at 15 Over the years, Paris-based audio technology company Devialet has established itself as a “somewhat unusual” supplier. In fact, it’s not too much to turn to “really very unusual” territory.
Just consider its Phantom wireless speaker. It’s packed with innovative technology and sounds great…but most notable is how unique its industrial design is. If you find yourself in the market for a wireless speaker that looks like it’s trying to remember how to fly, Devialet has a product for you.
With Dione, the company applies some of its predictable and unpredictable designs to one of the most stable and predictable product categories in the lot: sound bars. With Dione, Devialet intends to deliver the performance of a Dolby Atmos spatial surround sound system in a single enclosure—a soundbar with a Deviadesign treatment, of course.
Well, on the outside, the Dione is a fairly large unit (8.8cm high, 120cm wide, and 16.5cm deep, so if it doesn’t look a little overgrown, it needs to go with a TV of the same size. It can be installed in a For the former, keep in mind that the 8.8cm height can be problematic if your TV is placed low on your feet; for the latter, consider the soundbar’s 12kg weight to the plasterboard partition wall before deciding to install it.
One of Dione’s visual design features is the ORB (both capitalization and capitalization are Devialet’s ideas). ORB is a dedicated center speaker channel that can be manually rotated based on the soundbar’s orientation – Dione is equipped with a gyroscope, so no matter which direction the soundbar is facing, its other speaker drivers know their duties.
Physically, this ORB appears to be made of an ultra-dense material that sinks into the surface of the soundbar itself. In practice, it makes Dione seem both unique and helplessly above the rest.
amazing power
Photo: De Vallet
Dione comes with a lot of big numbers, as predicted by the Devialet product. For example, about 950 watts of power. A total of 17 speaker drivers (9 full-range aluminium cones and 8 aluminium low frequency woofers) are arranged to replicate a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos spatial surround sound layout. A digital-to-analog converter embedded in the “Devialet Intelligence” processor, running at a large resolution of 24-bit/96 kHz. Claimed frequency response is (ultra low) 24 Hz to (jarring) 21 kHz. The maximum sound level at 1 meter is 101 decibels (roughly in “accelerating motorcycle” territory).
On the back of the cabinet, the Dione includes a digital optical input, Ethernet jack, and eARC HDMI input. The lack of HDMI pass-through is sad, though predictable – after all, who would spend that kind of money on a soundbar without the latest TV? Its wireless connectivity works with dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. It is also UPnP compatible if you store your content on a public local network.
