Come up to the Lab...

Allan Devantier is Vice President of Digital Media Solutions, Audio Team, Samsung Research America — an extended title which puts him in charge of developing Samsung’s California Audio Lab, which is now involved at some level in the development of all Samsung audio products. As we’ve seen with the preceding soundbar review, it seems to be working. We talked to Mr Devantier about the Lab and the debt which it, he, and all of us owe to Dr Floyd Toole, who was at Harman for 16 years following 26 years at Canada’s National Research Council, where his speaker analysis and hydraulic A-B auditioning facilities were legendary.

JEZ FORD: So at the California Audio Lab, you’ve developed tables which revolve for quick A-B and C comparison of di erent speakers — it reminds us of Floyd Toole’s legendary hydraulics, but perhaps even more elegant.

ALLAN DEVANTIER: So you know I’ve known Floyd since I was about 17 years old? So he’s like a father to me.

JF: I spent a day with him once, judging CEDIA awards; it was an education. We have his big green book on our desk as a reference.

AD: It’s great to hear you say ‘Green Book’, that’s so cool! He’s a wonderful man isn’t he? I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him, and really, my years at Harman learning from him — and of course other people like Laurie Fincham was there at the time, Don Keele, Richard Small — these are all giants of the industry. So the learning experience there, I was soaking it all up in the 1990s. And it’s interesting now today that my job is to do for Samsung what Floyd did for me, right?

JF: And it’s almost like you’re building a new NRC at the Lab in California.

AD: Yes it is, and it’s really fun. e team we’ve built, of course I’m looking for technically sharp people, but also always for those two or three people who can help mentor and teach. And we’re lucky enough that even the inventor of the distortion-cancelling technology, Pascal — a fantastic mentor and teacher. And he and I, or Bill Decanio our Chief Audio Engineer, we’re working with headquarters — so we talk about the 20 of us there, but really with our mentoring role we’ve got all the engineers at headquarters that we’re working with. And it’s been a pleasure to watch the improvement in skill in the Korean engineering team; it’s just really impressive.

JF: So there are people from Samsung’s head o ce in there learning?

AD: Yes. So our mandate within the company is to innovate ourselves, but as much also to teach and to make sure we’re fostering those best practices. So the idea of really well-controlled blind listening tests, really well-done measurements — all the things that Floyd talked about for 30 years — has been just as important for me to do and translate that and get that done at headquarters, as much as just bringing new technology like better woofers and tweeters.

JF: So how much of what you do there is tuning what comes to you, and how much is actual fundamental product design?

AD: at’s a really good question. So some of the products we’re intimately involved with from day one, working with the mechnical engineering team, the industrial design team, product planners, everything. For example the MS650, we are intimately involved in that product. And the 650 was the rst one that was launched; the MS550 came a little later. So on the 550 — I don’t want to say we’re not involved, because I don’t want you to think for a minute it’s secondary, but we developed the 650 completely, so then that’s the template... OK now we’re going to simplify, because the 550 is only stereo, rather than LCR, so the involvement of the audio engineers at headquarters was more on that one. All the nal tuning of all the audio products is still happening in Los Angeles, whether we take a lead role or if we’re in a support role, but at all times there’s representation from both. Because ultimately our goal should be that headquarters can do the same kind of work that Floyd has been fostering since the 1980s.

JF: And are you going to open up the Lab to Harman now that Samsung owns Harman? Or are you, like, keep outa here!

AD: [Laughs.] Look, the only thing I’ll say about Harman and Samsung is that things are going to happen, and it’s more in the future, it’s farther out. Of course for me it’s super exciting — a er 22 years there and nally building up the nerve to go do something else, and then to have it come full circle three-and-a-half years later... there’s a lot of jokes from friends, a lot of emails. But I’m excited — being a person that’s worked in both, the potential is amazing. e strengths and weakness of both companies complement each other beautifully.

JF: So at Harman you worked on the In nity Prelude, the JBL M2 — do you miss doing the big stu ? I guess you’re reaching more people now, just with smaller stu .

AD: So I tell you, the Prelude and the M2, yes of course, so much fun. But then the MS550, just because it’s so simple, just a little stereo speaker in one box. For me the challenge of making a $20,000 speaker sound great almost is easier. You make something really modestly priced like the 550 sound great — that’s easily just as much fun. Of course you want to have a product that absolutely shakes your booty, and in fact that little subwoofer (in the MS750) in a regular size room does that. And this is so easy to use. You talk about the Prelude, think about that product with a receiver — a Harman Kardon, a Yamaha, whatever — and the complexity that presents to a regular consumer. Whereas this stu — if you have the Samsung TV and Blu-ray player, it’s one remote! A huge paying point for people.

JF: How di erent is the MS750 from the 650, is it just a question of drivers?

AD: Yes, so the 750 mid-bass drivers are a little bigger, so it has a little more output, a little deeper bass, that’s the main difference there. The 750 also has the two upfiring drivers, which, you know, for music, turn them off. Basically you can turn on or o the algorithm, so if you really want to listen to stereo music they’re not on. But if there’s material that’s appropriate for it, it can improve the sense of height and spaciousness and envelopment.

JF: And with the smart button on the MS650 and 750, why do you need the other buttons, if the ‘Smart’ button is always right?

AD: [Chuckles.] For you! It’s for you — you and me, right? e smart button is for the 95%, then the other stu is for you and me, we want that last little bit, right?