(03-Feb-2018, 18:20)snbeall Wrote: THANK YOU! At last, a serial number key! I have wondered what the serial numbers meant as my four phantoms were so disparate. Generally, one wants close - if not sequential - serial numbers so as to be matched component wise - as well as the person/machine assembling it (presumably). I’m wondering why mine would be SO different? Do they refurbish and recycle returns? For instance, my two Golds were both K44P but about 200 apart in sequence. These were direct shipped from Devialet. You’d think they’d be pretty close - if not sequential - sitting on the shelf together wouldn’t you? Now my two Elevates were K48N and K48P. Any idea what the letter following the week denotes and why these two are different. I CAN tell you that one of the two consistently had problems with maintaining connection - including requiring a three button push reset out of the box to be recognized (a particularly frustrating discovery process there!). On top of that, there are almost 1000 apart in serial numbers!
Anyway, they seem to have just made it at week 48 - whew! And their performance by other metrics seems to bear that out. No hiss or noise which apparently is more pronounced in ADH models??
I’ll see if I can find out about the rest of the serial numbers. Although anything past the first two numbers isn’t drastic as the model is determined by the date.
On the manufacturing line they’re in order of unit produced. So the serial numbers are in order (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9). But when they get boxed and shelved they’re randomised. 20% of the manufacturing process is by hand. Each component created is digitally checked, the quickly hand checked. The boxing stage is also by hand, so depending on the speed of each boxing the shelving of units isn’t in order, as it’s not necessary to order them as long as each production run is physically the same the hardware is too.
If they change hardware they’ll section new hardware on a separate shelve. So they can sell the old hardware first. Saves time when you can just look at a shelve and say “yep that’s old stock, that’s new stock, that’s ADH2 stock” ect.
They don’t refurbish and resell the units, although they do reuse old units. They become engineering units which can hold valuable information on the product, such as how the components and hardware ages over time with specific use cases, and other stuff.
As long as your units are within the same year and week they should be identical and from the same production run.
If there a few weeks apart but those weeks are still after the K47 week hardware change they’re also fine, or if they’re before the K47 week change they’re fine.
If one is from week K46 and one from week K48 you may notice a slight tiny difference in overall sound completely due to the fact that the signal processing and amplification technology is newer in the 48 units.
In saying that, if a K46 and a K48 unit are paired together in stereo they are intelligent enough to almost completely match each other in capabilities. They dynamically adjust to any new components introduced to the system. If you pair an ADH unit with a ADH2 unit the ADH2 unit will adjust to match the ADH unit. The things that won’t adjust will be purity of the audio, like the background noise or buzz from close distances that the standard ADH units had. So the new unit will ALWAYS have less of those issues that the old ones had, but sound quality itself will be the same as the units will digitally match each other.
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Devialet Phantom (White)
