TechAudioSpeakersSoundbarsDevialet Dione review: soundbar sophisticationDevialet’s first soundbar, Dione, is a high-end all-in-one, but is it worth its considerable outlay? Here’s our review…When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictWith its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installationReasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shineWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
TechAudioSpeakersSoundbarsDevialet Dione review: soundbar sophisticationDevialet’s first soundbar, Dione, is a high-end all-in-one, but is it worth its considerable outlay? Here’s our review…When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictWith its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installationReasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shineWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Devialet’s first soundbar, Dione, is a high-end all-in-one, but is it worth its considerable outlay? Here’s our review…
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictWith its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installationReasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shine
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
T3 VerdictWith its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installationReasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shine
T3 VerdictWith its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.
T3 Verdict
With its striking combination of form, function and good old-fashioned power, the Dione propels Devialet onto the soundbar A-list at the first time of asking. It’ll cost you a pretty penny and there are more immersive alternatives, but from a quality perspective this all-in-one solution is a sophisticated soundbar option.
Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installationReasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shine
Reasons to buy+Stylish but also practical design+Excellent sound quality+Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installation
Stylish but also practical design
Excellent sound quality
Unique support for both desktop and wall-mounted installation
Reasons to avoid-No real surround sound action-Premium pricing-Bass needs volume to shine
No real surround sound action
Premium pricing
Bass needs volume to shine
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
French brand Devialet has become renowned since its launch in 2007 for creating uniquely and innovatively designed audio products that also happen to sound seriously good. A reputation which, we’re happy to say, continues with the brand’s first soundbar: the Devialet Dione.
Devialet Dione: Price and availability
Getting hold of a Devialet Dione is also for the reserve of more audio-focused specialist stores, or you canbuy from Devialetdirectly on its website where, at the time of writing, there’s plenty of stock available.
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(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Devialet Dione: Design and features
You don’t have to dig too deep, though, to start to understand how Devialet might go about justifying the Dione’s price. For starters it looks truly unique. The spherical centre speaker sitting pretty at the top-centre of the front edge is enough in itself to grab your attention, but the way Devialet’s designers and audio engineers have gracefully integrated the sphere into a smooth ‘pit’ on the top edge merely emphasises its unique elegance.
Tucked inside its heavy, beautifully constructed body are no less than 17 different drivers, serving up 950W of sound across a 5.1.2 channel configuration (that’s five front channels, one bass centre, and two upfiring channels). Nine of the drivers are full-range aluminium affairs, while the other eight are aluminium long-throw subwoofers designed to make you forget about the lack of an external subwoofer.
A big question for any one-box soundbar that doesn’t ship with an external subwoofer is the level of bass it can deliver. Devialet claims, though, that the Dione can get as low as 24Hz which, if that level of rumble actually manages to escape from the compact bodywork successfully, would potentially make the lack of an external subwoofer no issue at all.
The coolest thing about the Dione has to be its ‘Orb’ centre speaker. As its name suggests, this boasts a spherical shape – partly to enhance the scale and dispersion characteristics of centre channel information, partly to enable the soundbar to be more effectively switched between desktop and wall-mounting positions.
Placed flat on a table in front of your TV, the Orb sits towards the front of the soundbar with a little encircled D logo at the front helping to indicate the sound is coming out in the correct forward direction. Hang the Dione on the wall under your TV (a wall-mount kit and template are included in the package) and the Orb can be rotated around so that it still focuses dialogue in the correct orientation even though what was the bottom edge of the Dione in the desktop configuration is now hanging vertically against the wall.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
At this point there are a couple of disappointments to report for a soundbar that costs so much. First there’s no included remote control. You can only control it via the Devialet app or the HDMI CEC system. Unless, that is, you cough up extra for Devialet’s Phantom Remote. To be fair, the app works perfectly well, but sometimes nothing beats the instant convenience of a dedicated handset.
In reality most people will be able to work around potential ARC audio sync issues in one way or another, but providing an HDMI loop-through would have avoided some potential hassle.
Connections the Dione does provide beyond the single HDMI comprise an optical audio input and an Ethernet port, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-band 802.11/5Ghz Wi-Fi wireless options. The wireless connections include support for AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect too.
The Dione carries four microphones to assist with its effective room calibration system, and can be used as part of a multiroom setup with Devialet’s Phantom speakers via Airplay 2.
The Dione’s digital to analogue converter is one of Devialet’s own ‘intelligence’ 24bit/96kHz processors and provides a number of different audio presets for non-Atmos sources, including Movie and Spatial modes that use Devialet’s proprietary Space Technology to upscale any mono or stereo signal into a 5.1.2 signal. There’s a Voice mode, too, for making dialogue stand out more clearly, and a music mode if you’d rather stick with traditional stereo playback.
One final feature absentee worth mentioning is support for DTS:X playback. Hardly any TVs support passthrough of DTS:X soundtracks via eARC anyway, to be fair. But if you do find a way to get DTS:X into the Dione, it will convert the signals to PCM and then run the results through its Space processor.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Devialet Dione: Sound quality
While there are inevitably sound limitations associated with its single-box design, if you don’t want the hassle of external subwoofers and rear speakers cluttering up your room, the Devialet Dione lives up to its premium billing.
The sound also projects forward into a room. Not, perhaps, with the sort of pressure and room-filling scope I’ve heard with some high-end rivals, but to a degree that actually feels appropriately matched with the scale and approach of the soundstage’s width.
The Orb centre channel driver, meanwhile, locks dialogue right at the heart of the mix exactly as it should. It delivers dialogue with a clarity and distinction that’s among the best I’ve heard. Just occasionally, however, high-pitched dialogue could be a touch exposed. For the vast majority of the time, though, dialogue delivery is exceptional.
The spherical design of the centre speaker manages to both slightly lift the dialogue vertically, so it feels attached to the onscreen action above the Dione, and spread it out enough to make you forget that every word is coming from a small ball at the heart of a much larger audio setup.
I should add here that you should definitely run the auto calibration system before you start using the Dione. Out of the box, ambient effects and trebles felt too prominent in the mix; after the Dione’s short calibration process, though, everything sounded much better balanced and rounded.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The Dione’s bass performance is remarkable. We got rumbles out of it with famously extreme movie soundtracks that you’d normally only hope to hear from a respectable external compact subwoofer. It isn’t just the weight of the bass that impresses, either. It also escapes the confines of the soundbar almost uncannily, delivering the same sort of non-directional presence associated with external sub solutions.
The bass ties in with the expansive mid-range convincingly, but also never overwhelms any of a sound mix’s more delicate elements. And, crucially, despite the depths the Dione can plumb, it doesn’t succumb to distortions or dropouts even under the most extreme duress. The only issue is that you need to be running the Dione at pretty high volumes before the bass starts to participate as much as a good action movie soundtrack deserves.
There are one or two other small limitations worth mentioning. One to reiterate is that although the Dione’s side-firing speakers are impressive, they don’t create any substantial sense of sound coming from behind you. Though this is something most people looking at such a solution will likely have already factored into their expectations.
High pitched vocals can sound a touch sibilant through the Orb, as can particularly dense string arrangements in a movie score. Hard impact sounds can sound ever-so-slightly polite too.
Moving away from movies to music playback, the Space system for remixing stereo or even mono tracks into 5.1.2 to match the soundbar’s capabilities is a little hit and miss. With relatively stripped back, bass-heavy music it works very well, adding more dynamic range and creating a much larger but still controlled and credible soundstage. Some classical music can benefit from it too, as it creates a more concert hall feel. With more guitar-driven or vocal-heavy fare, though, or music with a very expansive dynamic range, the Space remix can sound a bit fatiguing and forced, and the bass can become a little ragged.
If you find this happening with a particular album, though, you can always switch back to simple stereo playback, which – fittingly given that a soundbar as excellent as this deserves us to finish on a high – the Dione excels at. Pretty much everything that can sound unnatural, tiring or artificial in one of the Dione’s Space modes becomes balanced, authentic and engaging when played as it was meant to be played. Vocals are beautifully managed and staged; power, projection and detailing are all outstanding; and the left/right separation is expansive but also totally cohesive.
(Image credit: Devialet)
(Image credit: Devialet)
Devialet Dione review: Verdict
The Dione is an exceptional soundbar debut from Devialet, with a distinctive design proving to be an outstanding case of eye-catching form, contributing to outstanding function. In particular, it’s hard to think of any other soundbar that caters so comprehensively for both desktop or wall-mounted positioning, while the spherical, rotating ‘Orb’ centre speaker helps to create extra clarity and sound projection. The integrated bass performance is remarkable, too.
The Dione isn’t cheap, though, and as with pretty much all single-bar solutions, it doesn’t really deliver any surround sound action. The single-bar solution understandably remains hugely popular, however, and in that market the Dione comfortably rubs shoulders with more established soundbar royalty.
Also consider
Another one-box solution that comes to mind is the massive and (massively impressive)Sennheiser Ambeo. It’s no cheaper than the Devialet, however, indeed it’s often pricier, but for a full-on frontal soundstage assault there’s no better single box solution.
Looking for something more truly surround sound though? Then you’ll want to eye-upSamsung’s HW-Q990Bfor its all-immersive quality. It’s got a separate sub and other speakers included, so might not be as visually neat for your home setup, but it’s sonically unrivalled in 2022’s soundbar market.
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