Is the comparison to Apple ludicrous? If we are talking market capitalisation, market penetration or many other things, then I have to agree with Guillaume, the comparison is ludicrous. I'm sure there are Kalahari tribes who know what an iPhone is, however, in conversations I have with most "normal" people (non-audiophile), Devialet is more or less unknown.
Having said that, there was this interview with Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel in SoundStage Global:
"As I was having lunch with Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, Devialet's cofounder and the inventor of the company's revolutionary ADH (Analog Digital Hybrid) amplifier technology, he reached over and picked up a colleague's Apple iPhone 6 to first praise but then criticize it. He applauded its shape, size, weight, and feel, but then he pointed to the camera lens and said, "I don't believe Steve Jobs would have allowed that." He could tell by my confused look that I didn't understand, so he pointed out that the lens protrudes slightly from the body, which makes the phone not only ever-so-slightly thicker than Apple claims, but also awkward when you rub your finger over it. It was obvious that Pierre-Emmanuel saw this as a design flaw, as he felt it should be aligned with the area around it. "I think he would have challenged his engineers to find a solution," he concluded."
I think it would be unreasonable to try to extrapolate a companies corporate policy from one semi- throw away comment in an interview, but Pierre-Emmanuel is stating that he believes Apple's standards have dropped since the death of Steve Jobs, with the implication that Devialet's management are challenging their engineers to achieve levels of perfection that Steve Jobs himself would be proud of. So although it is a stretch to state that Devialet wish to emulate Apple in some way, I think this does give at least a tiny insight into the thinking of Monsieur Calmel.
Having written all that, all this nonsense is actually way off topic. The original post of this thread asked the question "would being more transparent help or harm Devialet". I think if we had a poll on here asking "would you like Devialet to improve their communication with respect to known issues", then most people would vote "yes". But this is a different question to "would being more transparent help or harm Devialet". Imaging the Monday morning management meeting, where one brave individual says "I think we should issue a press release stating that there are some problems with AIR that we are struggling to fix, come on guys, this is a great idea, it's good to be honest". Not likely to happen is it? So what about communication on Devialet's website? There is a section buried under Devialet help / announcement regarding the beta version of AIR, this is a section that you need a log-in password to access. The beta version of AIR section does invite comments from customers, in response to the first few customer comments there is one response from Devialet "Thank you very much for your feedback, we transfer all the information to our R&D team.", and that's it, no more, nothing at all after very many months since the last beta release. As far as I'm concerned, this lack of feedback is damaging to Devialet. Would it really upset the Devialet golden halo too much if they provided a teeny tiny bit of feedback here? In fact, when Devialet asked me for specific feedback on an earlier beta version of AIR, the response was also more or less ""Thank you very much for your feedback, we transfer the information to our R&D team." It strikes me that they are quite simply deliberately obstructive, and this is slightly annoying.
To wrap up and for a touch of balance, MightyMart posted "I agree with you on this 100 % G! Too many people on this forum are complaining about this-and-that not working, instead of either selling their Dev's or just relaxing and realizing that when it comes down to music, the Dev's quite extraordinary." Well my Dev's not for sale because it sounds superb and I have been lucky enough to have been able to spend much time enjoying it this weekend. Most enjoyable! Although, it would appear that enjoying your Dev but also having a good old moan about Devialet themselves is not mutually exclusive!
Having said that, there was this interview with Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel in SoundStage Global:
"As I was having lunch with Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, Devialet's cofounder and the inventor of the company's revolutionary ADH (Analog Digital Hybrid) amplifier technology, he reached over and picked up a colleague's Apple iPhone 6 to first praise but then criticize it. He applauded its shape, size, weight, and feel, but then he pointed to the camera lens and said, "I don't believe Steve Jobs would have allowed that." He could tell by my confused look that I didn't understand, so he pointed out that the lens protrudes slightly from the body, which makes the phone not only ever-so-slightly thicker than Apple claims, but also awkward when you rub your finger over it. It was obvious that Pierre-Emmanuel saw this as a design flaw, as he felt it should be aligned with the area around it. "I think he would have challenged his engineers to find a solution," he concluded."
I think it would be unreasonable to try to extrapolate a companies corporate policy from one semi- throw away comment in an interview, but Pierre-Emmanuel is stating that he believes Apple's standards have dropped since the death of Steve Jobs, with the implication that Devialet's management are challenging their engineers to achieve levels of perfection that Steve Jobs himself would be proud of. So although it is a stretch to state that Devialet wish to emulate Apple in some way, I think this does give at least a tiny insight into the thinking of Monsieur Calmel.
Having written all that, all this nonsense is actually way off topic. The original post of this thread asked the question "would being more transparent help or harm Devialet". I think if we had a poll on here asking "would you like Devialet to improve their communication with respect to known issues", then most people would vote "yes". But this is a different question to "would being more transparent help or harm Devialet". Imaging the Monday morning management meeting, where one brave individual says "I think we should issue a press release stating that there are some problems with AIR that we are struggling to fix, come on guys, this is a great idea, it's good to be honest". Not likely to happen is it? So what about communication on Devialet's website? There is a section buried under Devialet help / announcement regarding the beta version of AIR, this is a section that you need a log-in password to access. The beta version of AIR section does invite comments from customers, in response to the first few customer comments there is one response from Devialet "Thank you very much for your feedback, we transfer all the information to our R&D team.", and that's it, no more, nothing at all after very many months since the last beta release. As far as I'm concerned, this lack of feedback is damaging to Devialet. Would it really upset the Devialet golden halo too much if they provided a teeny tiny bit of feedback here? In fact, when Devialet asked me for specific feedback on an earlier beta version of AIR, the response was also more or less ""Thank you very much for your feedback, we transfer the information to our R&D team." It strikes me that they are quite simply deliberately obstructive, and this is slightly annoying.
To wrap up and for a touch of balance, MightyMart posted "I agree with you on this 100 % G! Too many people on this forum are complaining about this-and-that not working, instead of either selling their Dev's or just relaxing and realizing that when it comes down to music, the Dev's quite extraordinary." Well my Dev's not for sale because it sounds superb and I have been lucky enough to have been able to spend much time enjoying it this weekend. Most enjoyable! Although, it would appear that enjoying your Dev but also having a good old moan about Devialet themselves is not mutually exclusive!
