(04-Feb-2016, 22:25)velocity Wrote: [quote pid='33781' dateline='1454477159']
As you can imagine, I'm a bit wary of saying too much outside of my official review, which I (and I'm sure Devialet) would like to stand on its own. Generally, though, my comparisons were to speakers I've had on hand or had a great deal of experience with, as the DefTech and KEF R900 have each served as my long-time reference loudspeaker. And as I mention in my review, I think that for all of the Silver Phantom's talents, it is eclipsed by offerings from Magico and Vivid Audio, at least in terms of outright transparency and resolving ability. From what I've heard of KEF's Blade at numerous shows, I think it's fair to put it in the same echelon as the American and South African brands. I'm sure I could say the same thing about other top brands, such as Rockport, TAD, Focal, to name just a few.
Best,
Hans
I have been doing some side-by-side comparisons with my Kef Reference 4.2 speakers and Byrston power amplifiers. The Kef's were about 6000 USD (4500 GBP) when they were new so of course in today's money would be even more. It is quite interesting observing the differences with the Silver Phantoms, and I will write my thoughts on this separately in due course. But one thing I will say is that I think Devialet's focus on demonstrating the Phantoms almost entirely for their bass response is meaning a lot of audiophiles have already stuck their nose up at this product and as per other threads on other forums, regarding them as a throwback "ghetto blaster" from the 80s. This is a terrible injustice to these spherical wonders but moreso is almost entirely of Devialet's own doing.
