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Phantom's bass is best described as a URPS ( under resonance principle subwoofer ). Without a DSP reducing the frequencies at higher volumes it surely would blow the Phamtoms.
I also noticed a change in bass behavior for good. They reduced the 'loudness' effect at low volumes what maybe leads to the fact that the difference at higher volumes is smaller now. They defninitely improved for my taste.
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14-Sep-2015, 23:54
(This post was last modified: 14-Sep-2015, 23:57 by streamy.)
This could lead to a very interesting thread.
According to enquiries of some forum members Devialet answered to them that they changed the scale of the volume (indeed instead of degressive volume curve we have now a progressive curve) i.e. low volumes span now from 0-45 or so an higher volumes from 45-70, above loudness increases little. Whereas before low volume was 0-20 and highe volumes were 20-70. But Devialet said they did not change the frequency response compared to before. Many are doubting this and think there was more bass at lower volumes than now. Others again say nothing has changed in frequency response. I'm undecided right now in my opinion. I have the same feeling as Chillin and what also Rodrat2 and others expressed that the 'loudness' effect from previous firmware, i.e. volume depending compensation of frequency response (implementation of equal loudness curves referred to as "Fletcher-Munson" curves) has been reversed. Some like it, some not. However, in my measurements done (with REW and UMIK-1) inconsistently and not for many different volumes I could not observe such implementation of Devialet. In fact, after getting used to the new volume scheme I tend to hear same charateristics in the Phantoms as before for volumes between 25-40 (before 8-20), however at higher volumes 55-65 adjustment now is very difficult as the volume progression is very steep, for me too steep. does anyone have consitant frequency response measurements?
It would be nice when Devialet would show such measurements and even nicer when they would give us a choice of selecting between different volume curves and volume dependent 'loudness' curves, if ever implemented. At the moment we are kept in the dark, have with the Phantoms and Dialog a system that would be capable to provide such variations, but we are fully dependent on Devialet's mercy not to transform our appreciated sound from the Phantoms to whatever hip or flopp sound they basically can impose on us with any next firmware. So far no choice to downgrade the firmware or even to keep a specific firmware not updated as Spark will nag with an update reminder screen whenever a new firmware is ready to be updated.
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16-Sep-2015, 16:18
(This post was last modified: 16-Sep-2015, 16:19 by RobLnd.)
Hi, I'm glad my thread created some interest.
As Chillin mentioned, obviously Phantom and all the “new generation” speakers (you know what I mean) must use loudness curves to maximise and optimises output and frequencies
responses.
Phantom does it very well. Other brands lacks in precision and the woofers used are not comparable with phantom.
Of course, a phantom - if uses the same bass curve used @ 82db when reaching 105db …. it would in the best case scenario make horrible noises or …explode or should be built differently (note1).
Same applies to mid and tweeter but i cannot truly recognise these changes by ear.
Now. I can tell you for sure that the news loudness curve or whatever it is fancy to call it now, it is smoother and not so hash when shifting from the old low volume <50 to the high volume >50.
Steamy suggested the curve has been reversed. I would say has been made more smooth and correlated to the new scale and (maybe) lowered to the low volumes. However, being the scale now smoother, a simple relation with the bass eq would explain the changes. Or wouldn’t?
….De gustibus….
I like bass. Meanwhile i was happy with the extra kick of the previous release and i would be disappointed if decreased (btw haven't properly listened at low volume with the new software so no comment from me) i much more like the new behaviour of bass frequencies when increasing the volume (yes an increase, not a switch between power bass to power volume)
Also this is a fresh call to audiophile in search of purity. It does not exist. Only personal emotions and feelings exist. We all get sounds differently.
This is why devialet at this point should be so kind to make us choose a +/- 2db rather than a Nigh mode!
(Note 1)…. About the frequency response in the white paper … clarification.
Having said that i did hardly criticised their marketing material advertising 16hz without saying when they achieved that (50db, 100db 105db??). i did email customer service but they didn't or (didn’t want to) understand the question.
They let you understand that 16hz +/- 2db might have been achieved at 105db for a silver. Every person with common sense though would have taken it as a joke anyway.
Hence i commented about the changes in their technical specification which i am sure came from the legal dept rather than the product dev team (pardon moi)
) ! 
