12-Jan-2018, 22:36
David Denby on his recent tour of high-end hifi showrooms...
"In my wanderings, I encountered some products by the French company Devialet, which has caused a mini-sensation recently, with its extraordinarily chic-looking amplifiers—flat, square boxes, no more than an inch high, with a top of gleaming brushed steel. You control the equipment with a square remote that has a large volume knob and four little buttons. I have not heard the amplifiers, but the equipment has been praised by reliable people for the purity of its sound. What I did hear, in a small, glass-enclosed showroom in the middle of the Time-Warner Center, were Devialet’s Gold Phantom powered speakers ($2,990), which look like a futuristic white football helmet extended at the rear. The Phantoms could be called upscale versions of the popular Sonos powered speakers. You plug them in, and run them wirelessly from your cell phone or iPad, drawing on streaming services. Frank Sinatra’s voice in “Come Fly with Me” sounded O.K., but the plucked bass notes in the accompaniment spread all over the room, leading me to believe that the Phantoms could not be a high-end speaker. The Devialet amplifiers are serious, but the Phantoms are a “life style” product, which, in the snobbish lexicon of high end, cannot be construed as a compliment."
New Yorker article
"In my wanderings, I encountered some products by the French company Devialet, which has caused a mini-sensation recently, with its extraordinarily chic-looking amplifiers—flat, square boxes, no more than an inch high, with a top of gleaming brushed steel. You control the equipment with a square remote that has a large volume knob and four little buttons. I have not heard the amplifiers, but the equipment has been praised by reliable people for the purity of its sound. What I did hear, in a small, glass-enclosed showroom in the middle of the Time-Warner Center, were Devialet’s Gold Phantom powered speakers ($2,990), which look like a futuristic white football helmet extended at the rear. The Phantoms could be called upscale versions of the popular Sonos powered speakers. You plug them in, and run them wirelessly from your cell phone or iPad, drawing on streaming services. Frank Sinatra’s voice in “Come Fly with Me” sounded O.K., but the plucked bass notes in the accompaniment spread all over the room, leading me to believe that the Phantoms could not be a high-end speaker. The Devialet amplifiers are serious, but the Phantoms are a “life style” product, which, in the snobbish lexicon of high end, cannot be construed as a compliment."
New Yorker article
220 PRO CI (12.2.6) - B&W 683 S2 - Audioquest Niagara 1000 - Chromecast + iFi SPDIF
Technics 1210 (AudioMods arm, AT-150MLX, Mike New bearing + platter, crystal mat, Isonoe feet, external DC PSU) Stockholm, Sweden
