Devialet Dione: Review in two minutes
As soon as you look at the Devialet Dione, you know this is no ordinary sound bar. The look of a perfect sphere sitting proudly in the heart of a gracefully created valley in the middle of Dione is unlike any other soundbar design we've seen.
Sensual sculpture isn't just for show, either. In fact, you can rotate the "Orb" center channel around its stand so the Dione can be mounted vertically to a wall or sit on a TV stand without affecting sound quality. It's new to us, and we couldn't stop playing with it throughout our Devialet Dione review...
Sound is delivered via 950W of claimed power through a 5.1.2-channel setup that includes a pair of firing speakers to support Dione's Dolby Atmos decoding.
Although this is Devialet's first soundbar, the Dione uses this power and number of channels to dramatic effect, producing a massive yet beautifully constructed and balanced soundstage, backed by possibly the best bass performance we've ever heard from a soundbar. sound bar that does not deploy an external subwoofer. .
We would have liked to find an HDMI pass-through option for the money from Devialet Dione, and having to use a mobile phone to control it rather than a regular remote takes some getting used to. Also, there's simply no option for rear speakers, so if you want one you should consider a Sonos Arc bundle, or something like the Samsung HW-Q990B, which gives you everything in one package. .
However, as a single-box sound solution, Dione's mix of smart features and heart-pounding sound ensures it will hold its own against the best soundbars available today.
- Devialet Dione at Best Buy for €2,400 (opens in a new tab)
Devialet Dione Review: Price and Release Date
- Released in April 2022
- Official Price €2400 / €1990 / AU$3990
The Devialet Dione is right at the top end of the soundbar market. Even Samsung's flagship Q990B soundbar system, with its three-channel rear speakers and separate subwoofer, costs about a quarter less than the Dione.
Although the Samsung system is primarily a home theater system, there is a thriving 'hi-fi' market in the world of sound bars for systems that cater to both music and movies. That seems to be where the Devialet Dione wants to sit, joined at its price by big-name rivals like the Sennheiser Ambeo and various Sonos Arc systems (if you add the Sonos Sub and rear speakers).
Unlike a Sonos Arc system or the Samsung Q990B, though, the Dione wants to do it all, including subwoofer-rivaling bass, from a single box. Neat, compact (rather), easy to install. It's like the Sony HT-A7000 in that way... but for 50% more money.
So there is clearly an established place in the market for Dione, but it will only really be at home if it offers quality sound products.
Devialet Dione Review: Features
- 'Orb' Rotating Center Channel
- Designed for desktop or wall mounting
- 5.1.2 channel configuration
The main feature of Devialet Dione, or at least the one you noticed first, is actually its design. Partly because of the uniqueness of its single bar approach, which we'll get to later, but mostly because of what it does.
The thing is, the unusual spherical speaker that provides feedback from the soundbar's center channel can be manually rotated to adjust the direction of sound output. Why would you want to do this? So you can stand the Dione horizontally on its wide, flat edge below a TV, or hang it with its wide, flat edge against the wall while letting the center sphere cast its sound in the correct orientation in any setting. .
A built-in gyroscope makes sure Dione always knows if she's hanging or lying down, so she can adjust the sound channels played by other pilots. So the front speakers when the Dione is laid flat become the speakers when it is hung on the wall, and vice versa.
Honestly, it's so cool that some kind of AV geek probably won't be able to resist turning the Orb center channel back and forth every time they get visitors, just because they can.
The spherical design of the center speaker is designed to help disperse your sound over a wider area than such a small speaker would normally do, while also eliminating the chance of coloration that you can get with speakers with straight edges.
The Dione packs a total of 17 speakers into its reasonably compact form, including nine full-range aluminum drivers and eight striking long-throw woofers. This suggests that Devialet is taking low frequencies very seriously with its first soundbar (it claims it can go down to 24Hz), which bodes well for its home theater credentials.
As you'd expect from such an expensive soundbar, the Dione supports playback of Dolby Atmos soundtracks. Of course, you can also revert to stereo or even mono for music or old movie soundtracks, though Devialet has developed a SPACE processing system that can upscale low channel sources to take advantage of Dione's full 5.1.2 channel count.
However, DTS:X is not supported. DTS is supported as PCM by Dione, to which the SPACE system is then applied. Devialet told us that it may add DTS in the future, in a technological sense, but that's not to be expected any time soon, anyway.
Dione's connections only include one HDMI, so there's no way to connect HDMI sources through it. Instead, you're limited to using HDMI's eARC/ARC feature to pass Dolby Atmos and other sound formats through compatible TVs to the soundbar. This is fine in principle, but frame/audio sync issues are still quite common with ARC. Audio delay settings found on televisions and some source equipment can often solve such problems if you have them, but a loop on the Dione would have been a welcome backup, especially as it means you don't lose the use of a HDMI port for video sources. .
The Dione includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and is compatible with AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. The AirPlay 2 system can also be used to pair the Dione with Devialet's Phantom speakers in a multi-room setup...or any other AirPlay 2 speaker, of course.
The Dione provides an excellent auto-calibration system that uses input from no fewer than four built-in microphones to adjust the sound to account for the specific conditions in your room.
One last thing to note is that, very unusually, the Dione does not come with a remote. Instead, you need to control it via your TV's HDMI CEC system and remote or, more effectively, via a Devialet app. It's like Sonos soundbars, in that way.
This app isn't as easy as picking up a dedicated phone, but it's pretty easy to figure out with a little practice. It also provides very useful information on the exact audio format that Dione is currently receiving.
Devialet sells distinctive-looking "Phantom" remotes that you can buy as an option for the Dione, but most people probably won't feel the need for them.
Devialet Dione Review: Sound Quality
- Remarkable bass performance
- Excellent cinematographic and musical direction.
- No real sense of rear channel sound
Since there are few negative things to say about the Dione's sound, let's first address its main limitation: its one-piece design doesn't evoke a real sense of rear channel sound. It produces plenty of room-filling front-end impact, so you still feel involved in a good movie mix, but that immersion doesn't extend to the precise placement of a mix's back-channel elements.
This, however, is practically unavoidable with a single bar solution; it's not as if the Dione was somehow a dud in that regard by single unit standards. It's really just a compromise that anyone who wants the cleanliness of a single unit soundbar solution has to accept.
With that formality out of the way, let's quickly dig into why the Devialet Dione rocks, starting with the fact that her bass is ridiculous. The presence, responsiveness, clarity and raw depth of its low-frequency sound is arguably the best we've heard from a single bar solution. The Dione even makes the bass sound non-directional, as you'd expect from systems using external subwoofers.
The bass also doesn't succumb to buzzing, drooping, or crackling under even the most extreme attack of notoriously bass-heavy movies. And despite the richness and involvement of the basses, they never overwhelm the rest of the mix.
It has to be said that Dione's stellar basses only really start to sing if the volume is turned up high enough. But running a good loud soundbar is just common sense as far as we're concerned.
The fact that Dione's monstrous bass doesn't overwhelm the rest of the soundstage is a testament to the quality of her other drivers. The central channel of the Orb is particularly striking. Concerns that it might be too small to keep up with other speakers prove unfounded, as it simultaneously manages to lock in clean and generally convincing dialogue for on-screen action while pumping out more channel effects. with your left and right channel information.
The orb also raises the dialog box slightly, to position it on the screen where its accompanying images reside, and also offers great precision with other placement effects.
The left and right speakers and the front side speakers...