12-Jul-2018, 21:41
(This post was last modified: 12-Jul-2018, 22:57 by thumb5.
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Now for some more general notes and subjective opinions about the event.
First, thanks to the folks at Oxford Audio for arranging and hosting the event, and to Alexandre, Joachim and Mathieu of Devialet for presenting and taking questions from the assembled masses (about 15 people, I guess). It was good to meet a healthy number of DC members face-to-face, as always, as well as other folks not of this parish.
The main focus of the event was what the Core Infinity board brings to the Expert series, and what's in the pipeline for the rest of this year (and beyond). Joachim first explained that Devialet have learned from the last year or so not to over-promise and under-deliver, so the first point is that they're trying to be more realistic about the uncertainty over schedules for software development. This means no firm, publicised timescales for the work in progress. The second point is that the Core Infinity is now the main focus of development for the Expert (Pro) series, and is seen as a "future-proof" processor platform. The innovations will come in the form of software developed for the CI.
Mathieu explained some hardware details of the CI board: it's based on an i.MX6 quad-core ARM [Cortex-A9 I believe] processor with 4 GB RAM - this is the same SoC as in the Dialog. It runs their own lightweight build of Linux, which enables sophisticated software applications including streaming. Linux was chosen partly because it's a widely-used OS and is well-known by talented software developers. Mathieu pointed out that the hardware deisgn of the CI board benefits from the success of the Phantom, because the higher sales volume of Phantom gives Devialet better access to technology from companies such as Qualcomm.
Turning to the changes in audio architecture: AIR now runs on the CI under Linux, with other streaming software, and there is an improved clocking architecture for the legacy (non-network) inputs; this improves sound quality of those inputs. All inputs are capable of at least 24-bit/192 kHz operation. (At this point there was a question about Phantom: it's unlikely that it would benefit from any improvement to its input capabilities as the performance is limited by the tweeter. [I hope I interpreted that correctly.])
Joachim then described what's in Devialet's pipeline for software development. They have been careful to prioritise the software development, and described these "works in progress" in priority order.
Top priority is support for Roon RAAT. This has been under way since May, and should be released around the end of this year. This is seen as a must-have, high-end feature for "audiophile" use.
By contrast, the next priority is support for audio playback over Bluetooth. The use case here is a friend or visitor wanting to play music direct through your Devialet without any "set-up" overhead - in other words, more of a convenience feature.
Third on the list comes support for over-the-air firmware upgrade and an on-board configurator. In other words, no need to use the SD card in either case, though the SD card will continue to be supported as it fits some other use cases (such as not having an internet connection). Again, no firm timescale for those.
After that, Devialet hope to refresh the iOS application to make it comparable to the hardware remote control.
That seemed to be more or less the prepared part of the event, which then turned into more of a Q-and-A session.
Mathieu talked a bit about their design goals, which can be summarised as: minimum distortion and (hence) highest transparency. He said (and I think he's said before) that they primarily measure rather than listen during the design stage: there's a strong belief in the power of engineering to produce an amplifier that sounds good. Asked about why they're still using the same DAC as in the original D-Premier, Mathieu said that the measured performance of the Expert series at full power is still better than many DAC chips at line level - they are "years ahead of the field in audio D-to-A conversion technology". He said he was proud of the fact that some people say that they get better sound by using an external DAC, because that simply means that the Devialet is transparent enough to preserve the "character" of the external DAC (as @f1eng has often said here).
Back on the Phantom, Joachim said Devialet feel they've reached the best they can achieve with respect to sound quality but they still want to improve the software, particularly to make it more usable.
More generally on the topic of customer engagement: Devialet are re-thinking their communication strategy. They see Expert as their flagship product, and realise that it hasn't had the focus that it should have done over the last year or two. They are discussing internally how best to engage with Expert and Phantom customers - this might be through their own forum. They are very aware of Devialet Chat and keep up with what's being discussed here.
Devialet's new CEO is bringing more focus and prioritising more clearly how they use their resources.
Room correction was discussed briefly. Mathieu explained that it needs specialised skills which Devialet don't have and don't plan to acquire. That said, they are happy to implement custom EQ on a per-customer basis (I believe he mentioned boost/cut at up to 8 frequencies which I guess means specifically parametric EQ rather than an arbitrary convolution).
At that point the group discussion broke up and there was a chance to listen to a couple of Devialet-based systems: an O d'A with Wilson Sasha 2s, or a (new dual-mono) 210 through Magico A3's.
From my point of view, this event demonstrated that Devialet are keen to get back in touch with their customers and to adopt a more down-to-earth approach about what they can deliver. Joachim implicitly admitted that their marketing had got a bit ahead of itself, and (for example) they've now tried to make the web site more focused on reality than hype.
I came away enthused about the potential of the Core Infinity board, and think I'm about ready to take the plunge. Mind you, if @NickB has his way I should just chop in my 440 Pro for a 1000 Pro while I'm at it...
First, thanks to the folks at Oxford Audio for arranging and hosting the event, and to Alexandre, Joachim and Mathieu of Devialet for presenting and taking questions from the assembled masses (about 15 people, I guess). It was good to meet a healthy number of DC members face-to-face, as always, as well as other folks not of this parish.
The main focus of the event was what the Core Infinity board brings to the Expert series, and what's in the pipeline for the rest of this year (and beyond). Joachim first explained that Devialet have learned from the last year or so not to over-promise and under-deliver, so the first point is that they're trying to be more realistic about the uncertainty over schedules for software development. This means no firm, publicised timescales for the work in progress. The second point is that the Core Infinity is now the main focus of development for the Expert (Pro) series, and is seen as a "future-proof" processor platform. The innovations will come in the form of software developed for the CI.
Mathieu explained some hardware details of the CI board: it's based on an i.MX6 quad-core ARM [Cortex-A9 I believe] processor with 4 GB RAM - this is the same SoC as in the Dialog. It runs their own lightweight build of Linux, which enables sophisticated software applications including streaming. Linux was chosen partly because it's a widely-used OS and is well-known by talented software developers. Mathieu pointed out that the hardware deisgn of the CI board benefits from the success of the Phantom, because the higher sales volume of Phantom gives Devialet better access to technology from companies such as Qualcomm.
Turning to the changes in audio architecture: AIR now runs on the CI under Linux, with other streaming software, and there is an improved clocking architecture for the legacy (non-network) inputs; this improves sound quality of those inputs. All inputs are capable of at least 24-bit/192 kHz operation. (At this point there was a question about Phantom: it's unlikely that it would benefit from any improvement to its input capabilities as the performance is limited by the tweeter. [I hope I interpreted that correctly.])
Joachim then described what's in Devialet's pipeline for software development. They have been careful to prioritise the software development, and described these "works in progress" in priority order.
Top priority is support for Roon RAAT. This has been under way since May, and should be released around the end of this year. This is seen as a must-have, high-end feature for "audiophile" use.
By contrast, the next priority is support for audio playback over Bluetooth. The use case here is a friend or visitor wanting to play music direct through your Devialet without any "set-up" overhead - in other words, more of a convenience feature.
Third on the list comes support for over-the-air firmware upgrade and an on-board configurator. In other words, no need to use the SD card in either case, though the SD card will continue to be supported as it fits some other use cases (such as not having an internet connection). Again, no firm timescale for those.
After that, Devialet hope to refresh the iOS application to make it comparable to the hardware remote control.
That seemed to be more or less the prepared part of the event, which then turned into more of a Q-and-A session.
Mathieu talked a bit about their design goals, which can be summarised as: minimum distortion and (hence) highest transparency. He said (and I think he's said before) that they primarily measure rather than listen during the design stage: there's a strong belief in the power of engineering to produce an amplifier that sounds good. Asked about why they're still using the same DAC as in the original D-Premier, Mathieu said that the measured performance of the Expert series at full power is still better than many DAC chips at line level - they are "years ahead of the field in audio D-to-A conversion technology". He said he was proud of the fact that some people say that they get better sound by using an external DAC, because that simply means that the Devialet is transparent enough to preserve the "character" of the external DAC (as @f1eng has often said here).
Back on the Phantom, Joachim said Devialet feel they've reached the best they can achieve with respect to sound quality but they still want to improve the software, particularly to make it more usable.
More generally on the topic of customer engagement: Devialet are re-thinking their communication strategy. They see Expert as their flagship product, and realise that it hasn't had the focus that it should have done over the last year or two. They are discussing internally how best to engage with Expert and Phantom customers - this might be through their own forum. They are very aware of Devialet Chat and keep up with what's being discussed here.
Devialet's new CEO is bringing more focus and prioritising more clearly how they use their resources.
Room correction was discussed briefly. Mathieu explained that it needs specialised skills which Devialet don't have and don't plan to acquire. That said, they are happy to implement custom EQ on a per-customer basis (I believe he mentioned boost/cut at up to 8 frequencies which I guess means specifically parametric EQ rather than an arbitrary convolution).
At that point the group discussion broke up and there was a chance to listen to a couple of Devialet-based systems: an O d'A with Wilson Sasha 2s, or a (new dual-mono) 210 through Magico A3's.
From my point of view, this event demonstrated that Devialet are keen to get back in touch with their customers and to adopt a more down-to-earth approach about what they can deliver. Joachim implicitly admitted that their marketing had got a bit ahead of itself, and (for example) they've now tried to make the web site more focused on reality than hype.
I came away enthused about the potential of the Core Infinity board, and think I'm about ready to take the plunge. Mind you, if @NickB has his way I should just chop in my 440 Pro for a 1000 Pro while I'm at it...
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
