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Difference between Gold & Silver?
#1
On D's webstore I cannot find any listing of the differences between the 'normal' Phantom, the Silver and the Gold besides power and price and colour. Has anybody heard both in comparison and what is the difference in internal technics, if any?

Does anybody of you have more information than an inter-ocular guess?

Is the Gold worth the money?

Thanks
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#2
https://en.devialet.com/phantom/#specifications/

There you have the differences. Whether it's worth it or not, guess it's mostly up to your wallet Wink I've only listened to Silver and Gold (friend got the silvers about a year ago) and I got my Golds 8 month ago and I'm not disappointed.
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#3
(28-Jul-2017, 17:59)Deezel Wrote: https://en.devialet.com/phantom/#specifications/

There you have the differences. Whether it's worth it or not, guess it's mostly up to your wallet Wink I've only listened to Silver and Gold (friend got the silvers about a year ago) and I got my Golds 8 month ago and I'm not disappointed.

Thanks, I missed that site. Seems that the Gold has more up-to-date internals like ADH and SAM.
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#4
(28-Jul-2017, 18:23)Mohmm Wrote: Thanks, I missed that site. Seems that the Gold has more up-to-date internals like ADH and SAM.
Yes, and this makes a lot of the difference. The Golds have the 2nd generation ASIC that has a much better performance. I have both the Silver and Gold Phantoms. The Silver Phantom have quite an attenuation at the hights above 12 kHz. Devialet, I guess made this on purpose to lower the noise level. Still the Silvers have more noise. The Golds are very linear up to 20 kHz and beyond. Some prefer the Silvers for that, as the Golds very neutraly reveal sharp recordings and do not make them sound nice for the ear. On the other hand good and excelllent recordings have a much better definition, extraordenous precision and to the cm defined and stable sound stage. The main difference between the Silver and Golds however is in the range of low mids to the hights. In this frequency range the Golds are flat linear and the Silver have some colouring. My personal feeling is that Devialet made a significant improvement there on the electronics/DSP side that could be improved on the Silvers through software update, but has not been done due to reasons of keeping distinct differences in line or are also due to the better ASIC. Then in the very low end the Golds are much more performant due to the stronger amps. All in all, so far all my guests could blindly recognize in a AB test which ones were the Golds and found them clearly better. Nevertheless, the Silvers are great speakers with great cost/benefit ratio and for some they are even the better choice as they are more foregiving when the audio material is not excellent. But be aware, you need a good room and proper setup, not all rooms handle strong and very low frequencies well. Also, when you are not used to bass with little distortion you might be disappointed. With lower quality speakers one rather hears the 2nd and 3rd order distortion than the base tone, not so with the Phantoms.
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#5
(28-Jul-2017, 19:26)streamy Wrote:
(28-Jul-2017, 18:23)Mohmm Wrote: Thanks, I missed that site. Seems that the Gold has more up-to-date internals like ADH and SAM.
Yes, and this makes a lot of the difference. The Golds have the 2nd generation ASIC that has a much better performance. I have both the Silver and Gold Phantoms. The Silver Phantom have quite an attenuation at the hights above 12 kHz. Devialet, I guess made this on purpose to lower the noise level. Still the Silvers have more noise. The Golds are very linear up to 20 kHz and beyond. Some prefer the Silvers for that, as the Golds very neutraly reveal sharp recordings and do not make them sound nice for the ear. On the other hand good and excelllent recordings have a much better definition, extraordenous precision and to the cm defined and stable sound stage. The main difference between the Silver and Golds however is in the range of low mids to the hights. In this frequency range the Golds are flat linear and the Silver have some colouring. My personal feeling is that Devialet made a significant improvement there on the electronics/DSP side that could be improved on the Silvers through software update, but has not been done due to reasons of keeping distinct differences in line or are also due to the better ASIC. Then in the very low end the Golds are much more performant due to the stronger amps. All in all, so far all my guests could blindly recognize in a AB test which ones were the Golds and found them clearly better. Nevertheless, the Silvers are great speakers with great cost/benefit ratio and for some they are even the better choice as they are more foregiving when the audio material is not excellent. But be aware, you need a good room and proper setup, not all rooms handle strong and very low frequencies well. Also, when you are not used to bass with little distortion you might be disappointed. With lower quality speakers one rather hears the 2nd and 3rd order distortion than the base tone, not so with the Phantoms.

That's very helpful, thank you.

I am used to low distortion electronics and proper room setup with my D-1000 in one appartment. So I am looking forward to listening to the Phantoms, whichever I will decide on, in the other place.
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#6
I too had a pair of Silver and then Gold. Side by side testing, no question that the Golds at hands down preferred by the three people who did serious audition. The difference was very significant for me so much so that I consider the Silver a good value but the Gold a great value though it cost more. The improvement of the Gold of Silver for me, is dramatic.
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#7
Given that Devialet marketed the white and silver as being perfect, with zero distortion, etc, I can only now view them as a bunch of chancers and charlatans.
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#8
(29-Jul-2017, 06:25)Gremlin Wrote: Given that Devialet marketed the white and silver as being perfect, with zero distortion, etc, I can only now view them as a bunch of chancers and charlatans.

Well the 'zero' figure they gave out was true, technically. As the distortion is lower than the threshold of what would be considered distortion. 

The distortion of Phantom White and Silver is 0.001%. While the distortion on the Phantom Gold is 0.0005%. All of them are below the 1% threshold which makes them technically zero distortion. I've never personally detected any audible distortion, but this scale of measurement is so tiny that I wouldn't expect to.

With the Gold Phantom they have reduced it even more from 0.001 to 0.0005. Which is quite considerable. Even if previous to this you couldn't hear distortion this does make a difference, and all three Phantom's still have 0% distortion in those factors. So to say zero distortion isn't wrong but if you get technical you can say they have 0.0005% distortion.

I'm not disagreeing with you, just trying to explain how they make this claim while being truthful.
Devialet Phantom (White)
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#9
In my opinion, the most significant improvement with the Gold compared to the two others comes from the much improved tweeter.

Jean-Marie
MacBook Air M2 -> RAAT/Air -> WiFi -> PLC -> Ethernet -> Devialet 220pro with Core Infinity (upgraded from 120) -> AperturA Armonia
France
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#10
(29-Jul-2017, 06:25)Gremlin Wrote: Given that Devialet marketed the white and silver as being perfect, with zero distortion, etc, I can only now view them as a bunch of chancers and charlatans.

Well, I think by now we all now Devialet aren't shy in the marketing BS department.

I think the reality is the 0.000000000x % distortion isn't the most significant figure - despite how Devialet played it in the marketing. The Expert and Expert Pro have by and large identical distortion figures, yet IMO the Pro is significantly better - i.e. other factors are just as (or more) important.

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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