I bought my first one in 2011.
It was brilliant.
I bought a second one when the on-line configurator was launched and it became possible to do a configuration myself on the internet rather than specifying to Devialet what one wanted the configuration to be.
The dual-mono was brilliant.
I fitted wifi hardware modules to both mine when they were available. They were free issue to existing owners (this was made clear before buying the first one).
V1 Air had some teething troubles but once I discovered that getting a good signal strength with the solid cast case was a question of carefully moving the wifi access point to an optimum position and after setting my wifi channel to one nobody else in range was using plus some firmware updates it worked fine.
When they produced the new "orange" website most of the interesting information and ease of navigating was gone. It has been rubbish ever since IMO, very disappointing.
When V2 Air appeared with quite different functionality it was less stable than V1, and lost some of the potential of Air IMO, so a second disappointment.
The various new on line configurators have offered absolutely nothing needed which was not in the original, and the latest one doesn't work properly, with both problems with some browsers and dual mono configurations. A third disappointment.
I bought a pair of Silver Phantoms because I have had an interest in loudspeaker concepts for 50 years and the Phantom resolves almost all the inherent problems of loudspeakers elegantly in one design.
The Dialog runs very hot and mine lose their setup within 3 to 4 hours listening and the whole setup procedure has to be re-done, not forgetting to do a hardware reset in the right order.
Interested to read that Streamy has found his work well with Qobuz, but I am old fashioned and like to own a copyright-paid copy of all the music I listen to, and Spark works poorly for playing back files from my computer, being sometimes OK on CD rips but HD stuff failing completely after a second or two. The SQ of the optical input to one of the Phantoms is superb but they don't play long before one channel stops.
So admiring the engineering of the speakers so far but not the software. A fourth (big) disappointment.
So, for me, Devialet are mainly going backwards. Their first product was absolutely brilliant but subsequent updates have been one step forward two steps back, or even 3 steps back. In fact the only step forward has been SAM IMO, which I can't use
So I am still delighted by the sound quality of my 800, though I do not believe it is notably, if any, better than a pair of D-Premiers, and almost everything Devialet have done since the big injection of capital and change in marketing emphasis has been backwards.
I voted yes, but at the current rate of negative improvement that may change...
It was brilliant.
I bought a second one when the on-line configurator was launched and it became possible to do a configuration myself on the internet rather than specifying to Devialet what one wanted the configuration to be.
The dual-mono was brilliant.
I fitted wifi hardware modules to both mine when they were available. They were free issue to existing owners (this was made clear before buying the first one).
V1 Air had some teething troubles but once I discovered that getting a good signal strength with the solid cast case was a question of carefully moving the wifi access point to an optimum position and after setting my wifi channel to one nobody else in range was using plus some firmware updates it worked fine.
When they produced the new "orange" website most of the interesting information and ease of navigating was gone. It has been rubbish ever since IMO, very disappointing.
When V2 Air appeared with quite different functionality it was less stable than V1, and lost some of the potential of Air IMO, so a second disappointment.
The various new on line configurators have offered absolutely nothing needed which was not in the original, and the latest one doesn't work properly, with both problems with some browsers and dual mono configurations. A third disappointment.
I bought a pair of Silver Phantoms because I have had an interest in loudspeaker concepts for 50 years and the Phantom resolves almost all the inherent problems of loudspeakers elegantly in one design.
The Dialog runs very hot and mine lose their setup within 3 to 4 hours listening and the whole setup procedure has to be re-done, not forgetting to do a hardware reset in the right order.
Interested to read that Streamy has found his work well with Qobuz, but I am old fashioned and like to own a copyright-paid copy of all the music I listen to, and Spark works poorly for playing back files from my computer, being sometimes OK on CD rips but HD stuff failing completely after a second or two. The SQ of the optical input to one of the Phantoms is superb but they don't play long before one channel stops.
So admiring the engineering of the speakers so far but not the software. A fourth (big) disappointment.
So, for me, Devialet are mainly going backwards. Their first product was absolutely brilliant but subsequent updates have been one step forward two steps back, or even 3 steps back. In fact the only step forward has been SAM IMO, which I can't use
So I am still delighted by the sound quality of my 800, though I do not believe it is notably, if any, better than a pair of D-Premiers, and almost everything Devialet have done since the big injection of capital and change in marketing emphasis has been backwards.
I voted yes, but at the current rate of negative improvement that may change...
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
