First impressions

[stonedragon]

Its amazing because you might think everything would be a muddle since the drivers are not spaced out as in a conventional speaker, but it works. How it does it, I'm not sure

In fact the reason it does it is because of the speaker layout and shape.
Spaced drive units on the front of a rectangular box is a poor way to make a speaker, but using traditional manufacturing methods is by far the cheapest and easiest to make.
The Phantom spherical front prevents the diffraction errors inherent in all box speakers, and the co-axial mid/treble driver with the bass units on the side is much nearer to a point source than box speakers so will have much more accurate imaging capabilities.
Using conventional techniques it is monumentally expensive to make a speaker the ideal shape whereas Devialet have achieved it at a modest price with The Phantom.
B&W with their most expensive speakers address the problem as best they can without coaxial drivers by putting both the mid driver and tweeter in near spherical separate enclosures, but it is not as ideal as the Phantom.

Cabasse have a statement product, which I would guess was the inspiration for the Phantom but I could be wrong:-

http://www2.cabasse.com/cabfx2012/la-sphre-2?lang=en

it is £75,000 per pair...

Thanks for the explanation. You are right about the Phantoms, they are erringly similar to the Cabasse. Well as they say imitation is the best kind of flattery.