Phantom Gold Confusion & Expert Pro Question

[ogs]

Anyone can give some insight if the expert pro line holds up to traditional high-end electronics?

Sure. The Pro amps are definitely high-end. Neutral, transparent, detailed. Very different from the Phantoms although it is impossible to compare the two directly. I also believe Kiis are more in the class of Pro amps, but Phantoms are about half the price (of Kiis) so very competitive. Careful matching of source etc. will help with Phantoms and 14 days of break in is far from enough, but as long as Devialet does not use the DSP power in Phantoms to further optimise sound quality it is a lost battle... at the moment.
Finding "natural" passive speakers in this class may not be the easiest task. I agree with you that magnestatics, ribbons or line sources is a good direction to look in.