PS audio on Phantoms

[Stino]

Not a review but wanted to share nonetheless:


https://youtu.be/vMJDFfk4efk

[David A]

Hmmm. As an Aussie, he started to lose me when he mispronounced "Geelong", the address of the person asking the query.

Actually he started to lose me a bit before that, and I own PS Audio P12 which I'm really impressed with so I'm inclined to give Paul's comments a fair hearing though I often disagree with them. When people start off saying nice things and then go "but…" you know what comes after the "but" is never going to be nice. Starting off his comments wearing that mask was a lot like saying "…but…", I immediately got the impression that this wasn't going to be a positive assessment.

But then, the question is really not whether it was a positive assessment but rather whether it was an unbiased assessment and I don't think it was. Paul has quite strong biases, he's a manufacturer making and selling amplifiers, digital transports, and DACs, and about to bring a speaker to market. He's developing a server product. He's a competitor to Devialet in many ways and he would rather have customers buy his products than someone else's products so he's always going to frame comments about other products in a way that contrasts what he thinks are the other product's weaknesses compared to his products. He did make some positive comments, always with a "…but…" implied where it wasn't explicitly stated so his comments avoid being unfailingly negative and may even sound unbiased to some because of the positive remarks but it wasn't an unbiased assessment and that mask really came across as a really nasty comment in the end.

I don't mind a manufacturer having strong opinions about the virtues of doing something the way they do it and I don't mind them finding fault with a competitor's product because they're always going to recommend their own, but that mask reduced his comments from a biased but critical assessment to the level of ridicule in my view. You can express strongly critical views without stooping to ridicule and he needs to learn that. After all, he's got a great product line in his power plants, a product that a number of us Devialet owners also own, and I wouldn't be surprised if his approach in that video didn't end up turning some Devialet owners who were thinking of purchasing a PS Audio product off and sent them in the direction of a different manufacturer. You lose customers when you get nasty and ridicule is usually nasty.

[Snoopy8]

When it starts off with "I do not comment on other manufacturer's products but...", you know it will go down hill from there.

I suspect that all he has heard is a single Phantom sitting in a corner playing loudly and jumped to the same conclusions as many reviewers who wrote about the standalone unit. Not audiophile, no sound stage etc. etc.  It is frustrating to see so many reviews which do not treat the setting up of the Phantoms like a proper speaker, on stands, positioned properly in room.

There were many nice things said, all couched with a BUT! It was a well disguised hatchet job by a CEO of a manufacturer who should have known better.

[Pim]

When it starts off with "I do not comment on other manufacturer's products but...", you know it will go down hill from there.

I suspect that all he has heard is a single Phantom sitting in a corner playing loudly and jumped to the same conclusions as many reviewers who wrote about the standalone unit. Not audiophile, no sound stage etc. etc.  It is frustrating to see so many reviews which do not treat the setting up of the Phantoms like a proper speaker, on stands, positioned properly in room.

There were many nice things said, all couched with a BUT! It was a well disguised hatchet job by a CEO of a manufacturer who should have known better.

Paul McGowan is a nice guy but...

[PeppaPig]

Yea.. I also found the way he said a bit doggy ....

If he said he don’t like to comment on other company then just stop doing that then, why said so much? He got no idea what he is doing.

[Confused]

That @Pim fella is a nice guy but...… Oh, hang on, he is actually a nice guy... (Nice one Pim, made me chuckle...)

I thought the Phantom review was not too bad considering it came from a rival manufacturer. Although he does not seem to fully understand ADH and a few other points.

He could of course have criticised Devialet's software, or their lack of communication. Whatever you think of Mr McGowan, at least he is engaging with his customers.

I did read elsewhere that you should listen to Paul McGowan's videos and whatever he says, reverse it, and you get the truth. A little harsh maybe, and in this case he would be saying that the Phantoms have world class mid range and treble, nothing better, but the bass is a bit lacking. So no, the reverse trick does not seem to work.

Anyway, for those that think he was terribly rude and frankly completely out of order commenting on a rival product and fancy some revenge on the man, here is a bit of very recent Paul McGowan bashing from Archimago:

The internet is a perilous place, maybe Devialet are right to keep quiet......

https://archimago.blogspot.com/2020/02/d...eaker.html

[agentsmith]

Paul may be biased, but I feel the same way especially his comments about mid range.

I find the bass quite astounding, and the sales guys seem to know to use the wow factor when demoing.  I remember one sales used the track "Partition" from Bryonce's self title album.  It dived so low made my tunny flutter.  

But when I tried real music, it sounded thin and lifeless.  e.g. Glenn Gould's 1982 Goldberg Variations sounded nothing like a real piano.

I think overall it is good for modern bassy pop music.  Or may be movies with lots of explosion.  But it would never come close to my main system with real music.

[David A]

I don't think bias is a problem here. I expect a manufacturer to be biassed because I expect them to have faith in their own products and to think that their own products do whatever it is they're intended to do in the best way possible. Why would you want to buy a product from a manufacturer who's selling products that they think are doing things in a worse or inferior way to what the competing products do? A manufacturer who doesn't believe he's making a great product that offers something better than what their competitors offer is a manufacturer who's making a product that you probably want to pass over for something from one of the competitors.

I also once read a comment about the difference between bias and prejudice. It said that with bias, all things being equal you will go the way your bias inclines you to go but with prejudice you always go the way your prejudice inclines you to go regardless of whether all things are equal or not. Bias comes as part of the package when you have preferences, especially strong preferences, but prejudice is something else. I don't have any problem with Paul McGowan having a biassed view on the Phantom.

What I think is the problem here is the way the comments were made. First he starts off wearing a silly mask, then he takes the mask off and says he doesn't like to comment on competitors but…, then he comments and damns with faint praise, and then puts the mask on again. It's the mask and the whole process of how he went about making his comments that turns me off. He's making a show of making his comments, he's turning them from being commentary to something else, to ridicule. He's got as much right as any other reviewer or person making a comment to say that he doesn't like the approach the product's manufacturer took and to say that he would prefer a different approach. He didn't have to dress up his comments in the way that he did in order to make them so why put on that show? It's because he wants to make his viewers laugh at the idea of another company doing something different and that's not simply making a biassed comment, that's holding another company up to ridicule in a totally unnecessary way. That's simply being nasty.

[Snoopy8]

But when I tried real music, it sounded thin and lifeless.  e.g. Glenn Gould's 1982 Goldberg Variations sounded nothing like a real piano.

I think overall it is good for modern bassy pop music.  Or may be movies with lots of explosion.  But it would never come close to my main system with real music.

Have you heard a pair of Phantom Golds set up on stands and positioned properly in a room?  Unfortunately, most people, including reviewers, have not.  Devialet markets this as a sexy "boom box" (yes, that is exaggeration!) and people treat it as such.

My pair have replaced a system which costs more than 3 times. I have maximised it's potential by using UPnP and convolution room correction. And I play real music...

** One of my test tracks is a piano piece (Gjeilo: North Country II. I listen to Classical, Choral, Jazz, Pop, Rock and they all sound wonderful.

[MrJellyLord]

But when I tried real music, it sounded thin and lifeless.  e.g. Glenn Gould's 1982 Goldberg Variations sounded nothing like a real piano.

That is not a very good recording of a piano to begin with (not meant as a comment about its artistic merits).