Having moved from Silver to Gold, to Ls50w (for a few days) then back to Gold - then to Kii Three.....
I am thinking of going back to Phantoms after selling my Kii (having bought some in ear headphones which I couldn’t really afford and made me realise £7k on speakers is a bit overkill for me
)
Anyway - having been out the game for a while I have a few questions
1) Can they repair classics yet? It was one of the reasons I got out as to started to worry about the value crashing once out of warrantee.
2) I never really played above 70 - usually more like 60. How close are the little reactors to the gold sound wise if I don’t need the extra power?
3) Any opinions on Gold phantoms compared to a Devialet d200 amp and some £2k ish used SAM enabled bookshelfs like the Atom / PMC fact 3 / focal / raidho
I started lusting over one of their amps - but if the phantom electronics / sound quality are pretty much the same then probably I would go for them again as I don’t really want to start box swapping again
Any opinions welcomed
In my opinion, you would need much more than 2k and floor standing instead of bookshelves to start approaching a pair of Gold.
Jean-Marie
Question 2 is a fascinating Q:
I hope you get some feedback on that one.
Thanks Jean Marie. I am thinking more about the highs and mids - don’t mind so much if the bass isn’t quite as extended / powerful as the Golds
Although with the SAM option on their amps I read it really improves bass extension on loads of standmounts.
Mr_bill - I am hoping for an answer to question 1) - then probably I would go Classic / Gold anyway
(29-Dec-2019, 12:04)Jamington2004 Wrote: [ -> ]2) I never really played above 70 - usually more like 60. How close are the little reactors to the gold sound wise if I don’t need the extra power?
(29-Dec-2019, 22:39)Mr_Bill Wrote: [ -> ]Question 2 is a fascinating Q:
I hope you get some feedback on that one.
I own a pair of Golds. Had an opportunity to compare a pair of Reactor 900s with a pair of Golds at a retailer. Golds were on Tree stands, Reactor 900s on low cabinet, closer together; tried to compensate for this during listening tests. Used Bluetooth with music from my tablet for both, even though it was not the best connection method.
In comparison, the Reactor 900 had a smaller sound stage, slightly less detail, lost a bit in the mids and high end and a little bass heavy. Maybe it had lower resolution of individual instruments, but this could be due to my bias towards the Golds in my own setup.
Spent the last part of the time solely on the Reactor 900s, not listening for differences but listening to the music. The Reactor 900 had excellent sound and a large sound stage in a small box. Not
many other systems can match the Reactor 900s for its very clean and detailed sound.
On paper, there was a big gap between the Reactor 900 which had only 900W, with a maximum sound level of 98 dB SPL at 1 meter. The Gold was rated at 4,500W, 108 db. Gold also had a titanium tweeter. In practice, the gap between the Reactor 900s and Golds is smaller. I could easily live with the Reactor 900s.
(30-Dec-2019, 00:16)Snoopy8 Wrote: [ -> ] (29-Dec-2019, 12:04)Jamington2004 Wrote: [ -> ]2) I never really played above 70 - usually more like 60. How close are the little reactors to the gold sound wise if I don’t need the extra power?
(29-Dec-2019, 22:39)Mr_Bill Wrote: [ -> ]Question 2 is a fascinating Q:
I hope you get some feedback on that one.
I own a pair of Golds. Had an opportunity to compare a pair of Reactor 900s with a pair of Golds at a retailer. Golds were on Tree stands, Reactor 900s on low cabinet, closer together; tried to compensate for this during listening tests. Used Bluetooth with music from my tablet for both, even though it was not the best connection method.
In comparison, the Reactor 900 had a smaller sound stage, slightly less detail, lost a bit in the mids and high end and a little bass heavy. Maybe it had lower resolution of individual instruments, but this could be due to my bias towards the Golds in my own setup.
Spent the last part of the time solely on the Reactor 900s, not listening for differences but listening to the music. The Reactor 900 had excellent sound and a large sound stage in a small box. Not many other systems can match the Reactor 900s for its very clean and detailed sound.
On paper, there was a big gap between the Reactor 900 which had only 900W, with a maximum sound level of 98 dB SPL at 1 meter. The Gold was rated at 4,500W, 108 db. Gold also had a titanium tweeter. In practice, the gap between the Reactor 900s and Golds is smaller. I could easily live with the Reactor 900s.
You have to know that 70 on a Phantom is already 0dB attenuation, therefore full power at 0dBFS.
going above has the effect of potential elliptical compression in case the source plus gain would be above 0dBFS.
As for high and mids, I would tend to say that the golds are in a different league, but this is certainly not night and day either and as @
Snoopy8 I could leave with a pair of Reactors 900 without any frustration.
This being said, and I’m sorry to add to the uncertainty, but I have also access to a pair of Athom GT1 with a D120 and I can confirm that with SAM, you have a level of bass that you would only expect from a floor stander or a bass sub.
Jean-Marie
Hi Jammington,
I own two pairs of Phantom Golds and I recently bought a pair of Reactor 900s for my workplace. First I must say that I'm a huge fan of Devialets sound quality, and almost as hugely disappointed in their ability to develop stable software for the speakers. Our Sonos system in the rest of the house/garden is running circles around devialet stability wise.
So when it comes to sound quality there is no doubt that the golds are better in all registers. BUT correctly placed the reactors are really impressive. On stands, positioned 50-60 cm from the back wall and in a acoustically dampened room you just forget that they are so small because the sound is huge. The bass is as expected the most impressive register to start off with, and if you are not a big bass junkie just focusing on house music, they will do just fine and go deep enough for you (and your neighbours
. The mids and the highs are the registers where I think there is room for improvement, female voices sound a bit congested and they will not really "open up" sound wise. The highs are OK but not brilliant.
The soundstage is HUGE and as with most smaller high quality speakers, they disappear in the soundstage and the positioning of instruments and singers is really cool.
For that kind of money there are better speakers around, maybe not as small with this kind of bass register but with better mids and highs at least...and i would perhaps wait some time until Devialet get their software right...
Ok thanks great answer
So if Devialet can repair classic by now I would go back to Golds based on that
Or even an old pair of Silvers which I quite enjoyed
And if not maybe some decent standmounts and the expert amp
(29-Dec-2019, 12:04)Jamington2004 Wrote: [ -> ]Having moved from Silver to Gold, to Ls50w (for a few days) then back to Gold - then to Kii Three.....
I am thinking of going back to Phantoms after selling my Kii (having bought some in ear headphones which I couldn’t really afford and made me realise £7k on speakers is a bit overkill for me )
Anyway - having been out the game for a while I have a few questions
1) Can they repair classics yet? It was one of the reasons I got out as to started to worry about the value crashing once out of warrantee.
2) I never really played above 70 - usually more like 60. How close are the little reactors to the gold sound wise if I don’t need the extra power?
3) Any opinions on Gold phantoms compared to a Devialet d200 amp and some £2k ish used SAM enabled bookshelfs like the Atom / PMC fact 3 / focal / raidho
I started lusting over one of their amps - but if the phantom electronics / sound quality are pretty much the same then probably I would go for them again as I don’t really want to start box swapping again
Any opinions welcomed
Hi!
I have both Golds and Reactor 900s and have played the same track on both speakers. IMHO the Golds have better highs at normal listening volume and better lows at high volume. The Reactors provide an amazing experience for their size. They literally can fill a 12'x14' room with sound without sounding brittle or compressed. I would rate the sound stage of the Reactors to be equivalent to the Golds. If you don't need the power, don't have an immense room to fill and aren't too picky about midrange/high reproduction, then the Reactors would be my go to speaker now.
(29-Dec-2019, 12:04)Jamington2004 Wrote: [ -> ]Having moved from Silver to Gold, to Ls50w (for a few days) then back to Gold - then to Kii Three.....
I am thinking of going back to Phantoms after selling my Kii (having bought some in ear headphones which I couldn’t really afford and made me realise £7k on speakers is a bit overkill for me )
Anyway - having been out the game for a while I have a few questions
1) Can they repair classics yet? It was one of the reasons I got out as to started to worry about the value crashing once out of warrantee.
2) I never really played above 70 - usually more like 60. How close are the little reactors to the gold sound wise if I don’t need the extra power?
3) Any opinions on Gold phantoms compared to a Devialet d200 amp and some £2k ish used SAM enabled bookshelfs like the Atom / PMC fact 3 / focal / raidho
I started lusting over one of their amps - but if the phantom electronics / sound quality are pretty much the same then probably I would go for them again as I don’t really want to start box swapping again
Any opinions welcomed
I own a pair of gold and a pair of reactor 600. 90% of the time I listen to the reactors 600 on my open air terrace rather than to the Golds in the living room (I live in Tahiti). They sound fantastic in the open air when there are no walls behind or in front of them (even better imaging with DOS2 compared to DOS 1). For casual listening I see no difference between the gold and the reactor, they are both excellent when listening at moderate volume levels. And now with DOS 2 you can set up the audio delay parameter to minimum so that there is no audio delay when watching TV with optical cable connected to the Devialet Gold or reactors. Also two big plus for the reactors are the fact that they are easy to move around and that they have touch sensitive buttons to stop the music or change the volume level without having to reach for the smartphone.
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