Phantom Premier vs Phantom I

[struts]

Hello @struts appreciate the feedback. I've reached to Devialet to confirm on the chip ... I'll keep the group updated on what they come back with. Would be great to get first hand accounts from others who have had a chance to own or listen to both. 

The conundrum of going with an all-in-one piece like the Phantom vs separates will always exist. With an integrated piece like the Phantom you don't need to worry about matching separates - amp, preamp, DAC/source, speakers, cables, etc.

The flip side is DAC/streaming technologies are evolving every year, while speaker and class A/AB amplification technologies are relatively stable.

Very true. But there is a rationale. DAC (at least in the case of FPGA-based filters) and streaming devices are substantially software-based whereas amplifiers are substantially hardware-based. So the more rapidly evolving aspects of the product can be kept current more easily thru firmware updates. However this relies on regular updates, which in fairness Devialet has a pretty good track record of providing thus far, and will only ever be viable up to the point that the hardware limitations become insurmountable.

Interesting that the first major hardware revision to Phantom appeared to address some hardware elements (the CPU and peripheral elements like the Wi-Fi chipset) but not the DAC/“signal pipe”, (at least as far as we know and as far as ultimate resolution is concerned) or any mechanical elements like the drivers or the enclosure (again, to the best of our knowledge).

I would still appreciate if Devialet would be more transparent and communicative here. I don’t think their current approach of secrecy/opacity serves them well and causes a huge amount of frustration and confusion among a fairly devoted and enthusiastic customer base. For an example of what I mean just take a look at the Phantom product specifications on their website and try to divine which resolutions of digital source material are actually supported.


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