17-Jul-2015, 07:55
Based on my visit to the Oxford Audio Phantom event this week, I have some observations that might be of interest to anyone debating whether or not to spend the extra few pounds (Euros / dollars or whatever) on the Silver. Previous posts here suggest that the white and silvers sound much the same, and with respect to ultimate sound pressure levels the whites are all you need. I guess there is some logic here and for many people this will more or less hold true.
However, there was one occasion during the day when we managed to hit the limits of a Phantom. I have to emphasise that this happened once, on one track, and during the rest of a very long day, all the Phantoms I listened to, at reasonably high, with some demanding music, massive bass sometimes, all sounded like they were cruising.
In OAC's smaller demo room (considered by some to be the better sounding room) we listened to some white Phantoms. To me, these sounded better than the silvers did in the larger (maybe not quite a good sounding) room. We then switched to the silvers, which in this room sounded excellent, OAC's Alasdair played his some of his much loved Nils Lofgren, and yes, with this material the little Phantoms really were starting their trick of sounding like a 10 or 20K system, very impressive indeed. Later we played Rudimental's "Spoons". Now for those who don't know, this track has a three level bass section, with successive bass tones dropping to a very speaker demanding section which is at the border of being felt rather than heard. For the first two tones, the Phanoms were perfect the upper and lower bass being very balanced, not really sounding any different to my own KEF Blades. (in fact you have to get speaker and seating positioning just right with the Blades to sound as even as the Phantoms did!) However, with the very lowest sub bass section, for the first and only time of the day the Phantoms did struggle slightly, and for a few fractions of a second after the bass section, you could hear the volume of the Phantom drop slightly. Now this is a very extreme electronic track, but I'm guessing the current involved in trying to produce the almost sub bass section is huge, hence the Phantom was protecting itself with a little thermal management, hence dropping the volume back momentarily. Also, in fairness, it was a warm day and very (very!) hot in the demo room. To be clear, this is not a criticism of the Phantoms, I have listened to this slightly notorious track on a number of systems, in some cases the sub bass section is simply not produced, it is not there, on my old JBL's with 400w 12" bass drivers and other some other speakers I have heard, this bass section turns to a messy mush. The Phantoms had a fair crack at it and held their own! The point being, that yes, it is just possible to hit the limits of a Phantom. So depending on how you plan to use them, what type of music you like and so on, it might just be worth the extra few pennies to get the silvers.
In terms of the debate of how powerful is a 3000w Phantom? The answer is very powerful! NickB and myself were quizzing the Devialet's Mathieu Pernod on this subject. It is fair to say that he didn't look like he really wanted to answer, he preferred to talk about it being fully active, SAM etc, and dodged the question. I think NickB and myself drifted into a good cop / bad cop routine (curiously, I ended up as bad cop), and we did get some info in the end. The point is that the Phantom amps are designed specifically for the Phantom. Due mainly to the HBI bass system, the Phantom is more or less a 1 ohm load, so the Phantom amps are all about current delivery. That said, depending on how you look at this figures, the Phantom Silver amp is indeed more powerful than an Expert range amp! The figures don't really compare with that for something designed for normal speaker loads, but if you really want a number, maybe 400w RMS. (Gosh!) It's no wonder that that they sound like a mini night club.
One other teeny tiny nugget of information we got, SAM is there for the bass and midrange, but not for the tweeter, it simply doesn't need it, so it would seem.
However, there was one occasion during the day when we managed to hit the limits of a Phantom. I have to emphasise that this happened once, on one track, and during the rest of a very long day, all the Phantoms I listened to, at reasonably high, with some demanding music, massive bass sometimes, all sounded like they were cruising.
In OAC's smaller demo room (considered by some to be the better sounding room) we listened to some white Phantoms. To me, these sounded better than the silvers did in the larger (maybe not quite a good sounding) room. We then switched to the silvers, which in this room sounded excellent, OAC's Alasdair played his some of his much loved Nils Lofgren, and yes, with this material the little Phantoms really were starting their trick of sounding like a 10 or 20K system, very impressive indeed. Later we played Rudimental's "Spoons". Now for those who don't know, this track has a three level bass section, with successive bass tones dropping to a very speaker demanding section which is at the border of being felt rather than heard. For the first two tones, the Phanoms were perfect the upper and lower bass being very balanced, not really sounding any different to my own KEF Blades. (in fact you have to get speaker and seating positioning just right with the Blades to sound as even as the Phantoms did!) However, with the very lowest sub bass section, for the first and only time of the day the Phantoms did struggle slightly, and for a few fractions of a second after the bass section, you could hear the volume of the Phantom drop slightly. Now this is a very extreme electronic track, but I'm guessing the current involved in trying to produce the almost sub bass section is huge, hence the Phantom was protecting itself with a little thermal management, hence dropping the volume back momentarily. Also, in fairness, it was a warm day and very (very!) hot in the demo room. To be clear, this is not a criticism of the Phantoms, I have listened to this slightly notorious track on a number of systems, in some cases the sub bass section is simply not produced, it is not there, on my old JBL's with 400w 12" bass drivers and other some other speakers I have heard, this bass section turns to a messy mush. The Phantoms had a fair crack at it and held their own! The point being, that yes, it is just possible to hit the limits of a Phantom. So depending on how you plan to use them, what type of music you like and so on, it might just be worth the extra few pennies to get the silvers.
In terms of the debate of how powerful is a 3000w Phantom? The answer is very powerful! NickB and myself were quizzing the Devialet's Mathieu Pernod on this subject. It is fair to say that he didn't look like he really wanted to answer, he preferred to talk about it being fully active, SAM etc, and dodged the question. I think NickB and myself drifted into a good cop / bad cop routine (curiously, I ended up as bad cop), and we did get some info in the end. The point is that the Phantom amps are designed specifically for the Phantom. Due mainly to the HBI bass system, the Phantom is more or less a 1 ohm load, so the Phantom amps are all about current delivery. That said, depending on how you look at this figures, the Phantom Silver amp is indeed more powerful than an Expert range amp! The figures don't really compare with that for something designed for normal speaker loads, but if you really want a number, maybe 400w RMS. (Gosh!) It's no wonder that that they sound like a mini night club.
One other teeny tiny nugget of information we got, SAM is there for the bass and midrange, but not for the tweeter, it simply doesn't need it, so it would seem.
