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Any in depth Reactor reviews or users here?
#41
(08-Feb-2019, 09:57)ragwo Wrote: Not a high praise:
"The Phantom Reactor invites you to listen closely to your favorite songs, but not all the details are there. Which is to say, the audio fidelity is not what I’d expect from a speaker at this price point. And just because a speaker is expensive and impressive does not mean that it’s something everyone should want. This is a rich person toy, something that’s as much a conversation piece as it is a sound system."

Well, I  Heart the sound of my "rich person toy" and I like the ease of taking it with me wherever I need to listen to beautiful music, and I don't miss the details that some golden ears can hear and that I don't. 
Anything wrong with not having gold plated ears  ?
2 phantom Gold
2 phantom Reactor
Dione soundbar
Spotify connect 
Apple music
Audirvana 3.5.44 for Mac
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#42
I absolutely love mine. Don't need it loud at all.

I have them at about 30 to 40 per cent and it's perfect for office listening.

I am not a full blown audiophile and I don't have a lot of experience with different speakers. 

To my ears they sound rich with really nice lows and crisp highs. 

I wanted a speaker I didn't have to turn up loud to hear a full sound and the reactor does a great job.
Living Room: Devialet Dione
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#43
Yes indeed. And you will have the musical mids along with the bass - as long as the integration is done well between bass and speaker. They do have more room compensation in their software than Devialet. If Devialet had built in room compensation, I would recommend the regular phantoms much more enthusiastically. Even the low cost Sonos systems have effective auto room correction with Apple products and they work remarkably well - makes a huge difference. A lesser speaker with better room correction will often beat a better speaker without any room correction.

OK, I know that I am going OT here on this thread that I started.

But since I started it, I am taking a bit of leeway....Smile LOL.
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#44
I had a brief listen to a single Reactor on Saturday. A shop in town had it on display together with the three Phantom models.

I now understand what the 'missing' midrange is about. The front 'full range' is actually just a rather large tweeter. So very little real mid range there. To compensate the side woofers produce parts of the (lower) mid range. I put an ear close to one of the woofers and could hear quite a lot of mid range from it. The woofers are not ideal mid range drivers and as mids are more directional the side placement create a strange effect on some recordings.

In comparison a pair of Golds had a proper mid range reproduction. Of course it is not fair to compare a single Reactor to a pair of Golds, but it also made the difference quite clear.

Attempting to define a cross over frequency for the Reactor without measurements will be just speculation so I'll skip that
I still think Reactor is good. The tiny size and prodigious bass output is really impressive! With the right placement (much better than in the shop) and maybe stereo I am sure one can get good results.
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#45
(15-Feb-2019, 00:13)andrewhollo Wrote: Early stage review of my Reactor 900, from someone who's owned Phantom Silver for close to 4 years, and a pair of Phantom Golds for over 1 year. I got my Reactor last night so I've had about 4 hours of listening.

I switched between a single Phantom Silver and Reactor repeatedly, using Apple Airplay, and the reactor is NO WAY as good. It's WAY OFF a single Phantom Gold too.

PROS:
Impressive bass for its size.
Fills the room really well.
Sounds good for music I like to listen to while working --- ambient electronic.
Cute --- it looks like my threesome has had a love child.

CONS:
Thin midrange - so not great for music I'd listen to at home --- modern classical, jazz.
Loses resolution at close range: best enjoyed at several metres.
Tricky to work out how to reset when installing at a different site (I eventually worked it out)

I bought it for my office, so I've got something to listen to while working, and it's fine for that purpose. For the money, no doubt I could have bought better sound --- but I'm quite attached to the Devialet brand, and figured I could resell at little loss at this stage if I decided I didn't like it. For the time being, I'm keeping it.

Andrew

Hi, Andrew. I realize its been a while since you wrote this. But now as you perhaps have more experience with the Reactors vs Gold I have a question. I am considering replacing my one Gold with two 900 w Reactors. But I am afraid the Reactors will not sound as good as a single Gold. My local store guy says he would most definitely swap one Gold for two 900 Reactors. What do you think?
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#46
Personally I would do the opposite. Sure if I can in a near future afford a second gold, I could opt for a single gold for a while instead of a stereo reactors, but if it is to last, I would favor a pair of reactor in stereo over any mono speaker.

Mono speakers playing stereo program, no matter how smart they are, is always a big loss compared to stereo.

Jean-Marie
PS, although my system is not based on phantoms nor reactors, I have listen extensively to golds in stereo as well as reactors in stereo, and I honestly consider that a pair of reactors is as good as my current system (which costs 5 times more) except in one compartment: bass extension where the reactors are beating my speakers hands down.
MacBook Air M2 -> RAAT/Air -> WiFi -> PLC -> Ethernet -> Devialet 220pro with Core Infinity (upgraded from 120) -> AperturA Armonia
France
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#47
Anyone using a reactor as a portable speaker regularly? How is the experience, is it a plug-in-and-forget thing like other (bluetooth) speakers and just works as soon as you turn it on or does it require more steps to get it up and running on the go?
D200. B&W CM10S2. ROON over AIR for Tidal. Chromecast Audio thru SPDIF for Spotify Connect. Technics SL-1200, Ortofon 2M Bronze. 2x Reactor 600 as desktop monitors. Head/earphones: Denon AH-D5000, Campfire Andromeda S.
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#48
Jean-MariePersonally I would do the opposite. Sure if I can in a near future afford a second gold, I could opt for a single gold for a while instead of a stereo reactors, but if it is to last, I would favor a pair of reactor in stereo over any mono speaker.

Mono speakers playing stereo program, no matter how smart they are, is always a big loss compared to stereo.

Jean-Marie
PS, although my system is not based on phantoms nor reactors, I have listen extensively to golds in stereo as well as reactors in stereo, and I honestly consider that a pair of reactors is as good as my current system (which costs 5 times more) except in one compartment: bass extension where the reactors are beating my speakers hands down.

Same experience here. My old system is based on two Prame high efficiency horn speakers with dual 30 cm woofers in two separate cabinets and a horn speaker for medium and highs in between them, with a tube amplifier (2A3 tubes) to drive them. When using spotify connect in best quality with this system (with chromecast audio and a good Musical Fidelity DAC), I get roughly the same sound as with a pair of 600 reactors connected to the same digital source (spotify), (with no need to add cables, DAC, or amplifier).  
My old system has speakers as high as me, they must weight 20 times the reactor's weight, and the reactors (in stereo) sound so similar, it is hard to distinguish which system is on with your eyes closed if the volume setting is the same. I have never heard any lack of medium range in the reactors used in stereo. In fact the measures made somewhere else on this forum show that frequency response is basically flat from 20Hz to 15kHz. People are not used to hear a flat frequency response down to 20Hz from speakers this small, they just think there is less medium range because they hear the higher bass output they never hear with shelf speakers or small columns. But a deeper bass does not get in the way of a good midrange response, as you can hear from a huge horn speaker with large dual bass woofers. 
Those reactors in a stereo setup are truly revolutionary, and also much easier to carry, set up and use than the phantoms premier, silver or gold. They beat any speaker in their size and price range, in my opinion.
   
2 phantom Gold
2 phantom Reactor
Dione soundbar
Spotify connect 
Apple music
Audirvana 3.5.44 for Mac
Reply
#49
(04-Mar-2019, 20:30)ogs Wrote: I had a brief listen to a single Reactor on Saturday. A shop in town had it on display together with the three Phantom models.

I now understand what the 'missing' midrange is about. The front 'full range' is actually just a rather large tweeter. So very little real mid range there. To compensate the side woofers produce parts of the (lower) mid range. I put an ear close to one of the woofers and could hear quite a lot of mid range from it. The woofers are not ideal mid range drivers and as mids are more directional the side placement create a strange effect on some recordings.

In comparison a pair of Golds had a proper mid range reproduction. Of course it is not fair to compare a single Reactor to a pair of Golds, but it also made the difference quite clear.

Attempting to define a cross over frequency for the Reactor without measurements will be just speculation so I'll skip that
I still think Reactor is good. The tiny size and prodigious bass output is really impressive! With the right placement (much better than in the shop) and maybe stereo I am sure one can get good results.

You cannot compare a mono reactor to a stereo pair of gold !  I have a pair of Gold and a pair of reactors, they sound quite similar in my opinion, just a little more bass muscle for the golds. The difference is not that big when you listen to both in stereo. As for the lack of mid range, see the graph in my answer to Jean Marie below.
2 phantom Gold
2 phantom Reactor
Dione soundbar
Spotify connect 
Apple music
Audirvana 3.5.44 for Mac
Reply
#50
(14-Apr-2019, 22:32)WesCrackin Wrote: Anyone using a reactor as a portable speaker regularly? How is the experience, is it a plug-in-and-forget thing like other (bluetooth) speakers and just works as soon as you turn it on or does it require more steps to get it up and running on the go?
Definitely plug in and forget just like any bluetooth speaker. Plus you can pair with the source with bluetooth  and adjust the volume with touch buttons on the speaker : no need to use the app.
2 phantom Gold
2 phantom Reactor
Dione soundbar
Spotify connect 
Apple music
Audirvana 3.5.44 for Mac
Reply


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