Luxury audio brand Devialet has a bit of a reputation as design raconteurs in the home audio realm, offering some of the most uniquely realized audio speakers in the market, most memorably their wildly futuristic, sci-fi styled, 4500-watts Devialet Gold Phantom wireless speaker. The rest of the brand’s catalog is populated with similarly unconventional designs, ranging from earbuds, amps, portable speakers, and home theater audio exhibiting a similar ultramodern aesthetic.
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Which brings us to the Devialet Dione Opéra de Paris, a special edition of the French brand’s iF Design Award 2023 and Red Dot Winner 2023 award-winning Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 soundbar. Devialet’s standard matte black soundbar was handsome and capable enough already. Adorned in gold leaf across the all-in-one speaker’s central plate, the design takes on an elevated presence denoting its special nature.
The luxuriously golden design isn’t just a random theme, but one inspired by the gilded interiors of Paris’s Opéra Garnier, arguably the world’s most famous opera house. And like that ornately designed venue, the embellishment is paired with an attention to its acoustics. An entire symphony of drivers is concealed within, including 17 custom neodymium drivers, 9 full-range aluminum drivers, and 8 aluminum long-throw subwoofers to deliver the low end in force.
There are also 4 microphones designed for tuning the speaker optimized to its environment, a process not unlike Sonos’ Trueplay room calibration.
While the Devialet Dione Opéra de Paris Soundbar doesn’t pack the ridiculous 4500-watts like the Devialet Gold Phantom, it still holds more than its own with 950-watts total amplification power to call upon when delivering Dolby Atmos content, or streaming audio via AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, or Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.
The collector’s edition centers around a unique 41mm anodized aluminum drive unit housed within a perforated orb that seems almost like it is melting into the 22-carat moon gold central plate that surrounds it. Across the standard black edition, the spherical drive unit’s presence is subtle. But expressed against a golden canvas, the orb really does become a centerpiece.
Noting the Devialet Dione Opéra de Paris soundbar operates either horizontally on a flat surface or wall mounted vertically, the orb is designed to rotate to optimize audible clarity of the central channel, a welcome feature noting how much of television and movie dialogue has become nearly unintelligible the last few years.
The Devialet Dione and special edition Opéra de Paris soundbar are both designed as audio component introverts, meaning the system is not designed to be paired with a separate subwoofer and/or surrounds.
With its special edition designation so too comes attached a special price, one adding a near $1,000 premium for the gold leaf detailing: $2,900. But for those seeking a soundbar toeing the line between a component that blends in by nature of its sleek dimensions while also standing out proudly as an emotionally expressive object, the Devialet Dione Opéra de Paris is hard to beat.
Source: design-milk