Devialet Phantom (part II)
- Thread starter merlin
- Start date
Cos really they're just a sound bar on steroids, a souped up hyped up Bluetooth speaker, and if you judge one as such it's probably very good, if you want that kind of thing. Maybe.
adamdea
You are not a sound quality evaluation device
Ah I see what you mean. They only bothered reviewing a single speaker. Bit weird. Perhaps that explains the absence of "that layer of musicality at which traditional hi-fi, even at far lesser cost, excels in ways the Phantom can’t"
I assume the Naim muso is stereo(?)
Yep, but it's a 628mm wide sound bar so I'd guess the tweeters are about 400mm apart, so there's not exactly a wide image. I heard a muso at the same show I heard the Phantoms and I'd far rather have the naim. A nice plummy good car-hifi kind of sound.
Space is the Place
pfm Member
I had a listen to one in John Lewis showroom, the sales person was very enthusiastic about it, really nice young fella, when he asked me what i thought, i said it sounded awful!
Thanks Rodney for your input, they certainly seem to polarize views on SQ!
I went to an Oxford Audio Consultants SAM day a couple of weeks ago. The main objective was the speaker active matching software and I was interested to see how it worked.
In the same room was a pair of Phantoms. During the time the engineer was doing some of the maths for SAM the young Devialet guys did a Phantom demonstration. They sounded awful to me with the music with which they were demonstrated.
They sounded much better when they gave the controller to one of the people there to have his speakers SAMmed and he chose the music.
I can easily see why people haven't like them at some demos, I certainly would not have bought any based on that particular demo.
In the same room was a pair of Phantoms. During the time the engineer was doing some of the maths for SAM the young Devialet guys did a Phantom demonstration. They sounded awful to me with the music with which they were demonstrated.
They sounded much better when they gave the controller to one of the people there to have his speakers SAMmed and he chose the music.
I can easily see why people haven't like them at some demos, I certainly would not have bought any based on that particular demo.
They are being promoted and demoed to the same buyers of Bose, Sonos and lower end
B&O who have few bob and like to pee further up the wall. Fair enough, Devialet are about making money. They are (in stereo) a seriously good speaker and conform to all the usual caveats. They have to be set up with the same level care as any other mid to high range speaker and are ruthless with poor recordings. They are sold primarily on their bass output by most retailers and little if any effort is made to show much beyond this. I heard them in Harrods after buying them directly from Devialet and they sounded really crap. If you can afford a pair with the dialogue, as FL390 says, the 45 day trial is a no brainer.
B&O who have few bob and like to pee further up the wall. Fair enough, Devialet are about making money. They are (in stereo) a seriously good speaker and conform to all the usual caveats. They have to be set up with the same level care as any other mid to high range speaker and are ruthless with poor recordings. They are sold primarily on their bass output by most retailers and little if any effort is made to show much beyond this. I heard them in Harrods after buying them directly from Devialet and they sounded really crap. If you can afford a pair with the dialogue, as FL390 says, the 45 day trial is a no brainer.
Somnambulist
Member
Strange summary. Did you read his conclusion?
"If it wouldnt make it impossible for me to continue reviewing audio gear, Id ditch my reference system for a pair of Silver Phantoms in a heartbeat."
Amongst other things.
jackbarron
Chelsea, London
I tried to read the article, but the typeface is light grey on my computer screen and so couldn't be bothered with the whole thing. I did, however, look at the conclusion. I need to listen to some properly set up Devialet gear in in decent demo room, because in so many ways it's a real game changer.
Jack
Jack
Also,
"...Having previously owned a pair of KEF R900 speakers ($4999.98/pair) -- full-size floorstanders that sport a coaxial Uni-Q tweeter-midrange and two 8 woofers -- I feel comfortable in saying that, up to reasonably loud volumes (i.e., around 90-92dB), the Silver Phantoms were, broadly speaking, the KEFs full equal."
There are one or two people whose ears I trust very well who would disagree with that statement.
Don't forget the amps, cables and dac in that equation will you.
Sounds like a setup problem. No doubt you had problems with the stereo imagery, too.
