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Phantom Gold brightness
#1
Hi all,

I would like to hear your experience with the Phantom Gold regarding the brightness. I have the feeling that they (2.0) sound a bit bright. With certain songs I feel some fatique in my ears. 

I'am coming from the Kef Ls50 wireless, and with the kefs I didn't have this "issue"

They are only a few days old, so might be because of that..
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#2
Hi Cyral,

I have been listening to the golds for about 5 months now. I have experienced instances when the speakers sound at times overly bombastic and at other times too shrill, if not down right harsh for my ears. I attribute this more to the recording of the piece or my setup versus the speakers themselves because despite the noted extremes, as a rule the speakers sound excellent and on certain pieces of music they sound outright magical; they disappear and present a realistic and visceral experience not replicated in any setup I owned previously. That said, it would bug me if my favorite tunes sounded disppointing on the system which has as its primary, if not sole purpose, to make my favorite music sound better. In the end, it is not about the system, but the music, or perhaps better said, one's perception of the music. JD
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#3
One thing that few understand and notice is time coherence. The LS50W you had are properly time aligned while the Phantoms are not. The active LS50 uses DSP cross over and time/phase correction. Phantoms use DSP for cross over duties too, but Devialet has unfortunately not used DSP power to time correct the speakers.
On very good speakers (Phantom Golds ARE good) one can hear when sound from the treble unit arrives before midrange and bass, like it does in most modern speakers. It can help to 'turn down' treble energy, but the problem remains.

The only way to fix this is via room correction (Acourate, Audiolense, rePhase etc.) DEQX and I guess Trinnov will also time align a speaker. I can assure you that with every other parameter unchanged, moving the treble output to align in time with the midrange output would cure most of the brightness you are describing.
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#4
Thank both of you for your extensive replies.

They indeed sound magical on some recordings, even better than the Kefs I had. But other recordings where the kefs sounded okay/good the Phantoms sound somewhat bright/harsh.

It seems they're just brutal to lesser recorded music. Also, just watched a movie with plenty of music  and there the Phantoms never sounded bright.

I must say that I often used to trim the treble with the Kefs (-1.5/-2db). So I might  also be very sensitive to detailed/bright sound. However, some reviews also state they're on the bright side of neutral and where most speakers have a roll off at the higher frequencies, the phantoms stay flat.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/re...view-r654/

So having eq on them, would make more music enjoyable for me, but fortunately there's still plenty of music where they sound great.
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#5
I'm in no way as knowledgeable as everyone else here but one thing I did find with my Whites (and maybe it's different with the Golds) is that over time, say maybe after 100 hours of use they REALLY started to shine, they opened up a bit more and overall sounded much less harsh and sharp to the ears. I remember when I first got them I was having the same issue, some tracks got to my ears a little too much but these days I never have that issue. It sounds much more open and balanced across all the range and no matter the volume I can listen comfortably..

Might be just me, but personally I noticed that. Maybe see how they go after a fair bit of use! Smile
Devialet Phantom (White)
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#6
Me too I'm not knowledgeable enough to add consistent advice, but having first used Silvers during one year and now Golds for 6 months, I can tell that time makes them sound gooder in both cases without allowing sound quality difference of the source to be dramatically heard, for better or worse.
Devices :
2 Gold Phantoms (previously 2 Silver) + Dialog - Denon DCD-SD/300 -
Project Essential II Digital equipped with Ortofon 2M Blue,
Accessories :
Tree, Cocoon, Remote

Lyon - France
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#7
Very good points kmjy and Jean-Claude.
When I tested  White I borrowed a demo pair from my dealer. These where definitely broken in so I have not heard new-from-box Phantoms. I did not find them bright at all. Looking at the attached measurement (from Audiolense) the general shape of the frequency response at the listening position is actually text book nice! The irregularities between 40Hz and 900Hz is room related. The nasty peak at 47Hz is the main room mode standing wave. Note that this is the raw frequency response without any correction. And in-room response to 10Hz is not bad!

   
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#8
(03-Jul-2017, 09:08)ogs Wrote: Very good points kmjy and Jean-Claude.
When I tested  White I borrowed a demo pair from my dealer. These where definitely broken in so I have not heard new-from-box Phantoms. I did not find them bright at all. Looking at the attached measurement (from Audiolense) the general shape of the frequency response at the listening position is actually text book nice! The irregularities between 40Hz and 900Hz is room related. The nasty peak at 47Hz is the main room mode standing wave. Note that this is the raw frequency response without any correction. And in-room response to 10Hz is not bad!

That's extremely informative. When I first got my Whites I also took a demo pair from my dealer while I waited for new ones to arrive. The difference was noticeable, and then at a certain point of use it's gone.
Devialet Phantom (White)
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#9
I happen to have a pair of KEF Wireless now and the first thing I thought when I heard them was how forgiving they are to less than stellar recordings. They are just so much fun to listen to. In the store I bought them from I also heard 1 Phantom gold. Even though it was on its own, it was quite clear it's not a forgiving speaker.
                                                    Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,                                     
                                                                                                                                                                            Dynaudio C1 MkII.
                                                                                                                                                                              Jim Smith's GBS.
                                                                                                                                                                        Northern NSW Australia.
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#10
This is the only frequency response I found on the internet (Gold Phantom), and it is different than the white's response as you can see.


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