Meet the Devialet Dione, a model new speaker from high-end speaker producer Devialet. With this new product, the corporate is coming into a brand new market — house cinema sound techniques. The Devialet Dione is an all-in-one soundbar appropriate with Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 and it prices $2,400 (€2,190).
“We’re on the excessive finish of the market however we’ve got a product that’s an all-in-one audio system,” Devialet CEO Franck Lebouchard advised me. What he means by that’s that you just shouldn’t examine the Dione with a median soundbar.
As an example when you’re looking for an equal system in Sonos’ lineup, Lebouchard says you need to examine Devialet’s speaker with the Sonos Arc soundbar paired with two Sonos One audio system and a Sonos Sub. And that bundle at the moment prices greater than $2,000 as effectively.
“The tech achievement is that we managed to place all the things in a single system. It implies that we needed to make 17 audio system match, which is unparalleled,” Lebouchard added.
The corporate arrange a testing room in its workplace in Paris and I may hearken to the Devialet Dione with a big TV. We tried the speaker with the primary few scenes of Mad Max: Fury Highway. We additionally listened to some music.
And, certain sufficient, the speaker sounds nice. It produces some immersive sound and it feels such as you’re sitting in a movie show somewhat than in entrance of a TV.
This isn’t a full assessment. I’m not an audio skilled so I don’t understand how the Devialet soundbar appears like whenever you examine it with the present top-of-the-line soundbars. I’d suggest listening to the Devialet Dione in a retailer earlier than shopping for it anyway.
“In a Sennheiser soundbar, you’ll discover 12 audio system. We put 17 audio system. It’s not utterly magical, however when you may match 5 extra audio system in it, you may hear it,” Lebouchard mentioned.
Picture Credit: Devialet
The system itself is a dense soundbar. It weighs 12kg and it’s fairly lengthy — 1.2 meters. It’s best to take into consideration getting a speaker like that if you have already got a really massive 55-inch TV.
In the case of design, it is a little more discreet than earlier Devialet audio system. The signature egg-shaped Devialet design has been changed with a extra conventional polygon with sharp edges and corners.
The one factor that stands out is a tiny sphere on the middle of the system. There’s a speaker inside that sphere and it pivots. This manner, if you wish to repair the soundbar to the wall, you may rotate the sphere in order that it’s at all times dealing with you.
Contained in the system, there are 17 completely different audio system — 9 full-range drivers and eight rectangle subwoofers. These subwoofers have been designed to suit the specs of a soundbar. Once more, what makes the Devialet Dione stand aside is that you just don’t want a separate subwoofer (or satellite tv for pc audio system).
The system additionally has its personal digital-to-analog converter. Actually, the Devialet Dione makes use of the identical system on a chip that you will discover within the firm’s flagship merchandise, the Phantom product line. Devialet has a number of patents for this particular chip and guarantees a sound with zero background noise, zero saturation and nil distorsion.
And when you’re taking part in a film that doesn’t assist Dolby Atmos, the Devialet Dione can “upscale” the sound sign to five.1.2 audio. There’s additionally a dwell stability function that helps you hear dialogues.
In the case of connectivity, you plug the Devialet Dione to your TV utilizing an HDMI cable with assist for eARC and CEC. You can even use the soundbar as a standalone speaker to hearken to music.
The Devialet Dione connects to your native community utilizing Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It additionally helps Bluetooth 5.0 and makes use of the identical Devialet app. You don’t essentially have to make use of the app to play some music as you need to use Spotify Join or AirPlay 2.
Picture Credit: Devialet
Not only for audiophiles
The corporate thinks there’s a market alternative with the Devialet Dione as streaming providers launch blockbuster motion pictures on their providers from day one. “We realized that it’s a market that’s taking off,” Lebouchard mentioned.
“Our typical consumer is somebody who has a phenomenal 55-inch TV or greater. And so they need sound high quality to be nearly as good as picture high quality. It’s a bit completely different from the standard Devialet consumer, who’s somebody who listens to numerous music,” he added.
In 12 months, if the corporate desires to achieve its enterprise targets, the Devialet Dione ought to characterize 20% of the corporate’s income. And each time the startup launches a brand new product, it will possibly lean on its dense community of factors of sale. There are at the moment 1,900 Devialet factors of sale all over the world.
Whereas the corporate has stopped speaking about funding rounds since its Sequence A in 2015, Devialet has raised one other €70 million throughout two rounds. The final funding spherical was a €50 million spherical with the corporate’s current traders in January 2020.
Devialet is launching the Devialet Dione right now in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Pre-orders additionally begin right now for different markets.
