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Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - Printable Version

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Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - mirekti - 16-Feb-2015

There was an opportunity to listen to Phantoms today in Paris and London.
Has anyone been there and could share some thoughts, please?


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - GuillaumeB - 16-Feb-2015

(16-Feb-2015, 18:35)mirekti Wrote: There was an opportunity to listen to Phantoms today in Paris and London.
Has anyone been there and could share some thoughts, please?

Unfortunately myself and Rufus weren't able to make it to the Harrods launch, however I understand IanG-UK was there and should be posting up some details later!  Smile

Guillaume


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - Jwg1749 - 16-Feb-2015

I'm planning to drop by tomorrow afternoon on my way to the ROH for Der fliegende Holländer.

Matt


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - f1eng - 16-Feb-2015

(16-Feb-2015, 19:32)Jwg1749 Wrote: I'm planning to drop by tomorrow afternoon on my way to the ROH for Der fliegende Holländer.

Matt
I'm jealous! Enjoy the concert.


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - IanG-UK - 16-Feb-2015

I went to the Phantom Harrods launch today. Here are my comments:

(a ) They have a two-part area, I’d guess 10-12ft square, times two, with one as a demo room and the other as a display area

(b1 ) In the demo room they have two Phantoms and two B&W small floorstanders (driven by a 200), SAMed, with a central display screen showing the Spark application for Phantom/Dialog and the usual remote application for the 200.

(b2 ) In the display area there are a few Phantoms, both variants, plus an exploded Phantom in a display case, and a dual-mono Expert

(c ) Branch is not ready yet but will still go ahead

(d ) A new remote is not ready yet, and despite its removal from the website, will still happen. I gather the remote will be both Expert and Phantom compatible and incorporate a display

(e ) The Phantoms were bolted down so it was not possible to see the connectivity, and Dialog was invisible, but I gather the connectivity is mains and ethernet and usb and optical for both, and ultimately wifi

(f ) The sound seems fine though impossible to draw any conclusions given the environment, lack of space, shopper interruptions, …

(g ) The potential of the Dialog kit seems amazing. I got the impression that it is a mini-computer and once your music is on there you can disconnect every other bit of hardware

(h ) The storage capacity of the Dialog is probably big enough for all of us

(i ) Dialog will be able to stream from Qobuz and one other (I forget which) initially, but then all the usual suspects

(j ) Yann Wachten, one of the two Devialet representatives, is a hugely knowledgeable guy and from what he told me it just seemed to me that the Expert and/or Phantom lines will do it all, but over time

(k ) The time issue is clearly a big challenge for them and it seems to me that they are full of expert, innovative engineers but understandably far less than full of others in many other specialisms.

(l ) And having had their fingers burned with EVO and AIR (Configurator and White Noise), I think they are understandably defensive about putting timescales on product deliveries and functionality developments

(m ) So I think they have a distinct contradiction in Devialet, where, on the one hand:

- their technical expertise, innovation and product design are amazing

- their one-to-one face-to-face customer communication, commitment and tolerance are first class

but on the other hand:

- their Devialet support team are polite and speedy but appear to get little information from their engineers, so replies from them appear to be defensive

- their website, whilst clearly having marketing as its prime remit, no longer serves as a source of expert knowledge or an area where Devialet can impart information, perhaps on a monthly basis, to its
customer base.

I said to Yann that think this is why there is quite a lot of discontent on some UK forums, though I accepted that forum participants are at the “obsessive” end of the spectrum and some of us will never be satisfied!

(n ) Yann acknowledges that these are issues - but their digital comms team is tiny (I guess I am used to a comms team with more people than the whole of Devialet) and so I guess their talent, speed of response and influence is not what I am used to

(o ) Of particular interest to me, the ‘white noise’ issue, in terms of customers impacted, is very small. They estimate less than 5%, perhaps only 2%, of owners. Windows and Mac. International. They can recreate it. Indeed one of their own staff gets it at home. And during the time of the Phantom/Dialog development, along with SAM, they have understandably devoted limited resources.

(p ) They are absolutely committed to solving it, and AIR will not be retired or not maintained simply because they will have the Dialog alternative. In terms of robustness, Dialog will, however, be better.

If you get the experience I enjoyed today, you come away full of confidence in their innovation, expertise and commitment. Over time that gets damaged by their defensive attitude via email exchanges and their technically hopeless website.

They are trying to address it but it will not happen fast. So forum subscribers just have to be (not quite) infinitely patient.

I'll try to post some pictures. First time for everything!


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - thumb5 - 16-Feb-2015

Ian, thanks very much for your write-up.

At the moment, your comments on Devialet as a company are more telling to me than the details of Phantom and Dialog.  It's good to hear that "they're listening" even if that impression only comes over in face-to-face communication.


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - IanG-UK - 16-Feb-2015

     Pre launch


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - IanG-UK - 16-Feb-2015

[attachment=318][attachment=317]     [attachment=314][attachment=315]today


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - IanG-UK - 16-Feb-2015

[attachment=322][attachment=321][attachment=320][attachment=319]more today


RE: Any feedback on Phanotom from Paris and/or London? - Confused - 16-Feb-2015

Splendid summary Ian, thanks! One point I would make, if you look at the AIR user survey on this very forum, the white noise issue effects 38% of respondents, rather more that the 2 to 5% reported by Devialet. Maybe we are an unlucky bunch here, maybe Devialet are trying to talk down the issue? My view? I suspect Devialet are perhaps understating the issue a touch.