(21-Mar-2017, 16:08)dogbait Wrote: Just bought the LS50W and had it for a few weeks. I've also owned the Phantom Silver and Gold. The new LS50W is very good. Easily better than the LS50 and has noticeably better bass.
The Phantom Gold obviously surpasses the LS50W in treble, midrange and especially bass. Whether it's worth the 2.5x cost that's up to you but the difference in sound quality is not minor.
As far as the Silvers go, it's close in treble/midrange, I personally prefer the Silver. In bass however (as with the Gold) the Silver surpasses the LS50W by a large factor.
One thing I much prefer about the Phantom is that it turns itself on as soon as it detects sound via any of its inputs. It also has pretty good iOS apps so I don't have to hunt around for a remote, just use my phone which is always with me to change volume or switch sources.
The LS50W turns itself off after a few minutes of inactivity and requires using the accompanying cheap, plastic remote to turn it back on - it takes about 5-10 seconds before it appears on the network. This makes integration with my Echo Dot and Airplay devices far less usable. The smart phone app doesn't allow you to turn it on either. The app is also very buggy (similar to the quality of Devialet's Spark app when it first came out).
If you're willing to treat the LS50W like a dumb, all in one speaker setup it really is an excellent product. It does however need some polishing on the networking/app side though.
Thank you, great review!
I also like the silvers the most, especially with movies, but also with music
