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Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London?
#31
(18-Feb-2015, 00:18)Jwg1749 Wrote: I dropped in at Harrods on my way into town today, as one does. Time was short, and I only spent 10 mins listening (the Gergiev Walküre streamed from Qobuz).

Putting to one side the absurd hype about zero distortion, the Silver Phantoms do pretty much what it says on the tin. They deliver a remarkably rich and full sound that goes very loud without any signs of roughness or hardness -- a proper orchestral sound that could fill a decent-sized room (I'm guessing) with a satisfyingly big picture. Being point-source speakers, they do sound very coherent. It's hard to say much about imaging and soundstage, since they were placed fairly close together. Clearly they can't approach the sound-stage of a single-driver line-source speaker (my reference point), but that's not what they're for.

The sound reminds me of some other active stand-mount speakers I've heard: punchy, smooth and coherent. There's no evidence of the top-end fizz or flabby bass that you get with many passive speakers.

My reservations concern the mid-range. There's something about the presentation that feels nasal and closed in. I'm not sure I could live with the slightly plasticky sound (OK, that may be expectation bias: a plastic speaker will obviously sound plasticky ...). As Ian noted in his write-up, there's a lack of ease and space towards the top of the mid range. I also suspect (admittedly on the basis of a very short listen) that they'd have difficulty reproducing instrumental timbres accurately.

Having said that, they do what they do in a mightily impressive way. And IMO they will sell, especially to younger folk who enjoy the sheer weight of bass the Phantoms can produce. In fact I'd go so far as to say that if you don't want your music "implosive", they probably won't be right for you. If I were in the market for a smallish pair of speakers priced around £3.6K, I'd go for some active monitors, an MDAC and a Sonos.

The SPARK app looked nice enough, though there's no excuse for designing a poor app these days. The DIALOG was hidden behind a curtain. (Er, why?) I didn't ask any penetrating questions about the roll-out of a fully functional Devialet ecosystem, though I was reassured to hear that they plan to have the DIALOG working with the "Expert" amps in time for Munich. Until then the DIALOG I have on order can sit in a cupboard.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Thanks for that additional insight into the Phantom - will need to pop up to London over the next couple of weeks and visit Harrods (something I normally avoid like the plague, as it provides too many shopping opportunities for SWMBO Big Grin ), and have a listen for myself - do they still have Devialet staff on hand to answer the questions? Seems a mystery why they are hiding the Dialog away, perhaps they feel that it is an unnecessary encumbrance for their display, after all it is only a box that seemingly sits there and does nothing! Like you, it looks like I will have a Dialog sitting in the cupboard until the software for the Expert range is sorted out - though my Dialog hasn't been delivered yet (still  shown as being PROCESSED on order tracking page) - roll on May, and the Munich Show Smile!

David
1. NUC6i5SYH running ROON ROCK > ROON/AIR > Ethernet > Devialet 1000pro Core Infinity> Wilson-Benesch ACT Speakers,
or, as alternative, 
2. Wyred4Sound MS-2 Server, Devialet 1000pro Core Infinity, Theta Jade CD Transport, Pure 702ES Tuner, Wilson-Benesch ACT Speakers, misc cables

                                       UK
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#32
David,
I think there was still someone from Dev there. I didn't bother to ask, as my mind was on other things, but the one question I did ask (about DIALOG feeding a Dev amp) caused the chap who was helping me to seek advice from someone else in his team, who may have been a Dev rep.
Matt

Sonos Connect (W4S) > DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis
Sonos Connect (W4S) > Devialet 200 > Vivid V1.5
Silver Phantoms (just the two)
London
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#33
(18-Feb-2015, 00:18)Jwg1749 Wrote: I dropped in at Harrods on my way into town today, as one does. Time was short, and I only spent 10 mins listening (the Gergiev Walküre streamed from Qobuz).

Putting to one side the absurd hype about zero distortion, the Silver Phantoms do pretty much what it says on the tin. They deliver a remarkably rich and full sound that goes very loud without any signs of roughness or hardness -- a proper orchestral sound that could fill a decent-sized room (I'm guessing) with a satisfyingly big picture. Being point-source speakers, they do sound very coherent. It's hard to say much about imaging and soundstage, since they were placed fairly close together. Clearly they can't approach the sound-stage of a single-driver line-source speaker (my reference point), but that's not what they're for.

The sound reminds me of some other active stand-mount speakers I've heard: punchy, smooth and coherent. There's no evidence of the top-end fizz or flabby bass that you get with many passive speakers.

My reservations concern the mid-range. There's something about the presentation that feels nasal and closed in. I'm not sure I could live with the slightly plasticky sound (OK, that may be expectation bias: a plastic speaker will obviously sound plasticky ...). As Ian noted in his write-up, there's a lack of ease and space towards the top of the mid range. I also suspect (admittedly on the basis of a very short listen) that they'd have difficulty reproducing instrumental timbres accurately.

Having said that, they do what they do in a mightily impressive way. And IMO they will sell, especially to younger folk who enjoy the sheer weight of bass the Phantoms can produce. In fact I'd go so far as to say that if you don't want your music "implosive", they probably won't be right for you. If I were in the market for a smallish pair of speakers priced around £3.6K, I'd go for some active monitors, an MDAC and a Sonos.

The SPARK app looked nice enough, though there's no excuse for designing a poor app these days. The DIALOG was hidden behind a curtain. (Er, why?) I didn't ask any penetrating questions about the roll-out of a fully functional Devialet ecosystem, though I was reassured to hear that they plan to have the DIALOG working with the "Expert" amps in time for Munich. Until then the DIALOG I have on order can sit in a cupboard.

Matt

Great write up Matt! And Ian!Smile

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD

UK
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#34
(18-Feb-2015, 10:28)Jwg1749 Wrote: David,
I think there was still someone from Dev there. I didn't bother to ask, as my mind was on other things, but the one question I did ask (about DIALOG feeding a Dev amp) caused the chap who was helping me to seek advice from someone else in his team, who may have been a Dev rep.
Matt

Thanks Matt.

David
1. NUC6i5SYH running ROON ROCK > ROON/AIR > Ethernet > Devialet 1000pro Core Infinity> Wilson-Benesch ACT Speakers,
or, as alternative, 
2. Wyred4Sound MS-2 Server, Devialet 1000pro Core Infinity, Theta Jade CD Transport, Pure 702ES Tuner, Wilson-Benesch ACT Speakers, misc cables

                                       UK
Reply
#35
Matt and Ian,

Thanks for your musings after your visits to Harrods.
The space afforded, especially the 'demo room', to the Phantoms is not quite as grand as I expected.

One question not answered, I believe.  Were they available to purchase or pre-order?  Oh, and was the price mentioned?
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#36
(18-Feb-2015, 12:56)alandbush Wrote: Matt and Ian,

Thanks for your musings after your visits to Harrods.
The space afforded, especially the 'demo room', to the Phantoms is not quite as grand as I expected.

One question not answered, I believe.  Were they available to purchase or pre-order?  Oh, and was the price mentioned?

Yes, they're available for purchase. I seem to recall that a pair of Silvers plus a DIALOG is about £3.6K.

Sonos Connect (W4S) > DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis
Sonos Connect (W4S) > Devialet 200 > Vivid V1.5
Silver Phantoms (just the two)
London
Reply
#37
Thanks Matt.

So there is hope for all.
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#38
Devialet has now got back to me about the Dialog storage.

It is 2GB (not 2TB regrettably!) which the Devialet representative was suggesting could store lots of tracks (presumably about 30 "singles") rather than lots of albums.

Sorry about the initial error.
Innuos Statement 2TB SSD with Next-Gen PSU (with Roon lifetime)
MacBook Pro (with Air)
Draytek Vigor 2860v-Plus/Devialet Original d'Atelier CI Nos. 54A&B/Magico M3 pair
Shunyata cables (digital/interconnect/loudspeaker/power)/Shunyata power units (Triton/Typhon)

 Dialog/Phantom Gold/Tree pair
Missing Link cables (power)
England
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#39
Ian, I really doubt that the 2GB flash is there to provide user-accessible storage for music.  Much more likely that it's to store the device firmware.  You might ask: why bother to mention it in the marketing material, then?  I guess for the same reason they mention other "features" such as the CPU clock rate, RAM size, etc. -- they're easy numbers to quote even if they don't mean much to the end user.  (It's supposed to be a box that does a job: why would anyone care about the speed of the CPU?  Either it does the job it's supposed to or it doesn't.)  Sorry, that was a bit of a rant, not directed at you of course Smile
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#40
(18-Feb-2015, 16:06)thumb5 Wrote: Ian, I really doubt that the 2GB flash is there to provide user-accessible storage for music.  Much more likely that it's to store the device firmware.  You might ask: why bother to mention it in the marketing material, then?  I guess for the same reason they mention other "features" such as the CPU clock rate, RAM size, etc. -- they're easy numbers to quote even if they don't mean much to the end user.  (It's supposed to be a box that does a job: why would anyone care about the speed of the CPU?  Either it does the job it's supposed to or it doesn't.)  Sorry, that was a bit of a rant, not directed at you of course Smile

I do think you are right thumb5, that the 2 GB flash is meanly with for the device firmware. Although I don't know how Spark is managing the playlist. It might preload some tracks in order to be able to play gapless. So it might need a cache and space on the flash memorie. My Qobuz desktop app om my HTPC  is predownloading 3 tracks max in order to be able to play gapless with flac's. Spark might do the same. Anyway I do hope it will play gapless. 
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