Has anyone heard the Devialet D-Premier Integrated Amp/DAC

[Nightmare]

Against their better judgement. As many users expounded them the last days.

I don´t understand their actual way of non communication at all.

 

[Clugar]

Otherwise i was thinking of running an ethernet network point to the listening room but how do i connect that to the Premier D (that would be an argument for the new 240 version but at the current pricing it is a no go).

Your thoughts would be appreciated

Cheers
colonel66

In any case, cabling imo will always be a much more stable and reliable option. However, I am not sure if ethernet would really be a better alternative than a symmetric AES/EBU digital connection. I am using the latter most of the time and find its sound extremely good. If a cable, than a cable for the best quality of sound.

 

[colonel66]

In any case, cabling imo will always be a much more stable and reliable option. However, I am not sure if ethernet would really be a better alternative than a symmetric AES/EBU digital connection. I am using the latter most of the time and find its sound extremely good. If a cable, than a cable for the best quality of sound.

Thanks for the reply

Part of the motivation of going this route is to have the ease of use of streaming and not having to load discs

But the problem is mostly solved as I have confirmed that the units set aside for me do not have the upgrades so I must just check that iTunes has not been updated (although I fear it has) otherwise need to go back to prior version and voila problem (in theory) solved.

 

[Togil]

Yes but the big attraction of Ethernet is the greater distance from the computer and no interface necessary

 

[IanG-UK]

yes, wrong way to keep customers satisfied. They have promised to communicate any news over any media, mails, facebook, twitter, homepage. So far I have not seen any official comment that there is an issue. If we would treat the customers this way in my job we would run into serious trouble...
This new article on their helpdesk points in the direction that it is still the problem with the setup and therefore a customer problem...

Good point.

I had already been through all the options and combinations cited on the new part of the help desk apart from one - and trying that had no effect. Plentiful drop outs after 10-15 minutes listening.

Look at the user evidence: On just this forum there have been about 150 posts since the new launch a month ago and many of them relate to drop outs. I've looked at an equivalent German forum and there are many drop out issues cited there. Not found any French forum but I guess much the same is happening. So it is a Devialet problem rather than a rare or specific customer problem.

Every person/every company makes mistakes - and these are generally excused if handled correctly. I think Devialet should do three things:

1 Acknowledge the issue as a Devialet problem;

2 If possible create a quick fix than might involve a return to software 5.7 and/or air 1.5 and/or (for Mac users) an older version of iTunes; and

3 Say where the problem lies and what their plans and timescales are for fixing it.

Up to a month ago, there seemed to be a huge amount of customer support for the company and product and, if Devialet treats those customers reasonably, that support would be sustained - even from those customers who are music-less because they have transferred all their CDs on to a laptop or whatever.

But, in my opinion, their current approach to this issue is, at least, incomplete.

 

[Clugar]

Thanks for the reply

Part of the motivation of going this route is to have the ease of use of streaming and not having to load discs

I am talking about streaming from my Mac Pro, of course. I am running a 15m AES/EBU cable from my Mac in another room without an issue.

 

[Nightmare]

@Bernie, IanG-UK and all the others:
Maybe all of us should put the latest comments concerning Devialet´s dealing with the problem directly on the helpdesk site?

At the bottom of the site there is an option to add a comment.

 

[Clugar]

Good point.

I had already been through all the options and combinations cited on the new part of the help desk apart from one - and trying that had no effect. Plentiful drop outs after 10-15 minutes listening.

Look at the user evidence: On just this forum there have been about 150 posts since the new launch a month ago and many of them relate to drop outs. I've looked at an equivalent German forum and there are many drop out issues cited there. Not found any French forum but I guess much the same is happening. So it is a Devialet problem rather than a rare or specific customer problem.

Every person/every company makes mistakes - and these are generally excused if handled correctly. I think Devialet should do three things:

1 Acknowledge the issue as a Devialet problem;

2 If possible create a quick fix than might involve a return to software 5.7 and/or air 1.5 and/or (for Mac users) an older version of iTunes; and

3 Say where the problem lies and what their plans and timescales are for fixing it.

Up to a month ago, there seemed to be a huge amount of customer support for the company and product and, if Devialet treats those customers reasonably, that support would be sustained - even from those customers who are music-less because they have transferred all their CDs on to a laptop or whatever.

But, in my opinion, their current approach to this issue is, at least, incomplete.

I agree with you that the mistake is at Devialet's side. But their prime mistake was to announce 24bit*96KHz streaming and mentioning a "good" or "dedicated" wireless network only in a side sentence. Customers took this seriously, not considering that the quality of transmission in their networks depends on many parameters where they have no influence: Neighbours' WLANs, microwaves, and phones, walls, book shelves and people sitting in the line of sight, lesser quality WLAN modems, etc, etc.

The expectations they raised were unrealistic from the beginning. Any person with a bit of healthy technical common-sense would have been sceptical about streaming 24*96 files without problems in real life settings.

 

[Ekmanc]

Well I used to be able to stream 24/96files fairly reliably with AIR1.5 and now I can't even play 16/44 without dropouts all the time.

 

[Clugar]

Well I used to be able to stream 24/96files fairly reliably with AIR1.5 and now I can't even play 16/44 without dropouts all the time.

OK, software certainly also plays a role.

 

[Nightmare]

Well I used to be able to stream 24/96files fairly reliably with AIR1.5 and now I can't even play 16/44 without dropouts all the time.

Exactly. And that´s the point. Evereything worked well until the latest update. Devialet is aware of the problem with the dropouts and they know - from a lot of user´s experiences - that it is no problem of Wifi or configuration. In this respect it is absolutely unintelligible and also meaningless, to present such a workarround as they did. They should not occupy their users with things that won´t lead to a solution of their problem. They should communicate in a honest way. Otherwise they will lose confidence. No good way in this situation so far, Devialet.

It´s up to them.

 

[IanG-UK]

@Bernie, IanG-UK and all the others:
Maybe all of us should put the latest comments concerning Devialet´s dealing with the problem directly on the helpdesk site?

At the bottom of the site there is an option to add a comment.

A bit difficult for me as I am in direct email correspondence with someone at Devialet and am currently waiting for a reply, having seen and tried all options on the new part of the help desk without success. I should get a reply in the next day or two.

 

[Nightmare]

The mail will not solve the problem either

I hope they are working on it.

 

[IanG-UK]

I agree with you that the mistake is at Devialet's side. But their prime mistake was to announce 24bit*96KHz streaming and mentioning a "good" or "dedicated" wireless network only in a side sentence. Customers took this seriously, not considering that the quality of transmission in their networks depends on many parameters where they have no influence: Neighbours' WLANs, microwaves, and phones, walls, book shelves and people sitting in the line of sight, lesser quality WLAN modems, etc, etc.

The expectations they raised were unrealistic from the beginning. Any person with a bit of healthy technical common-sense would have been sceptical about streaming 24*96 files without problems in real life settings.

I am not a technical expert, but the only variables within a customer's control are equipment siting, router choices, cabling, wifi activations and channel selection. We can check signal and noise levels on home and neighbour channels, and their consistency, using a download like iStumbler.

So we can (now) check to see if we meet Devialet's suggested requirements for "extreme streaming" as set out in Step 3 of their new web page - minimum competing networks, -45dbm signal, -80dbm noise, PC/router ethernet connection, free channel. I satisfy all these save for competing channels (14 of them) but iStumbler shows that these are where the signal is very low anyway (-78dbm to -86dbm).

My streaming quality sounds the same whether 16*44 or 24*96. Early on in a listening session the sound quality is awesome. Unfortunately, later on in the listening session, the high concentration of drop outs is the same too. The sound quality is unlistenable. Devialet have not explained the cause of this fault.

 

[Nightmare]

Do you have a special or deeper contact?
Or are you also corresponding with Thierry as many others do?!

 

[IanG-UK]

Do you have a special or deeper contact?
Or are you also corresponding with Thierry as many others do?!

With Thierry but mainly with Mathieu Pernot who is their lead (I think) R&D Engineer. A really good guy. Met him a few times.

 

[Nightmare]

Mathieu Pernot is the chief R&D Engineer at Devialet, you are right.
Let's wait, what he will tell you concerning the dropouts.

 

[marcor]

I am not a technical expert, but the only variables within a customer's control are equipment siting, router choices, cabling, wifi activations and channel selection. We can check signal and noise levels on home and neighbour channels, and their consistency, using a download like iStumbler.

So we can (now) check to see if we meet Devialet's suggested requirements for "extreme streaming" as set out in Step 3 of their new web page - minimum competing networks, -45dbm signal, -80dbm noise, PC/router ethernet connection, free channel. I satisfy all these save for competing channels (14 of them) but iStumbler shows that these are where the signal is very low anyway (-78dbm to -86dbm).

My streaming quality sounds the same whether 16*44 or 24*96. Early on in a listening session the sound quality is awesome. Unfortunately, later on in the listening session, the high concentration of drop outs is the same too. The sound quality is unlistenable. Devialet have not explained the cause of this fault.

You are right, there are not a lot of things we, users, can do. One thing that I think is really missing in Devialet Air2 is any debugging function. In one of the first release of Air was possible to see the flow of the data and the recall in case of dropout. I the latest release you cannot check anything apart the dbm. It would be extremely useful to be able to check the data flow and see where the drop outs happen and generates some logs that we could send to Devialet. As it is now it is too easy to blame the network.
As I said I have a very low dbm between -9 to -11 and I am using a wifi router able to stream Video, the computer is connected via ethernet and the channel is not used by anyone else, I am not sure what to do more than that.
BTW I don't understand why using a 2.4GgHz card instead than a 5gHz if you know you are going to transmit a awful lot of data.

 

[Nightmare]

As I mentioned abough, there are hints for a module with 5 GHz used in the new generation of Devialets. Not confirmed yet. We will see.

 

[marcor]

As I mentioned abough, there are hints for a module with 5 GHz used in the new generation of Devialets. Not confirmed yet. We will see.

I would be surprised if it wouldn't be the case.
However when the wiFi module came out the 5GHz was already well diffused. Devialet always said that they wanted to stream 192/24 so the natural choice would have been at that time to design the hardware with the card with most band with. I don't see why I need now to pay now for an upgrade for something that should have been there from the beginning.

Hopefully they can fix the issue