Has anyone heard the phantom yet?

[GuillaumeB]

If you have heard the phantom please share your impressions here!

Guillaume

[Charlemagne]

'wwm' gives a short impression elswhere on the forum when he was in Paris for picking up his gear:

Collected my C60's yesterday, Thursday, from the Paris showroom and what an interesting 10 minutes we had. The place was full of suits listening to the new Phantom and very impressive it sounded too. What I heard was a pair playing in stereo and the overall sound was very impressive, the bottom end was outstanding especially when you see the size of each unit coupled with excellent detail, John Lewis customers will love it!
Been listening to my SAMed speakers today and indeed what I have spent on two journeys to Paris has with out a doubt been worth it. Well done Devialet. I trust anyone who is running Act and Act1 will benefit if they have Tactic drivers. Any contributions gratefully recieved.
Cheers and a wink,
Bill.

See: http://devialetchat.com/Thread-What-are-...ion?page=2 post #13

[moreno1973]

I found this text on facebook

,, I actually went to listen to Phantom and it's not a match to a real stereo system ... for instance the starter bundle Devialet 120 with Atohm GT1 totally kills it, much more subtle and articulated reproduction, better transients. The Phantom is a premium consumer-oriented product, not truly audiophile IMO ... you can't defy the laws of physics indefinitely ; )"

[Antoine]

I can't say I'm really surprised reading that Facebook finding.

[darthsteph]

Hi !

I spent about two/three hours at La Maison Devialet today, hearing the Ensemble and just after, the Phantom set up (stereo configuration). And have an interesting discussion with the Team.

So, I told us that there was a kind of frustration among us, early adopters, about this new product and his positioning in the Devialet range, with a communication difficult to understand as we could think that Devialet could be able to develop a better product than the Expert range…

First, about the marketing strategy : the Team is used to reading our forum and don’t understand our misunderstanding about the Phantom communication. For them, it’s really clear that Phantom products are dedicated to a new target of customers. That the reason why they used some new street oriented communication codes (tattooed men, naked queen and so on…) The targeted customers are people who don’t know that such a SQ exists… It really is a lifestyle product and the competition = Sonos, Bose Lifestyle… But, believe me, these products are really, really under the performance of the Phantoms… Night and day !!! And that is what is really new with this product : something easy to use, with an incredible sound quality for this price, never heard before. Therefore, the traffic of La Maison is now ten times better than before.
Some people even come to hear the Phantom at 1700 Euros and leave with a classic Ensemble set up at 7000 Euros…

I know that the different Devialet ads bother some of us. But it’s something they assume as they wanted to upset some given ideas… and make the buzz… And if you have a look at the number of reviews and articles on internet, they perhaps are right… Even if it’s not common in the audiophile community… but is Devialet a common brand ? ;-)

Second, about the marketing positioning : there are now two ranges in the Devialet world : the Expert, which is and remains the leading range of Devialet, and the Phantom, which is the Lifestyle product. For the Team, it’s clear and an obvious that the Expert line is BETTER than the Phantom line. The famous miniaturized ADH chip only contains a part of the ADH technology of the Expert line.

Third, about the Expert line : they really want to make this range improve and will have new firmware upgrades in next months… But for now, the launch of Phantom (done in 2/3 months instead of one year for such a product launch !!!) takes all their time, and we can easily understand it. But they remain acitve on the Expert line : for example, the SAM process takes off again, and I saw the Rogers ls3/5a which is the next one !
We are going to benefit from some of the Phantom product development as the Dialog and a new remote control with a screen… For example, the Dialog price will benefit from the whole Phantom range price positioning… It should cost 3 to 4 times more, but the Phantom biggest sales volumes allow to sell it cheaper : 299 Euros. About Spark : I was not able to see it as the Team is improving it… And promise it’s the best app for audiophiles !

Fourth, the Phantom listening session : yes, it really sounds like a really big speaker. Do you remember Quentin Sannié’s words ? They were looking to « recreate the sophistication of £50,000 system in the £1,5k Phantom ». In fact, as they explained me, they wanted to have the same bandwith as a Magico Q3, and especially in the bass extension. And the result is quite amazing ! I think it’s the best all-in-one nomad sound system. But I don’t think it really competes with an Expert amp + good speakers… and prefer the 120 + GT1 or B&W CM’s singing in the other room… More natural tones…

An interesting information : we are 7500 Expert amp owners !

I really want to thanks the « La Maison » Team for their welcome !!!

[Music or sound]

Thanks for that report. Good to know that they have not given up on the Ds. I guess they are presently overwhelmed with the Phantom launch and reacting to their own marketing.

[Confused]

Yes, great post and very interesting information. But equally annoying that I get much better information from the odd post on this forum when compared to Devialet's own communications and website.

[Rufus McDufus]

Good post darthsteph! Just to check - does that mean they've sold 7500 Experts?

[Jwg1749]

Yes, good post darthsteph: that sheds a lot of light on the company's policy and it makes a great deal of sense.

I'm not surprised to hear that the Phantom ADH isn't full-fat ADH: I just don't see how they could have miniaturised the 1W class A amp and DAC to that degree. And it's a relief to know that the Expert ADH isn't now some lumbering great dinosaur.

Good also to hear that there's a roadmap for further development of the Expert range. Ultimately the whole Devialet family of products should be able to talk to one another, so that my wife and I can listen to the same music at the same time in different rooms, me through a Phantom in the kitchen while I cook supper, and her through the 200 as she relaxes with a glass of champagne in the living room. (Some stereotypes are worth preserving.)

My concern is that the integration is half-baked at the moment. Spark isn't ready yet, and the first Dialogs will start shipping in around 10 days. Yikes.

Matt

[amabrok]

My concern is that the integration is half-baked at the moment. Spark isn't ready yet, and the first Dialogs will start shipping in around 10 days. Yikes.

Matt

My guess is they will have Spark ready in time for the first Dialog shipment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk