but the more powerful amp still has the upper hand.
More power means you are now getting a changed sound out of the same speakers. You should see this as if you were to buy new speakers. They sound different so you need to re-do their placement in the room. Find out where they sound best now.
Let us know how you go.
Good luck!
Welcome to the forum J3C!
Is the 250 Pro completely new? It could be it needs some time to settle/run in/burn in, whatever one want to call it.
You could also check all connections, give them a nice clean etc.
I feel it can’t be just the different firmware. Did you also create a new config for the 250 and compare your old config settings with the new in the Configurator? I can’t really think of any specific settings that could cause this if you’re using a digital source (except maybe the subsonic filter in the general settings) but checking them might give some peace of mind.
Good luck!
I am a 250 Pro owner as well.
The obvious check is go to Configurator, click on speakers and make sure there is no high pass filter. They should be set on full range.
Also as stated above, less power gives flabby/woolly bass. More power and the bass is more accurate and will sound different.
Rather than testing with music, send some test tones over Airplay or Air from a site like this:
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
but bear in mind how we hear (loudness) varies with frequency as well as sound pressure level.
Hi all,
thx for good comments / recommendations. Let me be more precise what I mean with my bass problem. Basically its not a lack of bass, buts its too much of it in slightly higher frequencies compared to my Devialet 200. I can give you even a nice example - its "Wish you were here" from David Gilmour's Live in Pompeii (just one example). There was a kind of subsonic bass in this track which complete disappeared with my new 250 Pro. Instead there is an increase of bass volume in the range of app. 100 Hz which does not give at all the same sound. Just turning up or down the bass in the configurator (even using 20 Hz for the tone control frequency adjustment) does not result in something similar. I even tried to switch off SAM, this help slightly to get the bass down bit doesn't bring back the subsonic bass. I am really surprised that it seams nobody else from this forum did experience something similar?
Aha, so SAM is involved in this. That probably explains the difference you hear. SAM does not work quite the same way for CI and none CI models. All processing is now on the CI board (AFAIK) with new DSP chips and layout. In my experience Devialet has re-worked some (not all) SAM profiles for the CI. Maybe the 803D profile is one of these?
The SAM profile I have for my speakers does the same before and after CI (I think). In addition I use room correction. The DSP of Roon is very good. I use convolution and add a little PEQ lift around 31Hz to achieve the amplitude balance I want. Like you I am very sensitive to changes in the bass area. The tone controls of the Devialet will not work for this.
There may have been a difference before/after CI in my 250, but I didn't notice as I use convolution and PEQ anyway. The 250 CI definitely has better transparency/control in the deep bass. I use Roon because of it's DSP and RAAT. JRiver has the same quality DSP, but lacks the RAAT-equivalent.
Which player set up do you use?
@
ogs - Are you sure that is correct?
From the Temple of Truth:
For the CI Board:
- A second audio DSP (Digital Signal Processor) providing additional headroom on top of the DSP already included in the mother board so as to support future signal processing features.
This suggests that DSP is not yet utilised on the CI board, and hence SAM remains on the Evo platform? SAM is still listed on the Evo platform timeline, as is Core Infinity, but the Core Infinity contributions are listed as feeding streaming services:
With Core Infinity, Expert Pro enters a world of infinite possibilities and welcome the challenges of digital audio. So that your system can continue to serve your music preferences. Today and always. Expert Pro’s intelligent core also introduces Devialet OS to support new streaming features starting with UPnP, ROON natively integrated into Expert Pro via Devialet AIR®, Airplay®, Spotify Connect®, and more to come.
Thinking about this, I still have SAM and SAM V2 profiles for the Blades downloaded into Excel. When I get some free time, I could double check the latest profile for changes.
@
Confused No I am not sure about it.
As I never play without convolution or PEQ I have not heard (or checked for) any difference here. My observation is more based on what Maxime from Devialet said during the SAM-Lab session when I got my speakers measured, and the fact that some have complained that SAM now sounds different than before. Maybe that was on the transition to SAM V2?