The Devialet Dione is the debut soundbar from the French manufacturer, which is best known for its line of speakers and amplifiers. It has a unique design, with a center channel 'orb' that rotates based on whether you mount the bar to the wall or set it on a TV stand to ensure clear and accurate vocals and a rich, thumpy bass regardless of its position. It's a 5.1.2 standalone bar ideal for those who don't have the space in their setup for an extra subwoofer or satellites, and its integrated subwoofers reproduce a more extended low-bass than traditional all-in-one bars. Since it's designed for use on its own, it doesn't offer any upgrades, so you can't add on separate satellites like with the Sonos Arc or the Bose Smart Soundbar 900. The lack of certain sound enhancement features or DTS:X support for those who watch a lot of Blu-rays is disappointing, especially given its premium price point.
The Devialet Dione soundbar is good for mixed usage. It's a 5.1.2 soundbar with good sound quality, so you get the deep thump and rumble in the bass range, with stellar vocal clarity in the mids, so dialogue is present in the mix. There's Dolby Atmos support, too, and the bar offers an immersive listening experience, especially when you mount it to your wall. That said, there aren't many customization tools on hand, and you can't add on rears to improve its surround sound.
The Devialet Dione is great for dialogue-focused TV shows and podcasts. With its balanced mids, voices are clearly and accurately reproduced in the mix, and you can even activate its 'Vocal' EQ preset to enhance the dialogue. Since there's a discrete center channel, dialogue is also quite accurately localized within the soundstage. Its latency is fairly high, so you notice some lip-synching issues when the bar is connected to your TV over Optical or HDMI.
The Devialet Dione is good for music. It has a bass-heavy sound profile that adds extra thump and rumble to the mix, so you really feel the excitement in bass-centric genres like hip-hop and EDM. Its balanced mids ensure that vocals and lead instruments are still clear and present in the mix, and higher frequencies are detailed and accurate. Since there's a room correction feature, the bar's audio reproduction calibrates based on your room's unique acoustics for the best-possible sound. That said, for such a premium bar, it's really lacking sound enhancement features, so you can't customize its sound to your liking.
The Devialet Dione is decent for movies. It's a 5.1.2 bar that supports Dolby Atmos, and it gives a pretty immersive performance, especially compared to other standalone bars. You feel the thump and rumble in action-packed scenes, especially when the bar is mounted to the wall. There's also support for some common 5.1 surround sound formats, including Dolby Digital. However, the resulting performance isn't as clear and real as what you get with bars that come with discrete satellite speakers. Unfortunately, you can't add them on separately to improve its performance, either.
The Devialet Dione soundbar is available in 'Matte Black'. You can see the label for the model we tested here.
If you come across another version of this soundbar, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
The Devialet Dione is a 5.1.2 setup with a really unique design that lets you mount it to your wall or place it on a TV stand without impacting the sound quality. For a standalone bar, it does a really good job reproducing the deep thump and rumble in the low-bass and offers an immersive Atmos experience. However, it doesn't offer as many features as other top-of-the-line bars like the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 or the Sonos Arc, as there's no DTS:X support and no HDMI passthrough available. The sound enhancement features are limited, and there isn't an option to add on rears, either. Given its high-end price point, you may find more value in other premium full setups on the market, like the Samsung HW-Q990B, the Sonos Arc with Sub + One SL Speakers, or the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 with Speakers + Bass Module.
See also our recommendations for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, the best standalone soundbars, and the best soundbars for movies.
The Sonos Arc is better than the Devialet Dione for most uses. The Sonos is a 5.0.2 setup that doesn't reproduce as much low-bass as the Devialet, but its wider, more immersive soundstage makes it ideal for watching movies. It has a better surround performance and more enhancement features to help you customize its sound. There's DTS support and built-in voice assistant capabilities, which the Devialet lacks. Also, you can add on rears or a dedicated sub to improve its performance, giving you more flexibility than the Devialet.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the Devialet Dione are both very premium standalone bars with solid performances, but the Sennheiser is better overall. The Sennheiser doesn't offer as much boom in the bass as the Devialet out-of-the-box, but since it has more sound customization tools, you can easily adjust it to get a similar sound. It has a better surrounds performance, as well as support for more audio formats like DTS. There are also three HDMI In ports for passthrough, which the Devialet lacks. It's a bit larger than the Devialet, though, which isn't ideal for everyone.
The Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is better than the Devialet Dione for most uses. The Bose is a 5.1.2 setup that doesn't reproduce as much low-bass as the Devialet, but since you can add on a separate sub as well as rear speakers, it's more flexible overall. Also, the Bose has better soundstage and surrounds performances, as well as more enhancement features to help you customize its sound. There are also built-in voice assistant capabilities, which the Devialet lacks.
The Bose Smart Soundbar 900 with Speakers + Bass Module is better for most uses than the Devialet Dione, though they both address different types of listeners. The Bose's full setup offers premium performance with a wide, immersive soundstage and better surrounds, thanks to its included satellites. It has more sound enhancement features, like bass and treble adjustments. That said, the Devialet is a standalone bar that's suitable for Atmos if you don't want all the extra add-ons.
The Samsung HW-Q950A is better for most uses than the Devialet Dione. These bars have very different designs, as the Devialet is a standalone bar that's meant for use on its own, while the Samsung comes with satellites and a dedicated subwoofer included. The Samsung has better surround and soundstage performances, as well as more sound enhancement features to customize its sound. Unlike the Devialet, there's DTS support as well as HDMI In ports for video passthrough. It's a better value, too, but if you don't have space for all the add-ons, the standalone Devialet may be more suitable.
The Devialet Dione is a soundbar with a unique design. It's mostly made of black plastic, with grey fabric covering the up-firing speakers on top as well as the front and the sides. There's a plastic orb that serves as the center channel, allowing the bar to adapt its acoustics based on whether it's wall-mounted or placed on a piece of furniture.
The Devialet Dione doesn't come with a discrete subwoofer; however, there's a subwoofer integrated into the bar itself.
The Devialet Dione is quite wide, so it doesn't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. If you place it flat on a piece of furniture, it isn't tall enough to block your screen. We tested the bar with it placed on two stands to mimic its performance when mounted on a wall, so our measurements represent the bar when it's in a mounted position.
The back of the Devialet Dione has an opening for the inputs as well as the power cable. There are also universal holes beneath the bar that let you mount it to your wall. The bar comes with lugs to attach it to your wall; however, you have to buy the screws and the dowels separately.
The Devialet Dione has a great build quality. Overall, it has a solid feel, with plastic and fabric that seem tight and durable. The center channel 'orb' is also made of plastic and is quite sturdy, so once you position it, you don't have to worry about it moving around. That said, if you brush your fingernails against the plastic top of the bar, it can leave marks behind. You should be able to wipe them away using a cloth, but it's unfortunate for such a premium bar.
The Devialet Dione has a great stereo frequency response. It comes with a room correction feature, which automatically optimizes audio reproduction based on your room's unique acoustics. With it on, the bar has a bass-heavy sound profile that adds plenty of rumble to the mix. Vocals and lead instruments are still quite clear, though, thanks to the balanced mid and treble ranges. As a result, the bar's suitable for listening to most types of audio content, from vocal-centric TV shows to bass-heavy music genres. We tested the bar with it placed on two stands to mimic its performance when mounted on a wall; however, given that the sound was more clear and pleasant compared to when we placed the bar on the table. You can see the frequency response comparisons for bar in different positions here.
Note: Stereo content plays properly when the bar is set to its 'Music' preset. However, if you set it to 'Movie', it upmixes stereo content into 5.1.2 to play it (Devialet calls this their SPACE Technology). The resulting sound is more muddy, so vocals and lead instruments aren't as clear in the mix. The same issue is evident whether you place the Devialet Dione on your table or you mount it to your wall. It's not the best choice for listening to stereo content like music, but it does offer a more cinematic sound with movies.
Aside from its three EQ presets, there aren't any customization tools available to help you adjust the bar's sound. If you prefer a more neutral sound, you can use the Devialet Dione on its default 'Music' preset.
The Devialet Dione has a decent stereo soundstage. Whether you mount it to the wall or place it on your table, the soundstage is perceived to be about as wide as the bar itself. It has better focus when you place it on the table, meaning that it's easier to place sound effects to specific locations in the soundstage. When it's mounted to your wall, you notice some holes in the soundstage that make it hard to trace sound effects as they move from one position to another. Since the direction of the speakers changes based on how the bar's positioned, sound interacts differently with your room's walls and acoustics, resulting in the change in performance.
The Devialet Dione has decent stereo dynamics. It gets loud enough to fill up larger living rooms with sound, but unfortunately, there's some compression when you push it to max volume. You notice pumping and compression artifacts in your audio as a result, especially in the bass range.
The Devialet Dione has a great stereo total harmonic distortion performance. At normal listening volumes, it falls within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure. While there's a small jump in THD across the range at max volume, it still falls within good limits. Your audio doesn't sound distorted as a result.
The Devialet Dione has a decent center channel performance. It's a 5.1.2 bar, so there's a discrete center channel included, which helps to more clearly reproduce dialogue in the soundstage. It's the unique 'orb' in the center of the bar, so in order to get the best-possible sound quality, you need to manually rotate the orb to the right position, then set the bar's orientation in the Devialet App. The channel's frequency response is quite bass-heavy, so dialogue is somewhat muddy in the mix.
Note: The Devialet Dione seems to have a fuse in place to prevent volume damage, so we had to estimate the max volume using CTA files for the center, surround, and Atmos channels. However, it's really important to note that we only experienced this issue with the sweeps and not with real-life content—so you aren't likely to experience this issue in the real world.
The Devialet Dione has a middling surrounds performance. There are side-firing speakers built into the bar that simulate a phantom surround. However, the resulting sound isn't as clear or as real as the experience with dedicated surround speakers. Sound effects seem like they come from speakers placed in front of you rather than from speakers placed all around you. Unfortunately, you can't add on separate rear speakers to improve its performance.
The Devialet Dione uses up-firing drivers built into the bar to ricochet sound off the ceiling and back down towards you, creating the illusion of height. These channels have a fairly neutral frequency response, but the lack of rumble in the low-bass means that you don't feel the excitement in action-packed scenes like helicopters or explosions coming from above.
Its soundstage with Atmos content offers a fairly immersive listening experience, especially if you mount it to the wall instead of setting it on a table. When it's mounted, you feel more rumble in the bass range, so action-packed scenes seem more clear and real, and you feel the punch in the bass from your couch like you would in a movie theater. The bar can simulate height pretty well, too, and you get the feeling that sound effects are coming from above you and all around you in sync with the action on your screen. The Devialet Dione does a good job for a standalone bar.
The Devialet Dione has a disappointing selection of sound enhancement features. There's a room correction mode that automatically calibrates the bar based on your room's unique acoustics, but otherwise, there isn't much else available. You have three EQ presets: 'Movie', 'Music', and 'Vocals', which doubles as a dialogue enhancement mode. Compared to other premium bars, you don't have a real ability to change its frequency response, which is unusual for its price. There's no remote, either, so aside from a few basic controls on the bar itself, you need to use the Devialet App to access the few features it has.
You can connect the Devialet Dione to your TV using its HDMI or Optical inputs, and both cables are included in the box for easier setup. However, you won't find a Full HDMI In port, so you can't use the bar as a hub between different devices, like your TV and your PC, for high-quality passthrough.
The Devialet Dione supports many of the common audio formats, including Dolby Digital, which is the most frequently-used 5.1 surround sound format on Blu-rays and many streaming platforms. It also supports some lossless and object-based formats, like Dolby Atmos. There's no DTS support, though, and while this format isn't that common on its own, it's often the fallback for higher-quality DTS-HD MA Blu-Rays.
The Devialet Dione supports Dolby Digital via Optical. You're likely to come across this format on most streaming platforms and Blu-rays. However, there's no DTS support.
The Devialet Dione has fairly high latency over its ARC and Optical ports, so you notice a bit of a delay between the audio you hear and the video you see on your screen. It's most noticeable with dialogue-centric content like TV shows, where you have some lip-synching issues. Unfortunately, the app doesn't have any tools to help adjust this issue, but your TV may have some features on hand. Some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, too, so your real-world experience can vary.
The Devialet Dione lets you wirelessly stream audio from your mobile device to the bar over several different formats, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Apple AirPlay 2. The manufacturer says there's Spotify Connect support as well.
There are some touch-sensitive buttons on top of the Devialet Dione to let you control its basic features. You can adjust the volume, play/pause your audio, activate Bluetooth, and mute and unmute the microphone. There's no voice assistant on hand, but these microphones are part of the bar's room correction feature—if you leave it muted, the feature is disabled. Finally, the Devialet Button lets you switch between HDMI and Optical inputs, and you can press it for seven seconds to enter standby mode.
The Devialet App acts as a remote and lets you control all of the bar's settings, including those you can't adjust using the buttons on the bar. For example, you can access room calibration, change the EQ presets, activate Night Mode, and change the bar's position. You can also change the LED status, so if you find the light distracting, you can turn it off. Overall, the app is intuitive and easy to use.
The Devialet Dione has a standby mode, but to activate it, you have to hold down the Devialet button for seven seconds. You have to remember to turn it on manually since it doesn't activate this feature automatically. To wake up the bar, you can press any button. Also, there's HDMI CEC support, so you can use your TV remote to control some of its basic features.