Phantoms delivered this afternoon

[GuillaumeB]

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.

Hi Daryll and welcome to Devialet Chat! 

I wonder whether the so-called weakness in the treble department is more due to Spark/Dialog/software than the speaker itself. As others have already commented the tough bit in this speaker design was getting the bass right. It almost seems inconceivable that they would have overlooked the midrange/tweeter in the speaker design, the easier part! 

If this is the case things should get better with software updates.

Guillaume