Devialet at Oxford Audio 13th July

[RebelMan]

If you really understand the frustration we have, really.... then you would not write the way you do. I own products from a few manufacturers and follow a few others. Common for these is the they all have customer focus. Devialet has, so far,  failed here. They may have valid reasons and also reasons that must be kept within the company, but a complete lack of communication, or even worse, what can be interpreted as lies, is not a good thing. With a customer base like Devialet has, one should think they would listen to their customers, but they do not, it seems.
For the opposite  check Roon, JRiver, Jplay, Acourate, Sonore, Uptone and others.

Quite the opposite actually, I write the way I do because of it.  

I have been in this hobby for a long time (since I was 16), long enough to dream for THAT system and to have that dream come true.  I finally had the opportunity to buy my first “high-end” system.  For me it has always been about high-performance but in this case high-end also meant "audio jewelry".    

I purchased in $50,000 U.S. retail dollars a CD player, a DVD player, a pre-amplifier, two surround sound processors, two mono-block amplifiers, one two-channel amplifier and one multi-channel amplifier over the course of about two years from the same well established, well funded, well respected high-performance, high-end brand name company.  Save for the mono-blocks every one of these components had issues, EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!   

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong from product delays to missing capabilities to malfunctioning software to failed hardware like optical drives to dead amplifier channels to blown component parts like relay switches and such.  Each time my system had a hardware issue it was down from weeks to months at a time.  In some cases the equipment had to go in for repairs more than once as it did with one of the SSPs which had a display that failed TWICE.  Moreover, when the software didn't work there were no temporary work arounds in most cases.  You had to wait until an update was released and that often took many months to years and even then when you got the update to fix the problems you had something else would break, albeit less minor but still.  

Later when one of my friends’ CD player's optical drive completely failed the company could not provide a solution to his problem.  Why?  Because the company that manufactured the drives stopped producing them and since the company no longer had stock to replace the drive there was nothing they could do.  They couldn't retrofit a different manufacturer’s  drive either because the control board was designed for that specific make and model.  They would have to develop a whole new control board for which then was a discontinued player and we all knew that wasn’t gonna happen.  Unfortunately, the company couldn’t just offer to replace the player either because they stopped producing them altogether.  So after several years of putting up with plagued software and then later an irreplaceable hardware component my friend was left with an $5000 boat anchor that was now worth virtually nothing!!!  

It isn’t always greener on the other side either.  The issues I had to deal with were no different from the stories that other people had with the products they owed from other similar brand name companies.  Ironically, my $250 mass market receiver has been virtually flawless so why would I put up with all these problems?  Easy, sound, I want the absolute sound.  But is it worth it?  Is it really worth going through all these problems and would it be worth going through all over again?  You bet it is.  I would do it all over again, in a heart beat!

So when I see people going ape over a convenience feature (aka AIR) that doesn’t work as smoothly as it should I think these people don’t have a clue what a real problem is.  Not having AIR work is not loosing sound quality.  Not having AIR work is not having your system dead in the water.  Not having AIR work is not loosing your investment.  Not having AIR work is an inconvenience and that my friends is all!

ogs

I do not know how long you've owned a Devialet amp. If that coincides with your registration at this forum much of the frustration has roots long before that.  Griping? I do not think so.

I have been following Devialet since the beginning but I had little interest in what they had because my requirements at the time were different than they are now or were a few years ago.  My first hands on with Devialet came in 2014 and I had plans to become an owner that year but the dealer and I couldn't come to an agreement.  Later they stopped carrying the brand and I solicited a friend for references.  He was unable to help me at the time but then about a year later he could.  I have technically been an owner since last year but I have been a visitor to this forum since 2014.