First impressions

[stonedragon]

theaudioguru

I'm using a Meridian Sooloos Core 15 and also Rhapsody. Love it.

I tried using my phone and that was an awful experience.

For now sources are limited to Deezer and Qobuz in addition to local drives.

I managed to fix the windows 7 issue by manually copying a dll ibrary in the Spark folder but I'm not able to play any music so far from a computer...

I forgot to answer your question about volume. Yes is 100. I've only managed 65 without wondering whether the speaker was going to blow up (try the 1812 on these and those sides flap in out in a manic way) or my neighbours complaining.  Depending on the material and time of day, I find anything from 5-40 more than adequate.

Disappointing? Not for me. I don't know what you were coming from, but my rig consisting of B&W 802 Diamonds, power amps etc is not in any material way better than the Phantoms as far as I can tell. Yes the treble is better on the 802's but for the most part I would say they are on par. For this reason and for the sheer simplicity of listening to music, the old kit has to go and I have already sold some on eBay. Hopefully with software updates and the like, things will only get better. But I must admit, I'm no audiophile who can tell the difference when music is playing on one rack from another, but there is something tangibly different listening to music through the Phantoms and I can't put my finger on it. The biggest let down is the buggy software, but I've just bought an ipad mini and the Spark software seems to behave much better on that, than on my Android phone.

Hi Stonedragon, I thought of purchasing the 802 diamonds to use with my Devialet 400 but do I understand correctly  that the phantoms rival them?
I'm thinking when the stands are available and software fixed they may be a real high end contender, what are your thoughts?
Theaudioguru

Hello Theaudioguru,

In a word YES. On a few tracks the Diamonds have the edge on the treble, but in all other ways the Phantoms rival if not better the diamonds in some areas. For a starter the bass. Without a doubt it is deeper and far more controlled. Another thing is the detail of a song is there at all levels. With the Diamonds you really have to turn up the amplifier to make them sing. With the Phantoms even at low level everything is still there, including the bass, but just on a slightly smaller scale. However when you turn things up, they grow and produce a massive sound stage. As I mentioned earlier, I felt nostalgic packing up my kit to send off, but after listening to the Phantoms play 'Suppers Ready' by Genesis I know I have made the right decision. Also the sheer simplicity of things, instead of having a myriad of cables is a real boom. But of course this is all subjective.