With eight built-in subwoofers, Devialet says you won't need a dedicated sub when you use its Dolby Atmos-capable Dione soundbar.
Plenty of companies now offer all-in-one soundbars that can reproduce Dolby Atmos, but none are as thin or as powerful, as the Dione — a $2,400 speaker from French audio company, Devialet, that offers 5.1.2-channel sound from almost any source. The Dione can be pre-ordered at Crutchfield, Audio Advice, and World Wide Stereo, and will start shipping in April.
But what’s even more surprising is that the Dione manages to embed all of those speakers into a frame that stands just three inches tall when used in its tabletop mode. For comparison, the Ambeo is 5.3 inches tall, which means it will block the bottom portion of most TVs that aren’t wall-mounted. The Dione can be wall-mounted too, and doesn’t require a special bracket. An internal gyroscope senses the Dione’s change in orientation and adjusts its sound accordingly.
In addition to being Dolby Atmos compatible, Devialet uses its own proprietary version of 3D-sound upscaling, called Space. Devialet says this can make any sound source, like 2-channel stereo TV soundtracks, feel like it’s a fully immersive 5.1.2-channel signal. This is further enhanced through the company’s Advanced Dimensional Experience technology that uses beamforming to reinforce 3D immersion.
As impressive as all of this sounds, it’s worth noting that even though it can replace a 5.1.2 home theater speaker installation, the Dione can’t act as an A/V receiver replacement. With only one HDMI 2.1 ARC/eARC input and one optical input, the soundbar relies entirely on your TV to manage video inputs. All of your devices, like streaming boxes, game consoles, or Blu-ray players, will need to be plugged into one of your TV’s existing HDMI inputs in order to work with the Dione.