19-Jul-2015, 14:07
I think I may me starting to get this Phantom versus the rest debate. A couple of years back I did spend some time listening to the fully active ATC 100 towers, with the more expensive ATC pre-amp. Should this be compared to a pair of Phantoms? Not really, the pre-amp alone is about the price of two silvers and a Dialog. The thing is though, I didn't like the ATC's that much. Which is strange considering that they were excellent in almost every respect. The problem for me was with the bass, the bass too was excellent in almost every respect, bass accuracy was good, they could reach down to very low frequencies. The problem was there simply wasn't much of it, so you ended up thinking they might need a subwoofer or two. Depending on your personal taste, both in sound reproduction equipment or indeed music, this may or may not be an issue. However, if you are after a bit of bass power, drums having the power and impact of real drums, the ATC's don't quite pull it off, everything is there and beautifully reproduced, but the impact and power of the bass was missing. Perhaps not what you might expect from something with 12" bass drivers. Other aspects of the ATC's were truly superb, midrange detail and similar is top class. I feel much the same about the B&W 800 Diamonds, which I was once lucky enough to hear partnered with a very expensive Naim front end, again an excellent tool if you wish to analyse every detail of the music, all aspects of the bass was there, but not the level of punch or shear bass volume some might want.
I need to be a little carful now and will not claim these are definitive conclusions, I have only had a short time listening to the Phantoms, and my time with both the ATC's and the B&W's was about two years ago. But here is a conclusion anyway, the Phantoms do loose a little in the mid-range versus much more expensive kit like the ATC's or B&W's (both reckoned to be excellent in this area), but depending on what you are looking for, and how much emphasis you put on realistically and powerfully produced bass, many might choose the Phantoms over more expensive systems. Others with different priorities may not.
At the end of the day, it's like anything else, it might be useful to read reviews or the views of others on the internet, this might provide a few pointers here and there but to know for sure, have a listen for yourself.
I need to be a little carful now and will not claim these are definitive conclusions, I have only had a short time listening to the Phantoms, and my time with both the ATC's and the B&W's was about two years ago. But here is a conclusion anyway, the Phantoms do loose a little in the mid-range versus much more expensive kit like the ATC's or B&W's (both reckoned to be excellent in this area), but depending on what you are looking for, and how much emphasis you put on realistically and powerfully produced bass, many might choose the Phantoms over more expensive systems. Others with different priorities may not.
At the end of the day, it's like anything else, it might be useful to read reviews or the views of others on the internet, this might provide a few pointers here and there but to know for sure, have a listen for yourself.
