Devialet Dione

Overview

The Dione is Devialet's answer to the question of how good a single bar can sound before you start adding boxes to the room. It is a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar with 17 drivers and 950 watts of amplification inside one aluminium chassis: nine full range aluminium drivers for the main channels and height effects, and eight long throw aluminium subwoofers firing from the body of the bar. There is no separate subwoofer to place, no wireless surrounds to pair, and no second power outlet to find. One bar, one HDMI cable to the television, and the room is done.

The visible signature is the ORB, the sphere in the middle of the bar that houses the centre channel. It rotates, so the centre channel stays aimed at the listening position whether the Dione sits on a credenza below the screen or hangs on the wall above it. That matters more than it sounds: the centre channel carries dialogue, and a bar that is mounted high usually throws speech at the ceiling. Devialet patented the mechanism rather than relying on software to fake the correction.

Underneath, the Dione runs Devialet's own processing rather than off the shelf DSP. SPACE upmixes mono and stereo material into all 5.1.2 channels, so a news broadcast or an old record does not collapse into the middle of the screen. ADH and SAM, the amplification and speaker modelling technologies developed for the Phantom speakers, handle the heavy lifting on the amplifier side, which is how a bar this slim reaches 101 dB SPL at a meter and holds 24 Hz at the bottom. AVL evens out the gap between whispered dialogue and an explosion, which is the single most useful feature on any soundbar for late night viewing.

Connection is deliberately simple. One HDMI 2.1 input with eARC and CEC handles the television, and an optical TOSLINK input covers anything older. For music it is a full streaming endpoint: AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, UPnP and Bluetooth 5.0, over dual band Wi-Fi or gigabit Ethernet, with a 24 bit / 96 kHz Devialet DAC behind it. The same Devialet app that runs the Phantom speakers runs the Dione, including a room calibration scan that adapts the bar to your walls.

Key Features

• 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos from a single bar, with no separate subwoofer or surround speakers to place
• 950 watts RMS driving 17 neodymium drivers, nine full range and eight long throw subwoofers
• 101 dB SPL at one meter and a frequency response reaching down to 24 Hz
• ORB, the patented rotating centre sphere that keeps dialogue aimed at you on a shelf or on a wall
• SPACE upmixing, which turns mono and stereo sources into all 5.1.2 channels
• ADH and SAM, the amplification and speaker modelling technologies from the Phantom range
• AVL real time dynamic equalization, so quiet dialogue and loud effects sit closer together
• HDMI 2.1 with eARC, ARC and CEC, plus optical TOSLINK for older sources
• AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, UPnP and Bluetooth 5.0 over dual band Wi-Fi or gigabit Ethernet
• Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Atmos decoding
• Devialet DAC at 24 bit and 96 kHz, run by a four core ARM processor
• Room calibration scan and Movie, Music, Spatial and Voice modes in the Devialet app
• Anodized aluminium core with acoustic fabric, 77 mm tall so it clears most screens
• 0.5 watts in standby

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Devialet Dione?
It is a high end Dolby Atmos soundbar that delivers 5.1.2 channels from one chassis, using 17 drivers and 950 watts of Devialet amplification. There is no separate subwoofer or surround speaker to set up.

Does it really do Atmos without separate height speakers?
Yes. The Dione carries nine full range drivers arranged to produce the left, right, centre, surround and two height channels, supported by eight long throw subwoofers in the body of the bar. It decodes true Dolby Atmos rather than simulating it from stereo.

What is the ORB?
The ORB is the sphere at the centre of the bar that houses the centre channel. It rotates so the centre channel stays pointed at your seat whether the Dione is lying on a surface below the television or mounted on the wall above it. Devialet patented the design.

Why does the rotating centre matter?
Dialogue lives in the centre channel. A wall mounted bar normally fires its centre channel upward, which is why speech can sound distant or thin on a mounted soundbar. Turning the ORB puts the dialogue back on axis with your ears.

Do I need a subwoofer with it?
No. Eight long throw aluminium subwoofers are built into the bar and it is specified down to 24 Hz. That is unusually low for a single bar and is the reason Devialet does not sell a matching subwoofer for it.

How loud does it get?
101 dB SPL measured at one meter, from 950 watts RMS of amplification. That is more than enough for a large living room.

How do I connect it to my television?
One HDMI cable to your television's eARC or ARC port, which is what the included high speed HDMI cable is for. CEC is supported, so your television remote controls the volume. If your set has no HDMI ARC, the optical TOSLINK input and cable are included as well.

Can I use it for music as well as television?
Yes, and it is built for it. AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, UPnP and Bluetooth 5.0 are all supported over dual band Wi-Fi or wired gigabit Ethernet, feeding a 24 bit / 96 kHz Devialet DAC.

What is SPACE?
SPACE is Devialet's upmixing algorithm. It takes mono or stereo material, a podcast, a news broadcast or an old recording, and spreads it properly across all 5.1.2 channels instead of leaving it stuck in the middle.

What are ADH and SAM?
They are the amplification and speaker modelling technologies Devialet developed for the Phantom speakers. ADH combines analog and digital amplification, and SAM models the behaviour of each driver so the bar reproduces the recorded signal more accurately. Both run on the Devialet Intelligence Processor inside the Dione.

What does AVL do?
AVL applies real time dynamic equalization, narrowing the gap between quiet dialogue and loud effects. It is the feature you want at eleven at night when you do not want to keep reaching for the remote.

Which audio formats does it decode?
PCM and LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Atmos.

Can it be wall mounted?
Yes. The wall mount guide and accessories are in the box, and the ORB rotates to re-aim the centre channel once it is up.

How big is it and will it block my screen?
It is 1200 mm wide, 165 mm deep and only 77 mm tall, which is 88 mm counting the sphere. At roughly three inches tall it sits under the vast majority of televisions without cutting into the picture, but measure the gap between your stand and the bottom of the screen if it is a close call.

How heavy is it?
12 kg, which is about 26.5 pounds. That weight is mostly the aluminium core and the eight subwoofers, and it is worth checking your wall fixings before mounting it.

Is there an app?
Yes, the same Devialet app that runs the Phantom speakers. It handles setup, the room calibration scan, source selection, the Movie, Music, Spatial and Voice modes, and firmware updates.

Does it calibrate to my room?
Yes. The app runs a room calibration scan that adapts the bar to the surfaces around it, which matters because a soundbar depends on the walls to place its surround and height effects.

What finishes does it come in?
Two. The standard Dione is Dark Grey, with an anodized aluminium central core, acoustic fabric over the front and sides and a PC-ABS rear panel. The Opéra de Paris edition replaces the central plate with 22 carat gold leaf over a lighter fabric, made with the Opéra national de Paris. The two are acoustically identical, so the choice is purely how it looks in your room.

What is the warranty?
Two years, 24 months, from Devialet, and it applies regardless of where the unit was purchased. Devialet Care can extend it by a further three years, and we can add that at the time of purchase.

Why buy from All Elite Audio?
We are an authorized dealer, so your Dione carries its full manufacturer warranty and we open any claim with Devialet for you rather than handing you a support number. We will set it up in our showroom so you can hear it on real material before you commit, and we help you get it mounted and calibrated properly afterward.