Devialet's new speaker - The Phantom

Re: Devialet Phantom

Hi Wisnon

Definitely not a product that many people looking at Sonos etc will consider as it is priced so much higher. However, an audiophile looking to spend about $5,000 for a system might well consider a pair of Phantoms. Also music lovers who are attracted to the looks and sound, and can afford the outlay. Would really love to get a pair to try. Earliest delivery for North America apparently around May.
 
I heard the Phantoms at CES, in an unfamiliar room with unfamiliar music, but I was still favorably impressed. They made my "best of CES" list, along with quite a few other rooms (more rooms than past shows, which, for me, proved that high-end audio continues to advance). I think Mike posted that list in the CES thread. And I was never impressed by the Devialet amplifiers, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, I'm not sure yet if the Phantom is "Lumin" good* or just "talking dog" good, but I am interested in exploring the brand further. They certainly competed with, if not outperformed, many of the $10,000+ rooms at the show, most of which were sabotaged by the individuals who set up the gear. And they even competed with some $20,000+ rooms at the show, which, again, is just a sad commentary on how much damage some people in the industry can do to otherwise good gear. for example, someone should really help Richard Vandersteen get more out of his expensive speakers and crazy expensive amplifiers.

This is not to say that the Phantom would necessarily compete with the gear in those expensive rooms if that gear is to your liking and has been set up in your home or some other familiar room by someone who knows what he's doing, but when you can buy a whole system for far less than the price of some power cables, I would recommend at least considering it. For a second home, room, or a relatively extravagant gift to someone who loves music but wants a very simple solution, I think it will outperform most other systems in that price range (app. $4,200 for two Phantoms and their controller/router interface).

One of the most impressive statistics I heard was that Devialet has 90 employees, 50 of whom are engineers. That bodes very well for future enhancements and upgrades. And when the Euro is dropping like a rock, why not fly to Munich in May and listen for yourself?

"*Lumin good" meaning that I was also impressed by the sound in the Lumin room, which was quite good considering that a Lumin is a media player and a DAC for a favorable price. While it doesn't really compete with SOTA pieces like the Berkeley Reference, it certainly wouldn't be embarrassed by them. I believe the Devialet Phantom provide superior performance for the price.
 
veindoc said:
Thnx Mike, do u think home theater or audiophile is their true comfort zone??
Click to expand...
Depends on if you subject them to DRC (ideally with a digital preamp processor that can do this)! They are already SAMed up.
 
This write-up is not new (9th january) or mine it is from the Devialet Chat
.....................................................................................................
09-Jan-2015, 04:22
I stopped by at CES today and spent a few minutes listening to the Phantoms. My impressions:

#1: They are beautiful. Like few other high-end audio items, these are really beautiful objects. But, thanks to the shape and brilliant white and chrome color scheme, they won't suit every interior. Like some other European speakers (some of which I have owned), these are better suited to a more modern and minimalist aesthetic. That's not a criticism, merely an observation.

#2: They sound very good. I heard them both with music and in a home theater set up, but not with familiar program material. As everyone has said, the sound is very full, with truly impressive bass (wow, the woofer covers really dance around in a very visible way!). On the one hand, there are several speakers that sound better at the $4k price point. But, of course, those speakers require amplifiers, DACs, and cabling. Once you start trying to compare system cost, well, the whole thought experiment begins to fall apart. Once you imagine an integrated/DAC (perhaps something from Peachtree or Hegel) plus pair of speakers (PSB? GoldenEar?), you're talking about something that seems altogether different from a pair of Phantoms, likely to appeal to very different listeners.

#3: It's a luxury lifestyle product. Now, before you all get upset, I don't mean that as an insult. But this product really isn't for traditional high-end audio customers. To put it plainly, it's more like the original B&W Zeppelin or Sonos than it is like Joseph Audio or DeVore (to name two great sounding speaker demos I heard at CES). And that is probably a good thing, because it should open up the hobby and industry to new customers (altho very well-heeled customers -- how many non-audiophiles consider spending $4k for speakers plus $700 for stands?).

#4: Integration and UX is hard to demo. Even after talking to the very helpful staffers at the demo, I must admit I don't really understand how all the pieces fit together -- Phantom, Dialog, existing digital sources (NAS, cloud, iTunes), and control interfaces (Spark, Sonos, other existing Android and iOS music apps, etc). Devialet is not to be blamed for this -- it's simply a mess out there, and very hard to predict how it will all integrate in your house and with your existing sources. This really strikes me as the weak link in the value proposition -- who will want to spend $10k to outfit a house with multiple Phantoms without knowing how all the past, present, and future digital music offerings will work together, and whether it will be fun an easy (as opposed to troubleshooting your PC at work)?
 
One negative feedback on ultimate Phantom SQ from here:
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/01/the-devialet-phantom-is-a-new-frontier-best-of-ces-2015/

  1. pierre
  2. January 22, 2015 at 6:52 pm |
  4. I went to listen to it in their paris showroom when they launched it and had very high expectations, I understood the physical challenges and how they were (brilliantly) resolved, I consider their amplifiers as one of the most significant contributions to audiophila in the last 20 years … basically the guys are hardcore engineers who understand their field next to none. I have to say though that I was a bit underwhelmed by the sound quality, while the bass was without a question impressive for it’s size I found the midrange and highs lacking refinement … this kinda puzzled me as the most difficult challenge in this project was certainly to overcome the old rules of box size vs bass output, the mids and highs however are easy to fix, even on a small footprint, so I don’t really get it why they didn’t push the SQ of these to dizzying highs as they would certainly been capable to with the technologies at their hand. In the room next their starter combo Devialet 120 and Athom GT1 bookshelf speakers (an absolutely impressive speaker for it’s size and price) were playing and there was no comparison, the Phantom couldn’t match the articulation and transient restitution of that system by a long shot. Point in case, if they could have matched that level of performance with the Phantom they would really have a giant killer at their hands which would render classical stereo systems obsolete.
~
 
Thanks Norman
THAT type of info is exactly what I like get...I'm not looking for a Boom-Box.
Maybe (as ususal) massive bass sound levels was mistaken to be HiFi...not the first time that would have happened
 
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