17-Feb-2021, 19:43
Hi,
finally I received my two Phantom I dark chrome 108db this week. I have them on the original treepods, setup as stereo pair and so far I am happy. Sound convinced me and (more important) my wife.
I had Raumfeld (Teufel) Stereo L speakers before the Phantoms and can say that the upgrade is significant. The real quality can be heard, when I listen to Jazz or similar music with individual instruments like guitar, violin, bass etc. One can hear the instruments in a never seen way. So, I think I read all (nearly :-)) articles/reviews on the Phantoms and I watched every (nearly) Youtube video available. My feedback and some questions (maybe people are interested or can answer my questions):
1. Setup: Flawless, no problem at all! Software (new Devialet App) and integration in iPhone via Airplay works without any problem. The new remote works perfect. Hitting the Devialet letters in the remote puts them in offline/off mode. I switch them on with the button on the back. They take a couple of seconds to come online (around 10-15 seconds) and show up immediately on the iPhone. The app is recognizing correctly if only one Phantom is on and shows this in the app. No connectivity issues at all (they are integrated in my WLAN).
2. Sound: Clarity, bass and overall balance is excellent, BUT it depends on the the song. E.g. Diana Krall sounds AWESOME, some other songs sound a little bit compressed (but I cannot say, if its the result of the original recording). The bass is very deep, but not as intense as I thought (maybe because of the hype I was expecting to fall out of my shoes). I owned a Teufel M10000 subwoofer once and maybe I am expecting to much. However the bass is precise and WAY better than with the Teufel boxes. Also amazing: the sound on low volumes is VERY precise and excellent. I tried with a radio station just playing during a normal dinner and there was a BIG difference to my previous setup. We had the Raumfeld and the Phantom setup at the same time and compared songs while switching the destination in Tidal. First my wife was not convinced, because of the clarity/precision of the Phantoms. But soon she recognized the details, precision, and the overall picture the Phantom painted and changed quickly her mind :-)
3. Soundfield/Stage: After the YouTube video from Fidelity Hamburg comparing the Phantom to the Cabasse Pearl I was suspicious, if the Phantoms deliver a nice stage. I can say, despite the fact, that they are positioned very low on the floor (about between 35 and 55 cm obviously), the soundfield/stage is good. I had some songs, where I could identify the person singing positioned near one of the speakers, but I am in this moment listing to Olivia Rodrigo and she is standing just in the middle and (astonishing) not near the floor, but in the middle of the room. However, I want to see if the soundfield/stage changes if I position the Phantoms a little bit higher (Devialet support told me that the Phantoms on the treepods are just fine, but I will try anyway).
4. Source: Despite the fact, that I learned all about sound formats when I was using my previous setup, like what is MQA, up to know I mainly used Airplay for the Phantoms. And it worked! I use TIDAL and was wondering: The Tidal app shows, that the song is played at MASTER quality via airplay. I found that strange. I thought airplay does not support this high resolution ?
I also read on the Devialet website, that you could use an app called MConnectHD. I downloaded that one and played around a little bit. The Phantoms appeared as UPnP device. I could select TIDAL as service and streaming worked from the MConnectHD app. Can someone explain the technology behind this. Does MConnectHD serve a song via UPnP (instead of Airplay) over WiFi to the Phantoms ? and if yes, is this a higher quality than streaming via airplay ? However, I got a ERROR during playback with MConnectHD, since than the Phantoms do not show up as UPnP device anymore. Will check this with Audirvarna and my MacBook later.
5. Open things on my list: I have a Bluesound Node 2i which can access Tidal MQA and output this via optical. I have to connect the Bluesound to the Phantoms and will check, if the sound is better than the original way. I am not sure, how the MQA thing is handled if I connect to the Bluesound. Maybe someone can explain the technical details.
For the moment that's it. Happy to answer questions :-)
Michael
finally I received my two Phantom I dark chrome 108db this week. I have them on the original treepods, setup as stereo pair and so far I am happy. Sound convinced me and (more important) my wife.
I had Raumfeld (Teufel) Stereo L speakers before the Phantoms and can say that the upgrade is significant. The real quality can be heard, when I listen to Jazz or similar music with individual instruments like guitar, violin, bass etc. One can hear the instruments in a never seen way. So, I think I read all (nearly :-)) articles/reviews on the Phantoms and I watched every (nearly) Youtube video available. My feedback and some questions (maybe people are interested or can answer my questions):
1. Setup: Flawless, no problem at all! Software (new Devialet App) and integration in iPhone via Airplay works without any problem. The new remote works perfect. Hitting the Devialet letters in the remote puts them in offline/off mode. I switch them on with the button on the back. They take a couple of seconds to come online (around 10-15 seconds) and show up immediately on the iPhone. The app is recognizing correctly if only one Phantom is on and shows this in the app. No connectivity issues at all (they are integrated in my WLAN).
2. Sound: Clarity, bass and overall balance is excellent, BUT it depends on the the song. E.g. Diana Krall sounds AWESOME, some other songs sound a little bit compressed (but I cannot say, if its the result of the original recording). The bass is very deep, but not as intense as I thought (maybe because of the hype I was expecting to fall out of my shoes). I owned a Teufel M10000 subwoofer once and maybe I am expecting to much. However the bass is precise and WAY better than with the Teufel boxes. Also amazing: the sound on low volumes is VERY precise and excellent. I tried with a radio station just playing during a normal dinner and there was a BIG difference to my previous setup. We had the Raumfeld and the Phantom setup at the same time and compared songs while switching the destination in Tidal. First my wife was not convinced, because of the clarity/precision of the Phantoms. But soon she recognized the details, precision, and the overall picture the Phantom painted and changed quickly her mind :-)
3. Soundfield/Stage: After the YouTube video from Fidelity Hamburg comparing the Phantom to the Cabasse Pearl I was suspicious, if the Phantoms deliver a nice stage. I can say, despite the fact, that they are positioned very low on the floor (about between 35 and 55 cm obviously), the soundfield/stage is good. I had some songs, where I could identify the person singing positioned near one of the speakers, but I am in this moment listing to Olivia Rodrigo and she is standing just in the middle and (astonishing) not near the floor, but in the middle of the room. However, I want to see if the soundfield/stage changes if I position the Phantoms a little bit higher (Devialet support told me that the Phantoms on the treepods are just fine, but I will try anyway).
4. Source: Despite the fact, that I learned all about sound formats when I was using my previous setup, like what is MQA, up to know I mainly used Airplay for the Phantoms. And it worked! I use TIDAL and was wondering: The Tidal app shows, that the song is played at MASTER quality via airplay. I found that strange. I thought airplay does not support this high resolution ?
I also read on the Devialet website, that you could use an app called MConnectHD. I downloaded that one and played around a little bit. The Phantoms appeared as UPnP device. I could select TIDAL as service and streaming worked from the MConnectHD app. Can someone explain the technology behind this. Does MConnectHD serve a song via UPnP (instead of Airplay) over WiFi to the Phantoms ? and if yes, is this a higher quality than streaming via airplay ? However, I got a ERROR during playback with MConnectHD, since than the Phantoms do not show up as UPnP device anymore. Will check this with Audirvarna and my MacBook later.
5. Open things on my list: I have a Bluesound Node 2i which can access Tidal MQA and output this via optical. I have to connect the Bluesound to the Phantoms and will check, if the sound is better than the original way. I am not sure, how the MQA thing is handled if I connect to the Bluesound. Maybe someone can explain the technical details.
For the moment that's it. Happy to answer questions :-)
Michael
