25-Jan-2020, 20:54
I'm pretty much with @Confused on where Devialet are with the Expert Pro range. Devialet seem capable of selling 2 ranges of product at the same time, they're just incapable of working on the development of both ranges at the same time and of keeping both sets of customers happy so they swap from development of one range to the other and back again, and each swap makes one group of customers happy and alienates the other. I don't think they've abandoned the Expert Pro range, as @Confused noted they're still advertising it strongly and they're providing samples for review. If they were abandoning the range they wouldn't be drumming up sales for it. They've just shifted their development focus for a period which makes the Phantom owners happy after a couple of years of minimal development for them, and makes us Expert Pro owners unhappy because we're still waiting for bug fixes and the last few things we were promised for the CI board introduction and it looks like we won't see those things fixed until Devialet shift their development attention back to the Expert Pro range again.
There's a problem with that strategy and it has implications for Devialet's reputation. That problem is a management problem and current management show no sign of wanting to change that strategy so we either stick with alternating periods of boom or bust on the development front, regardless of which product line we're interested in, or we can jump ship to a competing product. I'm not in the mood for jumping ship so it seems I'm stuck with the current bust cycle for my Expert Pro until the next boom cycle starts to fix the lingering problems and deliver on the last of the still unfulfilled promises.
Perhaps what we really need is 2 prediction threads, one for the Expert Pro range and one for the Phantom/Reactor range, and they could be conducted as polls based on the question of whether or not we will see any real action for that line in the coming year. That single question would seem to cover most of what we're interested in each year.
There's a problem with that strategy and it has implications for Devialet's reputation. That problem is a management problem and current management show no sign of wanting to change that strategy so we either stick with alternating periods of boom or bust on the development front, regardless of which product line we're interested in, or we can jump ship to a competing product. I'm not in the mood for jumping ship so it seems I'm stuck with the current bust cycle for my Expert Pro until the next boom cycle starts to fix the lingering problems and deliver on the last of the still unfulfilled promises.
Perhaps what we really need is 2 prediction threads, one for the Expert Pro range and one for the Phantom/Reactor range, and they could be conducted as polls based on the question of whether or not we will see any real action for that line in the coming year. That single question would seem to cover most of what we're interested in each year.
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
