Did Devialet 'get lucky' here. Correct me if I am wrong, but did they not happen upon the advances representing the Pro upgrade, whilst putting together the Od'A, to the point where things over-lapped, and with new Od'A owners finding out that their machines were not going to be the pinnacle of Devialet ownership.
Fair enough, they get their upgrades free, would not expect anything less, but not until next year. That's a bit rum. They should be Premiere Class, first in line and treated like royalty. But no ....
What Devialet have managed to achieve is a solution (we think, because no-one knows anything yet about the streaming board) to all the failed promises of the original Expert range, and yet charge us a whopping upgrade cost. Something does not sit right with me here, and I have to get over this before I consider doing the upgrade. Let's see, they swap a few things around and re-design the motherboard, change the thermal pads and bingo, everything is improved. Wrap that up in a must have 'Pro' package and then charge an exorbitant cost, but wait, we still do not have a streaming function that will give us Spark, or hopefully, more. Only another promise, which Devialet have not been great on delivering as far as Expert is concerned.
AIR is still on beta. Beta says to me, let's hope and pray it works this time. Maybe they have got lucky again with version 3. In the meantime, without reliable AIR or Dialogue, we all had to find alternative sources, when those two technologies formed a major part of buying the Expert in the first place. That cost each and every one of us money. Having done this, Devialet are now effectively asking us to stick or twist. I wonder how many people have a Dialogue 'brick' sitting never used in their cupboards!
Roon has taught me to forget about UPnP, it's archaic, it was a major reason why I left Naim streaming & serving, I knew what i wanted and Roon delivered. It is my de-facto standard now. Devialet are stuck on Spark, which from what I have seen, does not spark me in the least. The Dialogue was interesting though, here you have something modestly priced, but a function that could easily be upgraded or indeed replaced as streaming technologies develop. It had the potential to be Devialet's 'Sonos Connect' with multiple streaming possibilities and even the addition of alternative front end players (e.g. Roon). Ok, effectively it would be a mini-computer, but that is the sort of computing power required nowadays if you want to use all the bells 'n' whistles, stick a NUC in a Dialogue box and hey presto. Importantly, this computing power is removed from the inside of the Expert. This new streaming board, worries me slightly, it has to up the computing power, but not so far as to become a 'noisy' mess within the Expert box. Which says to me, you will get UPnP/DLNA with attendant Spark, and not much else, well not in this version of the streaming board. Devialet deliver their promise but not much scope to expand. Wait for the annual streaming board upgrades, done at the dealers at £1.5k a pop. Hmmmm ...... been there, done that, and at much cheaper cost than Devialet are likely to charge.
The price of these upgrades have killed the second hand market for Experts. People will have to expect bottom dollar, not top dollar, the buyer will say 'ohh but I have to allow the cost of upgrading to Pro'. Dealers have little scope to trade-in older Experts against new Pro's, most will say the margins are too small, so you will be offered even lesser bottom dollar, or given the advice to try and sell privately. Devialet must know this after having consulted with their dealers (maybe that is why the cull of dealers occurred?), hence the persuasive onus on you really really should upgrade, where all the monies go to Devialet and no-one else, particularly the dealers, the life-blood of our hobby.
So I remain unconvinced about upgrading, of course it is difficult to read about the advances in SQ being reported, and that has it's own value in terms of upgrade costs. I like what they have achieved with the technologies, but I am wholly sceptical of Devialet OS, I think this could be a great white elephant. Ready to accept new advances maybe, but don't get sucked in by the hyperbola until something concrete is tabled by them. Again, the gun is held to your head, if you don't upgrade now, but later when these streaming boards are actually real, then you will be charged even more for it. That is pure marketing of an unsavoury kind in my book.
Fair enough, they get their upgrades free, would not expect anything less, but not until next year. That's a bit rum. They should be Premiere Class, first in line and treated like royalty. But no ....
What Devialet have managed to achieve is a solution (we think, because no-one knows anything yet about the streaming board) to all the failed promises of the original Expert range, and yet charge us a whopping upgrade cost. Something does not sit right with me here, and I have to get over this before I consider doing the upgrade. Let's see, they swap a few things around and re-design the motherboard, change the thermal pads and bingo, everything is improved. Wrap that up in a must have 'Pro' package and then charge an exorbitant cost, but wait, we still do not have a streaming function that will give us Spark, or hopefully, more. Only another promise, which Devialet have not been great on delivering as far as Expert is concerned.
AIR is still on beta. Beta says to me, let's hope and pray it works this time. Maybe they have got lucky again with version 3. In the meantime, without reliable AIR or Dialogue, we all had to find alternative sources, when those two technologies formed a major part of buying the Expert in the first place. That cost each and every one of us money. Having done this, Devialet are now effectively asking us to stick or twist. I wonder how many people have a Dialogue 'brick' sitting never used in their cupboards!
Roon has taught me to forget about UPnP, it's archaic, it was a major reason why I left Naim streaming & serving, I knew what i wanted and Roon delivered. It is my de-facto standard now. Devialet are stuck on Spark, which from what I have seen, does not spark me in the least. The Dialogue was interesting though, here you have something modestly priced, but a function that could easily be upgraded or indeed replaced as streaming technologies develop. It had the potential to be Devialet's 'Sonos Connect' with multiple streaming possibilities and even the addition of alternative front end players (e.g. Roon). Ok, effectively it would be a mini-computer, but that is the sort of computing power required nowadays if you want to use all the bells 'n' whistles, stick a NUC in a Dialogue box and hey presto. Importantly, this computing power is removed from the inside of the Expert. This new streaming board, worries me slightly, it has to up the computing power, but not so far as to become a 'noisy' mess within the Expert box. Which says to me, you will get UPnP/DLNA with attendant Spark, and not much else, well not in this version of the streaming board. Devialet deliver their promise but not much scope to expand. Wait for the annual streaming board upgrades, done at the dealers at £1.5k a pop. Hmmmm ...... been there, done that, and at much cheaper cost than Devialet are likely to charge.
The price of these upgrades have killed the second hand market for Experts. People will have to expect bottom dollar, not top dollar, the buyer will say 'ohh but I have to allow the cost of upgrading to Pro'. Dealers have little scope to trade-in older Experts against new Pro's, most will say the margins are too small, so you will be offered even lesser bottom dollar, or given the advice to try and sell privately. Devialet must know this after having consulted with their dealers (maybe that is why the cull of dealers occurred?), hence the persuasive onus on you really really should upgrade, where all the monies go to Devialet and no-one else, particularly the dealers, the life-blood of our hobby.
So I remain unconvinced about upgrading, of course it is difficult to read about the advances in SQ being reported, and that has it's own value in terms of upgrade costs. I like what they have achieved with the technologies, but I am wholly sceptical of Devialet OS, I think this could be a great white elephant. Ready to accept new advances maybe, but don't get sucked in by the hyperbola until something concrete is tabled by them. Again, the gun is held to your head, if you don't upgrade now, but later when these streaming boards are actually real, then you will be charged even more for it. That is pure marketing of an unsavoury kind in my book.
Devialet 220 Pro, TQ Black Mains & Ultra Black Speaker Cables, Naim Ovators S600, Sonore microRendu (Roon & HQP) with Uptone JS-2
TRNC (North Cyprus)
TRNC (North Cyprus)
