I bought on trial (45 days shipping both ways - how smart is Devialet for doing that in USA?) a Duo set of Elevates in December and was duly impressed (with reservations). So I wanted to see what the Golds could do. Again, Devialet (being just as smart) offers a holiday pkg of Golds on same 45 day (overlapping) trial. Am I dumb? Of course I did it.
My findings:
I still have multiple reservations not the least of which have to do with establishing network and connectivity, next with wishing I could EQ more easily, but these are truly revolutionary if we can as early adopters tolerate the shortcomings... I just wanted an all in one digital/active/streaming speaker with no other boxes, cables, variables. Just my home network and high quality streaming controlled by my iOS device. That’s it.
So... my impressions of the Elevate vs the Gold and what one gains:
It should come as no surprise that the bottom end is obviously lower/better controlled on the Gold. The Gold is more forward (one of my complaints with Elevate), but more significantly MUCH more volume at the same “number”. For a similar sound level, one must set the Elevates at least 10 points higher. 55 on the Golds requires at least 65 on Elevates. Which seems curious to me... why should that be? So I am concerned about mixing and matching the two should I choose to keep both for an immersive setup.
Aside from that, there appears to be a more forward midrange (again could simply be DSP processing) and the high end does have more detail. Keep in mind that the Elevates are more broken in by now and the Golds are only 2 hours in...
My findings:
I still have multiple reservations not the least of which have to do with establishing network and connectivity, next with wishing I could EQ more easily, but these are truly revolutionary if we can as early adopters tolerate the shortcomings... I just wanted an all in one digital/active/streaming speaker with no other boxes, cables, variables. Just my home network and high quality streaming controlled by my iOS device. That’s it.
So... my impressions of the Elevate vs the Gold and what one gains:
It should come as no surprise that the bottom end is obviously lower/better controlled on the Gold. The Gold is more forward (one of my complaints with Elevate), but more significantly MUCH more volume at the same “number”. For a similar sound level, one must set the Elevates at least 10 points higher. 55 on the Golds requires at least 65 on Elevates. Which seems curious to me... why should that be? So I am concerned about mixing and matching the two should I choose to keep both for an immersive setup.
Aside from that, there appears to be a more forward midrange (again could simply be DSP processing) and the high end does have more detail. Keep in mind that the Elevates are more broken in by now and the Golds are only 2 hours in...
