First to say much respect to Ian (@thumb5) for a great write up. I can confirm that he had a hard copy of the questions, he was taking notes, and any questions not answered in the original talk were pursued diligently. A fine effort, I wish some of the guys in my team at work were as diligent with their paid duties!
Ian has covered the key points accurately, but there are a few things I can add.
Regarding point 3, Mathieu was clear and stated that technically all inputs are equal. That is, they are equal from a "signal path" point of view. What is different is the protocols used, so AIR might sound better than AirPlay due to AIR having a superior protocol. In the same way, USB is asynchronous whereas the other inputs are synchronous, neither is best, but the best results may be dependant on what you connect to the said input.
Regarding point 6, it was mentioned that the Pro is already capable of running above 24/192 via USB. This certainly surprised me! Ian was taking notes when this was mentioned, but from memory, I think Mathieu mentioned that the USB input is currently capable of accepting a 32bit feed. I may have got this wrong, I need Ian's notes!. In the general talk at the start of the event, Mathieu mentioned that it was technically possible for MAT to run quad rate DSD (AKA DSD256). There are no plans to actually develop this on the current roadmap. (See Ian's comments re France winning the World Cup)
Regarding point 8, it was mentioned that this point is now explained on Devilaet's website. They mentioned that this is one of their most frequently asked questions, so they are now making an effort to get the "frequently asked" stuff answered properly on their website. This relates to something Ian mentioned above, it does appear that there is a desire now to return the website to having decent technical information, rather than the marketing hyperbole.
Regarding point 9, they were clear, there will be no more development for old Expert. The reason given for this is that they cannot provide unlimited resources so any time available for development will be "via Core Intelligence". After this was explained, it was mentioned that the Pro upgrade scheme was being restarted "in the summer" - Ian mentioned this above, but I think the implication is that to be able to benefit from development you need to be prepared to upgrade to the current model.
Regarding point 13, I have to say I am feeling very positive about this point. For me, there was a very different feel to today's event. I have been to similar events before, Mathieu has always been an absolute pleasure to talk to, and of course is a huge source of technical information. But that is only part of the story, in the past, I have often had this feeling that there were things that were not said, that anyone from Devialet was being very guarded with what they were saying and revealing. As an example, discussions regarding issues with AIR were typically shut down with nothing of substance said. Not today. Everything thing seemed very open and honest, both Mathieu and Joachim appeared to be talking completely openly and freely, they actually came across as audio enthusiasts having a fun day with their like-minded customers. As an example, when discussing the additional technical information being added to the Devialet website, they made a joke about their own marketing. Mathieu even made a mention of Devialet Chat, saying that he liked to read it during his lunch break to catch up on what is being said and if there are any issues, he even made a comment that he found it very hard to read on some occasions in the past during times when things were not going so well. Clearly this matters to him. I am quite sure that none of this would have been mentioned one year ago, to me things do genuinely seem to be different now, in a very good way.
One point for @Dvlt PhD - In OAC's picture on Twitter, they did indeed have the Magico A3's partnered with the 1000Pro. (and the dCS upsampler) However, by the time of the event the Magico's were running with the new 210 Pro dual mono and Devialet AIR, so about a £20K system, with the amplification somewhat cheaper than the speakers. Unfortunately, I did not have much time for a decent listen. NickB spent a long time listening to this set-up, plus he runs the Magico's big brothers with his own Devialet, so he is probably best placed to comment. (although Nick was making positive comments on the system during my brief spell in the room)
Another point that came up was regarding the Pro's DAC. The question was asked why the DAC chip in the Pro had not been updated to something better. The answer to this was very interesting. Mathieu was very clear in stating that this is the best chip to use, they continue to use it because of the measured performance within ADH, stating that this chip with the ADH implementation offers the absolute optimum signal to noise ratio and so on. Mathieu's view was that the Pro's digital to analogue conversion is absolutely state of the art in today's market, and use of this chip is retained for performance. There have been some comments on this forum mentioning that it is not the DAC chip that is important, but the architecture around it, Mathieu himself made this point, but the interesting thing is that the chip is deliberately retained because it performs best.
I am not sure if I have forgotten anything of note, if I think of anything over the coming days I will chime in again.
I will sign off by offering a heartfelt thank you to the guys from Devialet for supporting such a positive event, and to all at OAC for yet again being top class hosts. A particular mention has to go to OAC's Dan for keeping me supplied with coffee. A top class event!
Ian has covered the key points accurately, but there are a few things I can add.
Regarding point 3, Mathieu was clear and stated that technically all inputs are equal. That is, they are equal from a "signal path" point of view. What is different is the protocols used, so AIR might sound better than AirPlay due to AIR having a superior protocol. In the same way, USB is asynchronous whereas the other inputs are synchronous, neither is best, but the best results may be dependant on what you connect to the said input.
Regarding point 6, it was mentioned that the Pro is already capable of running above 24/192 via USB. This certainly surprised me! Ian was taking notes when this was mentioned, but from memory, I think Mathieu mentioned that the USB input is currently capable of accepting a 32bit feed. I may have got this wrong, I need Ian's notes!. In the general talk at the start of the event, Mathieu mentioned that it was technically possible for MAT to run quad rate DSD (AKA DSD256). There are no plans to actually develop this on the current roadmap. (See Ian's comments re France winning the World Cup)
Regarding point 8, it was mentioned that this point is now explained on Devilaet's website. They mentioned that this is one of their most frequently asked questions, so they are now making an effort to get the "frequently asked" stuff answered properly on their website. This relates to something Ian mentioned above, it does appear that there is a desire now to return the website to having decent technical information, rather than the marketing hyperbole.
Regarding point 9, they were clear, there will be no more development for old Expert. The reason given for this is that they cannot provide unlimited resources so any time available for development will be "via Core Intelligence". After this was explained, it was mentioned that the Pro upgrade scheme was being restarted "in the summer" - Ian mentioned this above, but I think the implication is that to be able to benefit from development you need to be prepared to upgrade to the current model.
Regarding point 13, I have to say I am feeling very positive about this point. For me, there was a very different feel to today's event. I have been to similar events before, Mathieu has always been an absolute pleasure to talk to, and of course is a huge source of technical information. But that is only part of the story, in the past, I have often had this feeling that there were things that were not said, that anyone from Devialet was being very guarded with what they were saying and revealing. As an example, discussions regarding issues with AIR were typically shut down with nothing of substance said. Not today. Everything thing seemed very open and honest, both Mathieu and Joachim appeared to be talking completely openly and freely, they actually came across as audio enthusiasts having a fun day with their like-minded customers. As an example, when discussing the additional technical information being added to the Devialet website, they made a joke about their own marketing. Mathieu even made a mention of Devialet Chat, saying that he liked to read it during his lunch break to catch up on what is being said and if there are any issues, he even made a comment that he found it very hard to read on some occasions in the past during times when things were not going so well. Clearly this matters to him. I am quite sure that none of this would have been mentioned one year ago, to me things do genuinely seem to be different now, in a very good way.
One point for @Dvlt PhD - In OAC's picture on Twitter, they did indeed have the Magico A3's partnered with the 1000Pro. (and the dCS upsampler) However, by the time of the event the Magico's were running with the new 210 Pro dual mono and Devialet AIR, so about a £20K system, with the amplification somewhat cheaper than the speakers. Unfortunately, I did not have much time for a decent listen. NickB spent a long time listening to this set-up, plus he runs the Magico's big brothers with his own Devialet, so he is probably best placed to comment. (although Nick was making positive comments on the system during my brief spell in the room)
Another point that came up was regarding the Pro's DAC. The question was asked why the DAC chip in the Pro had not been updated to something better. The answer to this was very interesting. Mathieu was very clear in stating that this is the best chip to use, they continue to use it because of the measured performance within ADH, stating that this chip with the ADH implementation offers the absolute optimum signal to noise ratio and so on. Mathieu's view was that the Pro's digital to analogue conversion is absolutely state of the art in today's market, and use of this chip is retained for performance. There have been some comments on this forum mentioning that it is not the DAC chip that is important, but the architecture around it, Mathieu himself made this point, but the interesting thing is that the chip is deliberately retained because it performs best.
I am not sure if I have forgotten anything of note, if I think of anything over the coming days I will chime in again.
I will sign off by offering a heartfelt thank you to the guys from Devialet for supporting such a positive event, and to all at OAC for yet again being top class hosts. A particular mention has to go to OAC's Dan for keeping me supplied with coffee. A top class event!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
