02-Dec-2025, 21:38
So far, unfortunately, it has been a disappointment. Let me start at the beginning. And my apologies in advance for the long story.
When I heard the original Phantom for the first time years ago, I was deeply impressed. The sound coming from such a compact active speaker was phenomenal. The level of detail and the sound dispersion left a lasting impression. I also really liked the design. It’s not a classic speaker column, but truly a futuristic device. The long list of patents and abbreviations also impressed me. One day, I told myself, I’d get a pair…
Later, the Reactor was introduced. Much more attractive in terms of price, and also a better fit size-wise. But life goes on, and sometimes other priorities take over, so a pair of Phantoms remained just a dream.
During a trip to Paris I was having lunch in a café, and after a while I noticed how pleasant the sound was. I turned around and saw a dark green Phantom Ultimate hanging there… That was the sign to finally go for it! Three weeks ago the moment arrived: I walked into the local hi-fi store to listen to the newest Phantom Ultimate 98dB. Long story short: that same day I bought three Phantom Ultimate 98 in Light Pearl. A few days later they were delivered, and I was as excited as a child to get started.
It began with the unboxing. They come in a box with styrofoam and a fabric bag around them. The styrofoam had crumbled a bit and there were black pellets stuck to the speaker. Not a disaster, but not a great start either.
One of the three Phantoms had poor finishing. There’s a small ridge across the top that isn’t straight. Definitely not what you expect from speakers in this price range. In the video ‘Meet a new breed of speakers’ they literally say ‘pushing the limits of quality control to the extreme’ and in ‘The Phantom Ritual’ they say ‘More than 250 quality controls.’ I don’t know what they’re checking, but this really shouldn’t happen.
![[Image: ib0qobV.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/ib0qobV.jpeg)
![[Image: NFlocng.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/NFlocng.jpeg)
The Phantom was returned to the dealer, and after 1.5 weeks I received word that the replacement unit had arrived. The dealer put in the effort, but still—it affects the whole experience.
For one of the Phantoms I ordered the Gecko wall mount. It arrived damaged (see the damaged part on the left, +/- 1,5cm), and the caps covering the screws are white instead of Light Pearl. It looks terrible, and again I expected much more attention to detail and quality control.
![[Image: 8lFEigm.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/8lFEigm.jpeg)
But aside from these cosmetic issues, how do they actually perform? I must say the sound quality is fantastic. It’s such a joy to listen to them. And they truly are a feast for the eyes. It’s a miracle how they managed to pack that much technology into such a compact device. But again, not everything is fantastic, unfortunately. I’m hoping to get some tips or tricks from the forum:
When I heard the original Phantom for the first time years ago, I was deeply impressed. The sound coming from such a compact active speaker was phenomenal. The level of detail and the sound dispersion left a lasting impression. I also really liked the design. It’s not a classic speaker column, but truly a futuristic device. The long list of patents and abbreviations also impressed me. One day, I told myself, I’d get a pair…
Later, the Reactor was introduced. Much more attractive in terms of price, and also a better fit size-wise. But life goes on, and sometimes other priorities take over, so a pair of Phantoms remained just a dream.
During a trip to Paris I was having lunch in a café, and after a while I noticed how pleasant the sound was. I turned around and saw a dark green Phantom Ultimate hanging there… That was the sign to finally go for it! Three weeks ago the moment arrived: I walked into the local hi-fi store to listen to the newest Phantom Ultimate 98dB. Long story short: that same day I bought three Phantom Ultimate 98 in Light Pearl. A few days later they were delivered, and I was as excited as a child to get started.
It began with the unboxing. They come in a box with styrofoam and a fabric bag around them. The styrofoam had crumbled a bit and there were black pellets stuck to the speaker. Not a disaster, but not a great start either.
One of the three Phantoms had poor finishing. There’s a small ridge across the top that isn’t straight. Definitely not what you expect from speakers in this price range. In the video ‘Meet a new breed of speakers’ they literally say ‘pushing the limits of quality control to the extreme’ and in ‘The Phantom Ritual’ they say ‘More than 250 quality controls.’ I don’t know what they’re checking, but this really shouldn’t happen.
The Phantom was returned to the dealer, and after 1.5 weeks I received word that the replacement unit had arrived. The dealer put in the effort, but still—it affects the whole experience.
For one of the Phantoms I ordered the Gecko wall mount. It arrived damaged (see the damaged part on the left, +/- 1,5cm), and the caps covering the screws are white instead of Light Pearl. It looks terrible, and again I expected much more attention to detail and quality control.
But aside from these cosmetic issues, how do they actually perform? I must say the sound quality is fantastic. It’s such a joy to listen to them. And they truly are a feast for the eyes. It’s a miracle how they managed to pack that much technology into such a compact device. But again, not everything is fantastic, unfortunately. I’m hoping to get some tips or tricks from the forum:
- I have three Phantoms; a pair for the TV and a standalone one in the kitchen. I want them to play music as one zone. They don’t seem to link from within the app, even though the documentation said they would, according to the dealer. I can work around it by starting the zones together via AirPlay, but for example Spotify Connect doesn’t work. Truly unbelievable for speakers in this price range.
- It’s really a shame that you can’t comfortably connect a TV. Sometimes there’s no sound, sometimes I have to switch audio outputs before the speakers respond. Volume can’t be controlled via the TV but only separately via the app. A little box like the Dialog with an HDMI input would bring so much more convenience. I knew beforehand I could only connect it optically, but even then it works worse than I expected.
- The worst part: they often simply don’t play music. I start a song on my phone and connect via AirPlay. Everything shows that the music is playing (Spotify shows AirPlay, the Devialet app shows the track, the volume, and I can pause the track) but no sound comes from the speakers. Muting on/off does nothing, volume up/down does nothing, pause-play also does nothing. Starting via Spotify Connect doesn’t help either. There’s no error message - according to the app, everything is playing normally. The only thing I can do is restart the speakers. And one of them is mounted high on the Gecko mount…
