Goodbye to Devialet - after upgrade program

[Hifi_swlon]

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.

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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.

Allen, if you know my posts you'll know I'm not Devialets no 1 fan. I also agree with what you've said here.

It looks to me like the founders did genuinely aim to make the OdA the flagship, but as soon as it sold the investors and bean-counters leapt in and forced them to monetise it ASAP. If not, then they must be some cold, calculated guys. But that seems less likely - this smacks of the 'money man' in my experience. Also, the Experts came with SAM and other features out of the box. The Pros com with a promise of things way down the line - again this smacks of zero planning, and makes them look a bit clueless IMO. It further highlights their stretched software resources. Anyway, I'm getting off track.

Most of the Expert promises didn't affect me or were before my time. AIR was my thing, and still is - won't repeat that discussion. I've stopped trying it, other than updating my OSX as a last ditch effort to see if the beta3 worked, which (oh the irony) has screwed up my Roon setup and after a year without a single issue now has occasional dropouts on internet streaming. Urgh.

Resale wise I think the 200 is the worst affected. It makes little sense to buy one if you want a 220 Pro upgrade, as you can get a 120 for that. So we've been hit the hardest. Ok, some will say hifi isn't an investment - and of course it isn't - but does that mean you need to be happy about Devialet forcibly devaluing it. No, of course not.

But here's my take on the upgrade. I said I'd never spend another penny with Devialet (which thankfully I semi-retracted recently) but I forced myself to step back and look at the situation cold and be unemotional about it.

Not upgrading: Worst case, a 200 is suddenly worth a lot less resale. After December it might not be possible to upgrade any more (ok, it's unlikely based on past form but it could happen), and come 2017 if Devialet surprise us and add a decent streamer board, you'll not only have to pay for it (allegedly, again I think it will likely get included with the pro's after a time), but you'll have to buy a Pro, and sell the 200 at an even lower amount if it's not upgradeable.

Now, if you like the 200, are happy with it, aren't interested in selling it, and don't want to give money to Devialet then it makes sense not to upgrade.

Upgrading: You refresh the resale value of your Devialet, probably at least by the amount you pay for the upgrade. You get a streamer board for free should it ever materialise, and there is at least the chance that it will be technical possibile for it to handle Roon. As a bonus you'll probably get a degree of increased SQ, and a platform that all future firmware will likely be optimised for.

Ok, if you're me you'd also have to swallow your pride, but the upgrade does make logical sense in my case - particularly as I'm not 100% I want to keep my Devialet long term, so resale is a factor.

But that said I still think the upgrade on the 200 is the least value for money. So I didn't upgrade mine.