Visit at the Devialet store in Vienna (Patreon)

Today I drove to the Imperio audio store in Vienna to listen to the Devialet Mania with the intention to also shoot a live 1st impression video from within the store. Unfortunately I didn’t get permission, because the store manager was not present and anxious about Devialet causing problems regarding this video, allegedly they are very strict in this regard, what can be shown and how it is to be shown. Neither did I manage to get a loaner unit from them, I would have had to purchase directly with no option for return. 800€ is simply too much for my budget right now.

Nevertheless I wanted to give you some of my thoughts regarding my impressions I could make inside the store. I also brought the VIFA Helsinki with me to have some reference.

The most impressive aspect of this weird speaker was definitely bass which still managed some usable response down to 20hz. The bass remained quite punchy up to maximum although some slijght reduction and processing definitely became noticeable at higher levels, still compared to most other speakers with a comparable size, the Devialet Mania had some Wow-factor for sure. Overall frequency response appeared quite colored to me though. I didn’t like neither upper mids nor treble, it sounded a bit fake and the timbre changed a lot depending if you had it in your hand hanging free or placed onto some surface. There was too much reflection from the drivers with the surface below which resulted in a somehow hollow and echoey sound. Pink noise didn’t really sound natural but the speaker definitely had a nice all around dispersion, which projected the sound nicely into the room. But sitting in front of the speaker I preferred the timbre of the Helsinki hands down with not only a more realistic and detailed rendering but also less diffuse and more natural or let’s say “normal” sounding. With some modern EDM recordings containing lots of lower bass the bass advantage of the Devialet was easily noticeable but it sounded a bit fake to me, with “normal” recordings the bass advantage was minimal and somehow I had the impression as if it was lacking some punch. I tried pink noise for left and right channel separately to discover how the stereo channels are set up but couldn’t figure out which channel was played to which side. It always appeared a bit mono to me, with less stereo separation than the Helsinki. Although the Devialet filled the room nicely with sound it just appeared diffuse and mono like, besides acoustics was really bad inside the store which made real judgments quite hard.

Overall impressive regarding bass for the size but I wouldn’t probably even want to spend 400€ for it. It didn’t have that openness and spaciousness and also degree of detail I am used to from the VIFA.

I also took the chance to try their phantom speakers and was a bit disappointed to be honest. The larger one had somehow colored mids, some emphasis within upper mids masked upper treble which made treble appear lifeless. I even liked the small Phantom more in this regard, unfortunately bass was too boomy and overemphasised on this one. The bigger one played more souvereign with bass with a pretty natural and deep bass rendering. I was told they were all playing with their default neutral settings but allegedly you can control some sound parameters and I would have loved to hear the small Phantom with bass reduced a bit, I would probably even choose this one over the larger one simply because it was so sweet and compact overall while still sounding big. Maybe the boosted mid and upper bass on purpose for the smaller one to distract from the lack of power bass, I am not sure. All in all I was not blown away by either of them. Neither the Wilson Audio setup which in total with all that gear which powered them was around €140,000! Just for fun I tried to AB the same track played over the Wilsons and the Free Pro 2 with my current personal tuning, and holy shit, the sound of the speakers was just bad also due to the horrible acoustics of the room. I could hear way more detail and separation from the cheap Chinese IEMs, which of course were heavily optimised towards my own ear.

I somehow liked the Martin Logan speakers though, but they were only usable when sitting exactly within the sweet spot, as soon as I stood up a bit, treble got lost.

I was told that they will talk with the store manager when he is back from holidays and maybe he will allow me to take a Devialet Mania home for a more detailed test. The listening rooms in the store were just too bad and the result would not translate well to a normal living room despite some bass traps and acoustic absorbers standing here and there.

I am sorry I couldn’t offer you any video with sound samples so far, but maybe I will manage next week.

With enough funds I could also order one, but right I am simply lacking money to allow for such purchases. With all the Christmas presents for my wife and son I cannot afford spending that much money right now, I am sorry.