Some of the criticism being levelled at Devialet in the past three months, primarily as it relates to “announcing” the new product range, is, in my opinion, justified - although much of it may have been provoked by leakages from dealers who have broken their NDAs. And, on reflection, Devialet should have judged that a three month embargo between the Versailles gathering and the impending formal launch (at least in the UK) was simply too long for any NDA to hold firm. It is hoped that Devialet will censure those breaching their NDAs if at all possible.
As an owner of an Od’A, my initial reaction to the rumours that a “better” top model would be released within six months was one of disappointment and amazement at what appears to be inept planning, albeit this has been tempered by the news that Od’A owners will get a free “upgrade”, though details of this are non-existent at present, which I regard as very disappointing - though, in the overall scheme of things, defensible from Devialet’s point of view.
From a commercial and technological point of view, it was always likely that a new or rebranded range would be introduced by mid 2018 - my recollection is the D-Premier launched at the start of 2010 with the 110/170/240/500 launching in May 2013. So, somewhat selfishly (and what an irrelevant reason that is), I thought that the exclusivity of the Od’A would run for two years or so, even if there were some aspects dripped down to the cheaper units.
And, of course, Devialet could have chosen to simply drip down some aspects to what are now the 120, 200 and 400 (and maybe the 250); or to rebrand those models as the 120/200/400/(250) Pro, thus giving the models a refreshed identity; giving existing owners upgrade options as it seems is being proposed anyway.
(Just allow the 800 to lapse for a while or create the 900 Pro)
The Od’A would remain as the supreme product, would be untouched, and no Od’A owner would feel aggrieved - since nothing in the lesser units would be “better”.
That would therefore have been the easy way forward for Devialet and offended no-one, especially if the promising AIR developments were delivered in full.
But Devialet has probably taken a more challenging route which one hopes will be the correct one in the medium term.
This may well be influenced by the fact that 97 Od’As have been sold (largely to customers though some just to retailers) in four months - and my guess is that that pace of sale might be at two or three times the run rate experienced for the 800 over the three years since May 2013.
Less likely, indeed highly unlikely, but possible, is that it may be influenced by a significant technological development breakthrough in the first quarter of 2016.
So we effectively get a full range relaunch - perhaps somewhat earlier than planned and only partially delivered in 2016 - which tells us all that as well as getting now the new A board, the new D board, the new power supply and the new thermal management system (as embodied in the Od’A) we will - now or at some stage soon - get the new Magic Wire DAC and the new OS. [It now transpires that the OdA has the A, the D, the Magic Wire; will get the power supply and thermal management in Q2017 along with the new OS and new streaming board] [It susequently transpires that the OdA will have the A, the Magic Wire, possibly the algorithm, possibly the current to voltage conversion replaced] [This is an example of Devialet's communication policy!]
This may well prepare the unit for an even greater functionality over the next three or four years and in this context Devialet cannot win: they would be criticised if they stored up developments for release every five years and they are criticised if they do partial releases whilst not being sure of the timings of emerging developments.
What this more adventurous route does result in, in the short term, is to irritate Od’A owners and, in my view, they have managed this poorly. The gestation period of three months has been far too long; and just before a global customer launch every Od’A owner (97 at most) should have had an email direct from Monsieur Calmel - the originator of the Od’A - to say what was going to happen.
Anyway, they now have the opportunity to put things right if they handle the official UK launch well next week [in the event, they handled it badly]; and it would further help if they recognised that DevialetChat (love it or loath it) was a large collection of Devialet advocates (some of whom are gradually becoming the opposite) who would welcome some participation from Devialet on the forum.
Their communication talents are pretty hopeless and they need to get those right; but I’d much rather have a fantastic product with crap communication than the opposite.
(Must have been in a good mood when I wrote this.)
As an owner of an Od’A, my initial reaction to the rumours that a “better” top model would be released within six months was one of disappointment and amazement at what appears to be inept planning, albeit this has been tempered by the news that Od’A owners will get a free “upgrade”, though details of this are non-existent at present, which I regard as very disappointing - though, in the overall scheme of things, defensible from Devialet’s point of view.
From a commercial and technological point of view, it was always likely that a new or rebranded range would be introduced by mid 2018 - my recollection is the D-Premier launched at the start of 2010 with the 110/170/240/500 launching in May 2013. So, somewhat selfishly (and what an irrelevant reason that is), I thought that the exclusivity of the Od’A would run for two years or so, even if there were some aspects dripped down to the cheaper units.
And, of course, Devialet could have chosen to simply drip down some aspects to what are now the 120, 200 and 400 (and maybe the 250); or to rebrand those models as the 120/200/400/(250) Pro, thus giving the models a refreshed identity; giving existing owners upgrade options as it seems is being proposed anyway.
(Just allow the 800 to lapse for a while or create the 900 Pro)
The Od’A would remain as the supreme product, would be untouched, and no Od’A owner would feel aggrieved - since nothing in the lesser units would be “better”.
That would therefore have been the easy way forward for Devialet and offended no-one, especially if the promising AIR developments were delivered in full.
But Devialet has probably taken a more challenging route which one hopes will be the correct one in the medium term.
This may well be influenced by the fact that 97 Od’As have been sold (largely to customers though some just to retailers) in four months - and my guess is that that pace of sale might be at two or three times the run rate experienced for the 800 over the three years since May 2013.
Less likely, indeed highly unlikely, but possible, is that it may be influenced by a significant technological development breakthrough in the first quarter of 2016.
So we effectively get a full range relaunch - perhaps somewhat earlier than planned and only partially delivered in 2016 - which tells us all that as well as getting now the new A board, the new D board, the new power supply and the new thermal management system (as embodied in the Od’A) we will - now or at some stage soon - get the new Magic Wire DAC and the new OS. [It now transpires that the OdA has the A, the D, the Magic Wire; will get the power supply and thermal management in Q2017 along with the new OS and new streaming board] [It susequently transpires that the OdA will have the A, the Magic Wire, possibly the algorithm, possibly the current to voltage conversion replaced] [This is an example of Devialet's communication policy!]
This may well prepare the unit for an even greater functionality over the next three or four years and in this context Devialet cannot win: they would be criticised if they stored up developments for release every five years and they are criticised if they do partial releases whilst not being sure of the timings of emerging developments.
What this more adventurous route does result in, in the short term, is to irritate Od’A owners and, in my view, they have managed this poorly. The gestation period of three months has been far too long; and just before a global customer launch every Od’A owner (97 at most) should have had an email direct from Monsieur Calmel - the originator of the Od’A - to say what was going to happen.
Anyway, they now have the opportunity to put things right if they handle the official UK launch well next week [in the event, they handled it badly]; and it would further help if they recognised that DevialetChat (love it or loath it) was a large collection of Devialet advocates (some of whom are gradually becoming the opposite) who would welcome some participation from Devialet on the forum.
Their communication talents are pretty hopeless and they need to get those right; but I’d much rather have a fantastic product with crap communication than the opposite.
(Must have been in a good mood when I wrote this.)
Innuos Statement 2TB SSD with Next-Gen PSU (with Roon lifetime)
MacBook Pro (with Air)
Draytek Vigor 2860v-Plus/Devialet Original d'Atelier CI Nos. 54A&B/Magico M3 pair
Shunyata cables (digital/interconnect/loudspeaker/power)/Shunyata power units (Triton/Typhon)
Dialog/Phantom Gold/Tree pair
Missing Link cables (power)
England
