Devialet Dione vs Samsung HW-S700D: Premium Audio Engineering vs Smart Value

When you're staring at your TV's pathetic built-in speakers wondering why movie dialogue sounds like it's coming from underwater, you've probably started looking at soundbars. The category has exploded over the past decade, becoming the go-to solution for people who want better audio without turning their living room into a speaker showroom. But here's where things get interesting: not all soundbars are created equal, and the gap between entry-level and premium options has never been wider.

Today we're looking at two soundbars that represent completely different philosophies. The Devialet Dione, released in 2022, costs about five times more than the Samsung HW-S700D, which launched in 2024. That price difference isn't just markup – it reflects fundamentally different approaches to solving the same problem: making your TV sound dramatically better.

Understanding What Makes Soundbars Tick

Before diving into specifics, let's talk about what soundbars are actually trying to accomplish. Your TV's speakers are terrible because they're tiny, face backward, and have no room for proper bass drivers. A soundbar fixes this by putting larger, forward-facing speakers in a dedicated enclosure, often with a separate subwoofer for low-frequency sounds (bass notes and explosions).

The magic happens with channel configuration – this describes how many separate audio streams the soundbar can handle. Stereo is 2.0 (left and right), while 3.1 adds a center channel for dialogue plus a subwoofer. True surround sound goes to 5.1 (front left/right, center, rear left/right, subwoofer) or even 5.1.2 (adding two height channels for Dolby Atmos effects that seem to come from above).

Here's where physics gets tricky: fitting all those channels into a single bar requires either multiple speakers (expensive) or clever processing that creates the illusion of surround sound through psychoacoustic tricks (cheaper but less convincing). This fundamental compromise shapes everything else about soundbar design.

Two Completely Different Approaches

The Devialet Dione takes what I'd call the "brute force engineering" approach. Instead of trying to fake surround sound, it crams 17 individual speakers into a single enclosure and powers them with 950 watts of amplification. This isn't just marketing – those are genuine neodymium drivers (high-quality magnets that stay strong and don't add weight) arranged in a specific pattern to create actual 5.1.2-channel audio from one box.

The Samsung HW-S700D, by contrast, embraces the traditional soundbar approach: a slim main unit that focuses on dialogue and mid-range sounds, paired with a wireless subwoofer for bass, using software processing to simulate surround effects. It's what most people think of when they hear "soundbar" – clean, simple, and designed to disappear into your setup.

Both approaches have merit, but they're solving different problems for different people.

Bass Performance: Where Physics Meets Engineering

Let's start with bass, because this is where the Devialet Dione does something genuinely remarkable. Most soundbars struggle with low frequencies because bass requires large speakers and lots of power, both of which are hard to fit into a sleek bar. The typical solution is an external subwoofer, which works fine but adds another box to hide and position correctly.

Devialet's engineers took a different approach, installing eight 5.25-inch woofers in what they call a "push-push" configuration. This means pairs of woofers face each other and move in opposite directions, which cancels out vibrations that would normally shake the entire soundbar. The result is surprisingly deep bass – down to 24Hz, which is subwoofer territory – without needing an external box.

This matters more than you might think. In my experience, the biggest complaint people have about soundbar setups is dealing with the subwoofer. Where do you put it? How do you hide the cables? Why does it rattle the furniture? The Dione eliminates all of these concerns while delivering bass that, according to most reviews, rivals dedicated subwoofers.

The Samsung HW-S700D, meanwhile, includes a 6-inch wireless subwoofer that connects automatically when you plug it in. This is the tried-and-true approach that works well for most people, especially if you have space to position the subwoofer properly. The bass won't dig quite as deep as the Dione's integrated system, but it's perfectly adequate for movies and music, and you get the flexibility to place the subwoofer wherever it sounds best in your room.

Surround Sound: Real vs Simulated

This is where the philosophical differences become most apparent. The Devialet Dione creates true 5.1.2-channel audio using physical speakers pointed in different directions. It has dedicated side-firing drivers for surround effects, upward-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos height channels, and a clever rotating center speaker (called the ORB) that adjusts its position whether the soundbar is sitting on furniture or mounted on the wall.

This isn't just marketing speak – when you're watching a scene where a helicopter flies overhead in a Dolby Atmos movie, you'll hear it move smoothly from the front speakers to the height channels above you. The effect is genuinely immersive because the sound is actually coming from different physical locations.

The Samsung HW-S700D uses a technology called DTS Virtual:X, which processes the audio signal to create the illusion of surround sound using just the main bar and subwoofer. It's clever software that analyzes the incoming audio and applies filters that trick your brain into perceiving sounds as coming from behind or above you, even though they're not.

Both approaches work, but there's a clear hierarchy. Virtual surround can be quite convincing, especially for dialogue-heavy content like TV shows, but it breaks down with complex movie soundtracks or when you move away from the ideal listening position. True multi-channel audio from the Dione maintains its immersive quality across a wider listening area and with more demanding content.

However, the Samsung's virtual approach has one significant advantage: it works in any room. The Dione's height channels rely on bouncing sound off your ceiling, which means rooms with very high ceilings, unusual layouts, or lots of soft furnishings might not get the full benefit of those upward-firing drivers.

Dialogue Clarity: The Make-or-Break Feature

Here's something that might surprise you: the most important job of any soundbar isn't explosions or music – it's making sure you can understand what people are saying. Modern movie and TV mixes often bury dialogue in complex soundtracks, and TV speakers make this worse by reflecting sound off walls and furniture.

The Devialet Dione handles this with its ORB center channel – a spherical speaker that physically rotates to face your listening position whether the soundbar is horizontal or wall-mounted. This mechanical solution ensures the center channel, which handles most dialogue, always fires directly at you rather than at an angle. Combined with Devialet's signal processing, this creates exceptionally clear voice reproduction that remains consistent across different seating positions.

The Samsung HW-S700D takes a software approach with its Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) technology. This continuously analyzes the incoming audio and automatically boosts dialogue frequencies when it detects voices, ensuring speech cuts through background music and effects. It's effective, though not quite as precise as a properly positioned dedicated center speaker.

Both soundbars also offer voice enhancement modes that compress dynamic range – the difference between the loudest and quietest sounds. This is particularly useful for late-night viewing when you want to hear whispered dialogue without explosive action sequences waking the neighbors.

Music Performance: Where Audiophile Engineering Shows

This is where the Devialet Dione really flexes its premium credentials. Devialet made their reputation with high-end wireless speakers that cost thousands of dollars, and they've brought some of that technology to the soundbar market. The Dione includes a high-quality DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that supports 24-bit/96kHz audio – significantly higher resolution than CD quality.

More importantly, it offers a dedicated Music mode that disables all the surround processing and delivers pure stereo audio. This might seem counterintuitive for a multichannel soundbar, but it's actually crucial for serious music listening. When you're playing a carefully mixed stereo recording, you don't want artificial processing spreading instruments across virtual surround channels – you want to hear exactly what the artist intended.

The Dione's amplification system, called ADH (Analog Digital Hybrid), combines the warmth of analog circuits with the efficiency of digital power delivery. This results in remarkably clean sound with very low distortion, even at high volumes. For music lovers who also want great movie sound, this dual capability is compelling.

The Samsung HW-S700D is more focused on convenience and smart features for music. It includes a 7-band equalizer that lets you adjust specific frequency ranges, plus automatic sound optimization that analyzes your content and adjusts settings accordingly. It's perfectly fine for casual music listening, but it's clearly optimized for movies and TV rather than critical audio reproduction.

Smart Features and Integration

The 2024 Samsung HW-S700D represents the current state of smart soundbar features. It's the first soundbar to support wireless Dolby Atmos with compatible Samsung TVs, eliminating the need for any cables beyond power. The Q-Symphony feature lets the soundbar and TV speakers work together, potentially creating a wider soundstage by using all available drivers.

SpaceFit Sound uses the soundbar's built-in microphone to analyze your room and automatically optimize the audio settings. This kind of automatic room correction has become increasingly sophisticated since these technologies emerged in the mid-2010s, and Samsung's implementation is among the better ones.

The Devialet Dione, released two years earlier, focuses less on smart features and more on universal compatibility. It works equally well with any TV brand through its HDMI eARC connection and supports standard wireless protocols like AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. The trade-off is fewer automatic optimizations and less integration with smart home ecosystems.

Home Theater Considerations

For dedicated home theater use, the Devialet Dione is the clear winner, but with important caveats. Its true multichannel capability and deep bass make it genuinely satisfying for movie watching, and the all-in-one design eliminates the cable management and speaker placement challenges that discourage many people from building traditional surround systems.

However, at its premium price point (approximately five times the cost of the Samsung at the time of writing), it's competing with actual surround sound systems that use separate speakers. A dedicated 5.1.4 Atmos system with proper rear and height speakers will still outperform any single soundbar for pure immersion, though it requires significantly more setup complexity and room compromise.

The Samsung HW-S700D occupies the sweet spot for most home theater setups. It delivers a substantial upgrade over TV speakers, includes modern features like wireless Dolby Atmos, and costs roughly what you'd spend on a decent center channel speaker alone in a traditional system. For the majority of users, this level of performance improvement represents excellent value.

Who Should Choose Which?

The Devialet Dione makes sense for a specific type of buyer: someone who wants audiophile-level sound quality and true surround performance but refuses to compromise their living space with multiple speakers. If you live in an apartment, have a spouse who vetoes visible speakers, or simply value minimalist aesthetics, the Dione delivers performance that would otherwise require a much more complex system.

It's also ideal for wall-mounting scenarios. Many soundbars sound worse when wall-mounted because their drivers no longer align properly with your ears, but the Dione's rotating center speaker and sophisticated processing actually optimize performance for vertical mounting.

The Samsung HW-S700D is the better choice for almost everyone else. Its ultra-slim design fits under any TV, the included subwoofer provides satisfying bass, and the smart features integrate seamlessly with modern streaming and gaming setups. The wireless Dolby Atmos feature alone makes it future-ready for content that's just starting to become mainstream.

The Bottom Line

These soundbars represent two ends of a spectrum that's gotten increasingly wide as the technology has matured since the early 2010s. The Devialet Dione is essentially a high-end audio component that happens to be shaped like a soundbar, while the Samsung HW-S700D is a smart TV accessory that happens to sound quite good.

Your choice comes down to priorities and budget. If audio quality is paramount and you have the budget to match, the Dione delivers performance that justifies its premium pricing. But for the vast majority of people looking to dramatically improve their TV audio experience, the Samsung offers a more practical balance of performance, features, and value that will satisfy for years to come.

The soundbar market has reached a point where even budget options sound good, so your decision should focus on which additional features and performance capabilities matter most for your specific situation. Both of these soundbars will transform your TV watching experience – they just take very different paths to get there.

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