27-Dec-2019, 09:09
Can I put a foot in each camp. @Pim is probably correct to say that Devialet are trying to get everything on one platform but if we leave the Roon Ready bug out of the discussion, there were a list of things still being worked on and an outstanding feature still listed from the original CI board promises noted in the Release Notes for that Roon Ready firmware update and we could very legitimately expect them to have issued another firmware update since then to deal with those promises.
As for Devialet not wanting to make the Expert Pro range Roon Ready, they chose to do it. They have a long history in the past of taking a long time to deliver promises and they could have put the Roon Ready feature in the long term basket like a long list of things they've put there in the past. They tried to deliver on something they hadn't initially promised and actually managed to deliver on it and get it "mostly right" which actually is a plus but then went back to going very slow on a bug fix which is reminiscent of their initial problems with AIR from what I've read. I don't think it turned into a massive headache because they made the Expert Pro Roon Ready to make us happy, I think it turned into a massive headache because they can't seem to do a good job of getting their streaming software to work the way it should because they've now failed to get both AIR and Roon Ready streaming to work properly on release for some users.
And yes, I can understand and support a focus on moving all platforms to the same OS but they said in the February release notes that there were still a couple of things in the Expert Pro firmware to be fixed, the Roon Ready bug added one, and they still hadn't delivered on the promised Spotify streaming. If the Expert Pro firmware was the first step to developing a common OS for all hardware platforms then getting all of those things fixed for the Expert Pros can actually be seen as a positive step towards getting the common OS because those are all things that are going to have to be worked out for all platforms anyway if the OS is truly to be common.
I think that it will PROBABLY "all come good" but the question for all of us is how long will it take? I doubt that simply delivering the current functionality of the Expert Pro OS and firmware, with its outstanding feature and unfixed bugs, to the Phantom/Reactor platform would be met with unanimous joy and satisfaction by all Phantom/Reactor owners and if the OS is common to all, any fix for one platform should mean that it can be fixed at the same time for all platforms so what are we going to see next? Will we see a simultaneous, or nearly simultaneous, OS and firmware release for all hardware platforms or are we going to see the Expert Pro range get the promised fixes while others wait or Phantom/Reacotor owners get what they're waiting for while Expert Pro owners wait for their fixes? That's 3 possibilities and only one of them is going to have a chance of making everyone cheer. The other 2 basically leave the owner base in the same disarray and continuing dissatisfaction with progress as they're currently in. The longer the delay until everyone gets what they're legitimately waiting for, the more customer dissatisfaction Devialet will continue to have to deal with.
Yes. it will all work out in the end but it seems that getting AIR to finally work really well for the Expert range required a hardware update to the Expert Pro range and getting Roon to aid support for AIR to their software. I would like to see things up and running properly without the need for a further hardware upgrade.
For those of us with Expert Pros, I can look on the positive side and say that our glasses are a little bit more than half full so they're definitely not half empty, but they are significantly short of the full glass that was promised and another year has passed with all of the usual promises about improvements in communication and the usual failure to deliver on that promise.
As for Devialet not wanting to make the Expert Pro range Roon Ready, they chose to do it. They have a long history in the past of taking a long time to deliver promises and they could have put the Roon Ready feature in the long term basket like a long list of things they've put there in the past. They tried to deliver on something they hadn't initially promised and actually managed to deliver on it and get it "mostly right" which actually is a plus but then went back to going very slow on a bug fix which is reminiscent of their initial problems with AIR from what I've read. I don't think it turned into a massive headache because they made the Expert Pro Roon Ready to make us happy, I think it turned into a massive headache because they can't seem to do a good job of getting their streaming software to work the way it should because they've now failed to get both AIR and Roon Ready streaming to work properly on release for some users.
And yes, I can understand and support a focus on moving all platforms to the same OS but they said in the February release notes that there were still a couple of things in the Expert Pro firmware to be fixed, the Roon Ready bug added one, and they still hadn't delivered on the promised Spotify streaming. If the Expert Pro firmware was the first step to developing a common OS for all hardware platforms then getting all of those things fixed for the Expert Pros can actually be seen as a positive step towards getting the common OS because those are all things that are going to have to be worked out for all platforms anyway if the OS is truly to be common.
I think that it will PROBABLY "all come good" but the question for all of us is how long will it take? I doubt that simply delivering the current functionality of the Expert Pro OS and firmware, with its outstanding feature and unfixed bugs, to the Phantom/Reactor platform would be met with unanimous joy and satisfaction by all Phantom/Reactor owners and if the OS is common to all, any fix for one platform should mean that it can be fixed at the same time for all platforms so what are we going to see next? Will we see a simultaneous, or nearly simultaneous, OS and firmware release for all hardware platforms or are we going to see the Expert Pro range get the promised fixes while others wait or Phantom/Reacotor owners get what they're waiting for while Expert Pro owners wait for their fixes? That's 3 possibilities and only one of them is going to have a chance of making everyone cheer. The other 2 basically leave the owner base in the same disarray and continuing dissatisfaction with progress as they're currently in. The longer the delay until everyone gets what they're legitimately waiting for, the more customer dissatisfaction Devialet will continue to have to deal with.
Yes. it will all work out in the end but it seems that getting AIR to finally work really well for the Expert range required a hardware update to the Expert Pro range and getting Roon to aid support for AIR to their software. I would like to see things up and running properly without the need for a further hardware upgrade.
For those of us with Expert Pros, I can look on the positive side and say that our glasses are a little bit more than half full so they're definitely not half empty, but they are significantly short of the full glass that was promised and another year has passed with all of the usual promises about improvements in communication and the usual failure to deliver on that promise.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
