Devialet's newest technology...?

[ozthepoz]

I always had an impression that the ghost of Peter Walker was influencing Devialet with the ADH "current dumping" design, but with the Phantom there are a further three parallels:

1. They explicitly mention the "straight wire with gain" philosophy in the white paper.

2. The Phantom tries to follow the Quad ESL ideal of a point source.

3. The Phantom is near-spherical. Peter Walker was keen on spherical speakers as a concept and researched a spherical ESL which was never productionised.

As far as inspiration goes, they could do far worse....

The most significant thing of all for me - along with all other DXXX owners - is that in the Phantom the ADH is now on an ASIC, bringing a step change in cost of production. There now isn't any reason why Devialet couldn't license this (think B&O ICEPower) for a whole slew of much cheaper products from many manufacturers which could rival the DXXX in SQ.

Great for Devialet, but if you've shelled out a lot of hi-end beer vouchers for a D1, then paid again to get it upgraded to a D250, it's going to suck when you can buy the same SQ from Logitech for next to nothing.

I never pays to be an early adopter. You always pay "too much" for something that will be a lot cheaper in the (near) future. If you have a problem with that, simply steer clear of any new tech, wait a decade and then buy. It was bad for D-premier owners who had to pay extra to upgrade, it was a bit better with us who bought a 120/200/400/250/800 and it's even better for Phantom buyers. That simply the way innovation works.
The upside is an early adopter can use this new and amazing tech of the future today. Personally I'm happy to own a Devialet. I've had 2 great upgrades to my system already and that includes a power jump of 30 watts. What other device has that?

Agree with Eddye. Just hope that Phantom takes off so that the company can continue to invest in all its products.