Review on techcrunch.com + info about Devialet sales

[PhilP]

Phantom review on techcrunch.com

Interesting facts in the article about Devialet sales figures: 3,500 units sold in 2014 (the existing amps not Phantom), revenues of $15m.

To be honest those figures are lower than I had expected (given earlier comments about sales of 10,000 units) but they're still impressive. The revenue figures suggest that Devialet are about 2/3rds the size of Naim or Linn who've been in business for an awful lot longer

[amabrok]

Phantom review on techcrunch.com

Interesting facts in the article about Devialet sales figures: 3,500 units sold in 2014 (the existing amps not Phantom), revenues of $15m.

To be honest those figures are lower than I had expected (given earlier comments about sales of 10,000 units) but they're still impressive. It means that Devialet are about 2/3rds the size of Naim or Linn who've been in business for an awful lot longer

yeah i believe the 3500 figure is way below what i expected. with all the rave i was also under the impression that it is hovering around the 10,000 mark if not higher!

[IanG-UK]

I was told by a very reliable source that towards the end of the year the "run rate" was approaching 200 per week (hence 10,000 per annum). That 3,500 might be a "year ending July 2014" or whatever.

Their growth record year to year and even within years has been astounding.

Another very good source told me that, in respect of high end hifi, the Devialet sales rate in the UK was the best ever and five times the previous best which had been some sort of Krell.

I bought my original D-Premiers in March and December 2011 and the serial numbers differed by 16(!) so, even if those numbers are specific to the UK market, maybe in their first year they were selling only 20 or 30 in the UK, and perhaps 100 worldwide at that time.

[Confused]

The revenue equates to about $4300 per unit, which appears a little low, even allowing for D-Premier upgrades? And that's assuming upgrades count as units.

As for the "review". The reviewer mentions " I have not heard the Phantom with my own two ears", oh well.......

[Pim]

"The Phantom is a petite, spherical, all-in-one amplifier and speaker that delivers what audiophiles think may be the best sound in the world for around $2,000."

Who are those audiophiles? I think Devialet's marketing is going a bit (read: waaaayyyy!!!) over the top.

I've had a bit of a read on the Linn and Naim fora and some people seem to think Devialet is nothing more than a B&O wannabe. And by the way they are doing their advertising that's exactly what they are trying to accomplish. Nobody in his right mind who is serious about sound quality from an audiophile point of view would cream this sort of stuff. It's just not accepted by the audiophile community.

I hope this is not the start of Devialet going main stream and forgetting about sound quality.

[PhilP]

The revenue equates to about $4300 per unit, which appears a little low, even allowing for D-Premier upgrades? And that's assuming upgrades count as units.

As for the "review". The reviewer mentions " I have not heard the Phantom with my own two ears", oh well.......

$4300 per unit might not be so far off taking into account distributor's and dealer's margins and sales tax. In the UK the prices were 15%+ higher than europe for a long time and I suspect that a lot of this was down to the distributor's margin. Then there's the dealer's margin and 20% VAT. A box retailing for $10k might only net $5k for Devialet...

The "review" - yes, well, that's the internet for you

[Pim]

Let's go on about this a bit more;
Where in their advertising do they talk about the reasons we here bought our Devialet's? Clean and clear open sound stage. Staggeringly low noise floor. Beautiful timbres. Tonal accuracy.
All you read is 'the best'. It's just too much of nothing. They sound remarkably like politicians; all slogans, no content.

[PhilP]

I was told by a very reliable source that towards the end of the year the "run rate" was approaching 200 per week (hence 10,000 per annum). That 3,500 might be a "year ending July 2014" or whatever.

I hope the sales volumes are at the levels you suggest. If they're generating very significant revenues and, more importantly, profits from the existing amps then Devialet are probably less likely to neglect their long-term customers and focus instead on Les Phantomistes Nouveaux...

[IanG-UK]

The revenue equates to about $4300 per unit, which appears a little low, even allowing for D-Premier upgrades? And that's assuming upgrades count as units.

As for the "review". The reviewer mentions " I have not heard the Phantom with my own two ears", oh well.......

Well the UK prices are £4k, £6k and £11k with VAT, so £3.25k, £5k and £9k ex VAT. Most sales will be a mix of 120s and 200s with a few 250s - so that is probably an average of £4.5k to £5k.

And they are an average ex-factory at $4.3k or £2.6k or so. That will be about right allowing for two markups, distributor and dealer.

In fact I hear that the Devialet mark ups are tighter than the normal high end stuff: those mark ups, if they involve both distributor and retailer, probably equate to a more than doubling of price, ex-VAT.

---

I was told by a very reliable source that towards the end of the year the "run rate" was approaching 200 per week (hence 10,000 per annum). That 3,500 might be a "year ending July 2014" or whatever.

I hope the sales volumes are at the levels you suggest. If they're generating very significant revenues and, more importantly, profits from the existing amps then Devialet are probably less likely to neglect their long-term customers and focus instead on Les Phantomistes Nouveaux...

i was discussing this with Guillaume. Turnover of $15m or £9m will include manufacturing costs which, if the 250 "profit free" upgrade cost is anything to go by, will be around £3m.

At upper quartile French salaries, which Devialet may be paying for top people, direct employment costs even for just for 60 IT/software engineers will be £2.5m; plus other people costs including the sales guys, employment taxes, property, systems and marketing costs and the £6m "gross added value" soon disappears.

This may explain the haste to launch Phantom and Dialog at the (hopefully temporary) expense of existing customer support.

[Music or sound]

I was under the impression that 10000 units is the total number of Ds sold starting with the first D-Premiers?