Phantom white vs silver + general impressions

[absolutk]

750 watts into a normal speaker is indeed a lot!  I used to have a 1kw amplifier (for professional use, not hifi) and this thing had two fans at the front and two at the back for air cooling.  However, I am a little unsure what the "watt" ratings actually mean.  Is a silver Phantom really 3.75 times more powerful than a D800?  It would be interesting to know the "real" specification of the Phantom amps, but I guess the HBI bass system make such comparisons a little meaningless outside of use in the actual Phantom?  Although I think it is a fair assumption that the Silver Phantom amps are nowhere near 3000w RMS into 8 ohms!

These are "Peak" power output numbers. I don't know if you remember, but back in the 90s, Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer, Aiwa and all got into a "power war" and started one-upping each other on the PMPO numbers (Peak Music Power Output). The numbers got outrageous: 400w PMPO... 750w PMPO... 1000w(!) PMPO... 2000w(!!!) PMPO... 4000w PMPO! I swear, I remember someone selling a 10,000w PMPO stereo system.

These were (2x tape deck, CD changer, radio, aux, 2 speakers) and were everywhere you now see sound bars in. When the numbers stopped making sense, there was enough of a crowd to ask "wtf?!". That's when education around power numbers came about and the idea of RMS (Root Mean Square) got popularized in consumer markets: the power output as we know it today. PMPO touters went red in the face and you could very clearly see the progression of these bright yellow stickers: PMPO in 30pt font, PMPO in 40pt font, PMPO in 50pt font+RMS in 8pt font, PMPO in 30 pt font+RMS in 15pt font, and so on and so forth till PMPO was just phased out. It left a sour taste in consumers' minds as a cheap and despicable move on part of the manufacturers. I'm honestly shocked that Devialet has chosen to bring back this value, since it was pushed into oblivion!

tl;dr: No, a Silver Phantom is not 3.75 times as powerful as a D800