Devialet Gemini II Review: OK but Overpriced

I heard, in passing, Reset by Panda Bear & Sonic Increase described as “the psychedelic interval Buddy Holly by no means received to have”—which appears an astute remark. And there’s little question that when it’s delivered by the Gemini II, this recording is a daring and upfront hear.

The Devialet have loads of attention-grabbing observations about timbre and texture to make, and the place the stability between poise and assertiveness is anxious, the Gemini II are very nicely judged.

They lengthen a good distance down the frequency vary and ship bass sounds with a really pleasing combination of punch, variation, and management. The straight-edged lead-in to low-end sounds retains momentum excessive and permits rhythms correct expression, and the quantity of element that’s retained and revealed means the Gemini II are musical, somewhat than monotonal, on the backside finish.

And there’s an identical (and equally spectacular) combination of element and drive on the prime of the frequency vary, the place treble sounds have sufficient substance to stability out their chunk and shine. Flip the amount as much as important ranges and the highest finish can veer towards strident, however in all different circumstances it stays benign.

The frequency vary is easily realized from prime to backside, however when data rises up or dips all the way down to the midrange, slightly of the readability and positivity of sound goes away. The vocal traces in Reset must be cleaner and extra distinct than they’re within the fingers of the Gemini II—different, inevitably extra reasonably priced, earbuds offer you a barely fuller, barely easier-to-understand account of the midrange than these are able to.

It’s a doubly curious state of affairs when you think about simply how open and spacious a hear these Devialet are. The soundstage they create is respectably broad and really convincingly organized, so there’s greater than sufficient elbow room for every particular person strand of a recording to do their factor—and it doesn’t matter how complicated, dense, or element-heavy that recording is. The Gemini II don’t have any problem in positioning the vocal traces simply so. However having executed so, their in any other case prodigious powers of perception and evaluation desert them considerably.

Dynamic headroom is appreciable, which is at all times excellent news, and the Gemini II are fairly adept with the much less pronounced however equally necessary low-level dynamics of tonal variation. If you happen to’re listening to a solo instrument, this facility might be notably obvious—there’s nothing uniform, no lack of variation, within the sound of a piano when it’s given to you by these Devialet.

Succesful Calling

So far as the peripheral points of efficiency are involved, the Devialet Gemini II do equally good, equally unspectacular work when put into the context of their worth. Telephony, for instance, is completely acceptable irrespective of at which finish of the decision you end up—and, positive sufficient, wind noise is stored to a minimal.

Noise cancellation is nice too, with exterior distractions minimized, though the Devialet aren’t any match for the exceptional blanket of silence the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are capable of deploy. And want I say with undue emphasis that the Bose are method inexpensive than the Gemini II?

That’s the place the issues start and finish for the Devialet Gemini II, in truth. They’re fairly completed true wi-fi in-ear headphones, worthy of comparability in some methods to the acknowledged class-leaders (though they’re slightly extra compromised, in sonic phrases, than the perfect round).

They’re additionally ludicrously costly, to the purpose that justifying the outlay (should you’re indirectly associated to a Devialet worker) goes to be difficult within the excessive. And I don’t suppose this may end result within the sort of exclusivity Devialet was aiming for.