I thought back in 2010 that I bought an integrated amplifier with a built-in DAC and phono stage and now, my iOS doesn't get as frequent upgrades as the Devialet.
Back in the days then, no streaming of course. No wifi board was installed in the early D-Premiers. (I had one of the first 200 sold) I got a couple of config files for my analogue set-up through my dealer and chose the one I could live with. Each config file was written (to every other owner too) in France to requests from the dealers. No online configurator obviously.
Then we got the wifi board. But then mayhem thereafter. Phono output started buzzing and wifi streaming got cracking noises ... fast-forward 5 years. Two hardware upgrades, zillion firmware and AIR upgrades. And streaming still isn't freaking working flawlessly. I had a DUNE media player to stream Blue-ray ISO files through wifi(!) with an attached D-link wifi stick. This is 4 times the bit rate of a 192/24 audio file. Now, I can stream 4K videos on Youtube to my iPad through my Gigabit internet connection. Devialet still couldn't get CD quilty wifi streaming 100% fail proof, which is about 1/20th of the above bitrates. Seriously?
I believe that Devialet was a pioneer and outstanding in many areas 6-7 years ago. Now, network streaming etc. has become commonplace and Devialet is way behind. As I said above they had two hardware and countless software upgrades to get it right. They didn't. (wishful thinking: they haven't). They either don't know much about streaming hardware or cannot write code. Either way, a streaming board will probably be outdated when it comes out (still who knows when) and will be marred with bugs. Countless updates and fixes and AIR X.08.
I stopped trusting Devialet software engineers. I still think the amp is outstanding in all other aspects. Programmable inputs/outputs/phono stage/crossovers/etc... a very good piece of work. But I decided not to upgrade the third time, especially that the major upgrade promise involves the only thing that Devialet hasn't done right. Streaming.
Back in the days then, no streaming of course. No wifi board was installed in the early D-Premiers. (I had one of the first 200 sold) I got a couple of config files for my analogue set-up through my dealer and chose the one I could live with. Each config file was written (to every other owner too) in France to requests from the dealers. No online configurator obviously.
Then we got the wifi board. But then mayhem thereafter. Phono output started buzzing and wifi streaming got cracking noises ... fast-forward 5 years. Two hardware upgrades, zillion firmware and AIR upgrades. And streaming still isn't freaking working flawlessly. I had a DUNE media player to stream Blue-ray ISO files through wifi(!) with an attached D-link wifi stick. This is 4 times the bit rate of a 192/24 audio file. Now, I can stream 4K videos on Youtube to my iPad through my Gigabit internet connection. Devialet still couldn't get CD quilty wifi streaming 100% fail proof, which is about 1/20th of the above bitrates. Seriously?
I believe that Devialet was a pioneer and outstanding in many areas 6-7 years ago. Now, network streaming etc. has become commonplace and Devialet is way behind. As I said above they had two hardware and countless software upgrades to get it right. They didn't. (wishful thinking: they haven't). They either don't know much about streaming hardware or cannot write code. Either way, a streaming board will probably be outdated when it comes out (still who knows when) and will be marred with bugs. Countless updates and fixes and AIR X.08.
I stopped trusting Devialet software engineers. I still think the amp is outstanding in all other aspects. Programmable inputs/outputs/phono stage/crossovers/etc... a very good piece of work. But I decided not to upgrade the third time, especially that the major upgrade promise involves the only thing that Devialet hasn't done right. Streaming.
Win10/HQPlayer / Roon - Uptone Audio Etherregen switch / SOtM-SMS-200 ultra with clock input - Mutec REF 10 clock for the switch and the streamer - Denafrips GAIA DCC - Devialet D800 - YG Acoustics Carmel - Dual Elac SUB-2090
power supplies: Uptone JS-2, SOtM SPS-500
