Devialet Dione is the company’s first soundbar, boasts Dolby Atmos

French audio specialist Devialet has announced Dione, the company’s first soundbar, designed to be “the ultimate all-in-one soundbar”.

The £1,990, 12kg, 1.2m-long unit is predictably high-end, with full Dolby Atmos support and a total of 17 neodymium drivers in a 5.1.2 formation inside the soundbar, which has been in development for two and a half years and employs two new patents.

We’ve been lucky enough to hear the soundbar in action and it’s superb – with powerful bass and clear dialogue when required.

Dione enters a very crowded market, but entering the Dolby Atmos space at this point isn’t so unusual; Bowers and Wilkins’ £900 Panorama 3 recently launched as its first Atmos soundbar, too, which is a 13 speaker unit.

As you’d expect, there’s support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 in addition to Spotify Connect as well as Bluetooth 5.0 and UPnP. Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Ethernet are also included and while it’s recommended to connect it up via HDMI eARC, you can hook it up via optical should you wish.

Dione will upscale any audio into 5.1.2, while the soundbar has a new processing tech that uses beamforming to feel more immersive. Volume levels are also automatically equalised so it’s easier to hear voices or similar.

The central sphere can adapt to the position of the soundbar and is designed to be reminiscent of Devialet’s Phantom speaker line. The sphere can also be twisted around depending on whether you wall mount the bar or not.

The soundbar has eight long-throw subwoofers in a SAM (Speaker Active Matching) push-push configuration designed to provide beefy bass at any volume – there’s no separate subwoofer.

Despite the packed internals, the bar measures is a mere 77mm high, though it’s long at 1.2m – working best with 55-inch TVs and above.

The soundbar doesn’t support smart assistants at present, but there is a plan to support Amazon Alexa in the future.

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home