10-Mar-2015, 10:07
Hi,
New member here, been lurking for weeks and thought I'd post my impressions here in case it's of any help to anyone. I apologise for offending anyone with my music choices, which are rather eclectic. I once went to a Naim dealer who frowned on my choice of M.Jackson.
I ordered a single silver phantom as a 'tester' rather than go the whole hog with a stereo setup. I set the phantom up to stream wirelessly from my main PC with spark installed on that PC. I control the volume and playlist with the android spark app which automatically synchs with the main PC's spark app. The files that are being played are dbpoweramp ripped from CD to AIFF.
I am comparing the single phantom with my usual system of a macbook/Amarra ->Chord QBD76->Krell 300iL->Focal 1007Be.
Setup via wifi was without incident. It was only getting tracks to play that had me annoyed initially. I had a lot of trouble playing AIFF content from my phone, which is why I started streaming from my main PC.
Everyone talks about the bass and yes it really is impressive. Not 'for it's size' alone - it really is good bass. It goes deep and is very well controlled. I did not feel that the bass was excessive and it was actually tuneful. I wondered how much money I would have to spend on a normal hifi setup to get that quality level. Rebecca Pidgeon's Spanish Harlem on The Raven, was extremely well controlled. On my focals, I felt that there was a bit of a hump in the bass during the opening few seconds (could be room resonance?) but with the Phantom everything was great and taught.
Leftfield's Leftism album is always good for a laugh for bass, and I very much enjoyed how clean the bass was on Afro Left and Original. I live in an apartment and the neighbours downstairs came up to complain specifically using the word 'bass' several times. This was with the volume set at about 55 on Spark.
It's worth mentioning that I tried a 20Hz test track and couldn't hear (or feel) anything. I was at least 8 feet from the speaker.
Midrange is good, but initially I felt it was a little lean. With more listening I concluded that it was not and that it was more a case of the speaker being neutral.
Phs had mentioned earlier that the treble is weak. I have to agree, particularly in comparison with the 1007Be. There's no real sibilance (thank goodness) and there's not much decay at the upper end of the spectrum. It's not rolled off - it's simply not there. Listening to Rebecca Pidgeon and Holly Cole Trio, I can usually hear a breathiness (non-technical term) to their voices with a lot of air. That wasn't present here. Quality of the voice was good without being overly warm and detail was sufficient, but it wasn't where the Focals are.
If anyone's familiar with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (as I mentioned - eclectic), their Grand Ole Opry track has a lot of banjo. On the focals, there's a sharp metallic twang to the steel strings which give them impact. That is lost on the Phantoms. I hear a banjo, but I don't hear how hard the strings are picked. The track is still very entertaining to listen to, but I lose that ultimate detail.
I haven't yet pushed the phantoms at high volumes with complicated tracks, so I don't know if it starts to sound muddled. Given my neighbour situation, I don't think I'll be testing that soon.
As for Spark, it's a reasonable start. It controls my main PC flawlessly from my phone and tracks begin very quickly after selecting them. Interestingly, it was midway playing a track once and it crashed. I deleted that track (i managed to play it directly from my phone) file completely not just from spark but from my phone itself and when i booted the app up again, the song played for a good 5 seconds. I wonder if there's a largish buffer somewhere to prevent dropouts during streaming?
Overall, the quality of the Chord/Krell/Focal system is higher but I'm selling it because I just don't have time to listen anymore. The Phantom is an ideal solution for me. It is small, flexible, streams music and sounds great. I can leave it on and walk around the living room and I get something higher end than the other 'lifestyle' systems available.
Hope someone finds all that somewhat educational!
Daryll
New member here, been lurking for weeks and thought I'd post my impressions here in case it's of any help to anyone. I apologise for offending anyone with my music choices, which are rather eclectic. I once went to a Naim dealer who frowned on my choice of M.Jackson.
I ordered a single silver phantom as a 'tester' rather than go the whole hog with a stereo setup. I set the phantom up to stream wirelessly from my main PC with spark installed on that PC. I control the volume and playlist with the android spark app which automatically synchs with the main PC's spark app. The files that are being played are dbpoweramp ripped from CD to AIFF.
I am comparing the single phantom with my usual system of a macbook/Amarra ->Chord QBD76->Krell 300iL->Focal 1007Be.
Setup via wifi was without incident. It was only getting tracks to play that had me annoyed initially. I had a lot of trouble playing AIFF content from my phone, which is why I started streaming from my main PC.
Everyone talks about the bass and yes it really is impressive. Not 'for it's size' alone - it really is good bass. It goes deep and is very well controlled. I did not feel that the bass was excessive and it was actually tuneful. I wondered how much money I would have to spend on a normal hifi setup to get that quality level. Rebecca Pidgeon's Spanish Harlem on The Raven, was extremely well controlled. On my focals, I felt that there was a bit of a hump in the bass during the opening few seconds (could be room resonance?) but with the Phantom everything was great and taught.
Leftfield's Leftism album is always good for a laugh for bass, and I very much enjoyed how clean the bass was on Afro Left and Original. I live in an apartment and the neighbours downstairs came up to complain specifically using the word 'bass' several times. This was with the volume set at about 55 on Spark.
It's worth mentioning that I tried a 20Hz test track and couldn't hear (or feel) anything. I was at least 8 feet from the speaker.
Midrange is good, but initially I felt it was a little lean. With more listening I concluded that it was not and that it was more a case of the speaker being neutral.
Phs had mentioned earlier that the treble is weak. I have to agree, particularly in comparison with the 1007Be. There's no real sibilance (thank goodness) and there's not much decay at the upper end of the spectrum. It's not rolled off - it's simply not there. Listening to Rebecca Pidgeon and Holly Cole Trio, I can usually hear a breathiness (non-technical term) to their voices with a lot of air. That wasn't present here. Quality of the voice was good without being overly warm and detail was sufficient, but it wasn't where the Focals are.
If anyone's familiar with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (as I mentioned - eclectic), their Grand Ole Opry track has a lot of banjo. On the focals, there's a sharp metallic twang to the steel strings which give them impact. That is lost on the Phantoms. I hear a banjo, but I don't hear how hard the strings are picked. The track is still very entertaining to listen to, but I lose that ultimate detail.
I haven't yet pushed the phantoms at high volumes with complicated tracks, so I don't know if it starts to sound muddled. Given my neighbour situation, I don't think I'll be testing that soon.
As for Spark, it's a reasonable start. It controls my main PC flawlessly from my phone and tracks begin very quickly after selecting them. Interestingly, it was midway playing a track once and it crashed. I deleted that track (i managed to play it directly from my phone) file completely not just from spark but from my phone itself and when i booted the app up again, the song played for a good 5 seconds. I wonder if there's a largish buffer somewhere to prevent dropouts during streaming?
Overall, the quality of the Chord/Krell/Focal system is higher but I'm selling it because I just don't have time to listen anymore. The Phantom is an ideal solution for me. It is small, flexible, streams music and sounds great. I can leave it on and walk around the living room and I get something higher end than the other 'lifestyle' systems available.
Hope someone finds all that somewhat educational!
Daryll
