New product launch?

[nicoludio]

New 1000 will sound better than the OdA but then again OdA will be upgraded too. So, OdA will be at the top (with 1000 supposedly) but will have the limited edition chassis.

Having produced the Od'A and now announced the 1000, the only logic is to make the technical innards and sound quality exactly the same, which sounds like it will require some changes to the Od'A. Anything else is not defensible.

I can't imagine that, within 5 months, the entire innards of the Od'A will need to be replaced - whereas, after 3(?) years, I could envisage that with the 800.

My memory suggests that Devialet's published specifications for the Od'A were just the same as for the 800. Maybe with the 1000 there will be some adjustments to drive the marketing message. But since I cannot correlate the level of specification change with the degree of sonic change, it's all pretty irrelevant to me, save that I wouldn't want to see any measurements get worse!

For some manufacturers, the OdA equivalent would be a showcase of the best that they are capable of at that given moment.  It would not only be a limited but also a reference edition too. Of course, there would be trickle-downs but the limited/reference edition would be the SOTA for some time to come. Eventually, the rest of the line would catch up but that would normally take years not months, and certainly not after you have just bought it. 

One possible example is the Audio Research Reference 40. It took a while for the Reference 5 to morph into the Reference 5SE, then now Reference 6. Perhaps the newer models may now surpass the Reference 40 and with a better price/performance ratio. But, the Reference 40 remained at the pinnacle for some time.

Only Devialet knows why the development path of the OdA/new line is what it is.  Perhaps they had spare 250/800 casings (the 800 was least popular model in the entire line I understand) and decided that the new electronics under research at that stage was good enough to justify a limited edition, with some cosmetic differentiation. Nonetheless, one would also have thought that the development/research path would have been sufficiently clear to them as to where they would end up at the conclusion of the research milestones.

Then, whoops (!), they had to deal with the ire of OdA purchasers who would now find the performance of their limited edition units had been surpassed.

Of course, with the casing supposedly remaining the same, the only solution was to retain the limited edition casing/colour and replace the innards with the latest version.  Reportedly, they had wanted to charge OdA owners for the upgrade. Now, if I had just bought an OdA the day before the official announcement, I would be rather miffed that my TOTL unit is now "obselete" unless I paid some EUR6,000 - 7,000 (or whatever the final amount is) to update it to the latest specs.  My dealer will get the Ferguson hairdryer treatment  .  So, apparently, as customer PR, certain arrangements will be made with respect to the upgrade.  Whether it will be free or at a reduced rate remains to be confirmed.