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Devialet

O

onlyconnect

pfm Member
Spent a pleasant 90 minutes or so at Oxford Audio Consultants listening to Devialet kit.

Note: shout out to the dealers, very helpful and friendly, delight to visit.

I particularly wanted to hear the Silver Phantoms so listened to several tracks I knew well. Volume wound up fairly high. Listened to So What from Kind of Blue. On the wind instruments I thought the sound was fantastic, separation was beautiful, excellent presence. However I thought there was some resonance in the bass which meant that the double bass sounded slightly distorted, maybe distortion is the wrong word, but not as clean as it should be, making it harder to follow. I also thought that the Phantoms sounded just a little boxy.

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Dealer had some huge Kef "blades" he wanted me to hear, cost over £20,000. To his disappointment I said I preferred the Phantoms. The Kefs sounded OK but with that "big speaker" fault of losing a little definition, also the double bass on So What now sounded slightly recessed, though cleaner than on the Phantoms.

So we switched to Devialet "Ensemble" which is an LE120 amp with tweaked Atohm GT1 speakers.

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Did some to and fro between Phantoms and Ensemble; difficult because the Phantoms were more forward and gave a 3D quality to the music, but the Ensemble cleaner and perhaps clearer. My son said that the Ensemble made the piano sound more like piano. I thought the speakers were too far apart, a consequence of the demo room layout (see pic).

Then the dealer said he actually recommended the LE200 over the LE120 as it sounded considerably better and had an upgrade path to dual mono. Didn't hear that though.

A fun subjectivist session which slightly reduced my interest in the Phantoms though I did think they sounded great, good value and nice if you want to reduce your box count.

Tim
 
Interesting.

I'd like to see how they stack up against a more honest simple speaker such as PMC stand mounters. Although even if the Phantams can match those for sound, I would be put off my their overly complex nature. Can you really imagine them still working ok in twenty years time? Or being able to get spares, or backup? Mind you, I guess we live in a throw away society so maybe that is no longer of interest. Just a concern which might stop me from making a purchase.
 
I wonder if the perception of the Phantom's bass, was affected by it being too prominent?
By all accounts, the most recent software update is said by owners to have slightly reduced the volume balance away from the bass frequencies.
Had the dealers demo pair been updated?



 
I have heard the phantoms in a decent room .. bass is phenomenal , they were in a huge room and the bass actually pressurised the room , as to the rest .. well they do a pretty good job , but not the most refined speaker in the world..
I think pricing is an issue , 1/2 the price and they would fly off the shelves .. at this level of pricing , they are kinda limiting the market to "lifestyle" .. not ubiquitous (one day everyone will own a devialet .. devialets marketing.)
 
op post seems like an accurate summation.

We kept the phantoms in the end and moved on the expert/800s -- that combo is better, but not by enough to make it worth keeping. I cannot tell the difference myself. So two white plastic balls follow me around wherever we find myself living. It's great. Clutter free and simple. Easy to set up and place in most rooms. It's amazing to think these things can fill a large room and I only have the white models as I find half way up the volume scale is plenty loud for me.

If phantoms means lifestyle, then lifestyle fits my lifestyle better than the non lifestyle alternatives.
 
You can probably do better for 4/5000 quid sound quality wise , but as you say.. you would lose your "lifestyle" freedom..
I listened to the silver version.. I would have picked up a pair .. but for the price.
They sure do go loud , the room we were in was at least 50ft by 30ft or bigger
 
A pair of whites, a dialog and remote came to £3.1K, nowhere near £5K

They go loud but they don't lose coherence. Bass is their party trick which is put to good use in this space... They work very well with home cinema as well no need for a subwoofer but I am hoping for the expert's ICM dialogue enhancer to be implemented at some point.

Phantoms return by Bow Nose, on Flickr
 
Very nice space you have there...

Silvers and dialog and branches is around GBP5k here in south africa... I have giya G1's and a Dprem.. so the phantoms would have been used as a 2nd system..a bit too pricey for me
I have a big hifi social event at my house tommorow ..30+ people , was hoping to loan a pair and stick em up next to the G1's for a shootout.. dealer has sold all his 1st shipment
 
At that kind of an exchange rate shafting I would be inclined to have a holiday flight, see some mates, pick up a pair and fly home with them.

The only thing I really do not like about the phantoms is the bright yellow power cable fail. It looks like a tricky rewire and the power lead is too short if you stick it in the branch stands.
 
bownose said:
....The only thing I really do not like about the phantoms is the bright yellow power cable fail. It looks like a tricky rewire and the power lead is too short if you stick it in the branch stands.
Click to expand...

I thought there was a replacement white power cable for the Branch stands, meaning the supplied yellow one becomes redundant?
 
FL390 said:
I thought there was a replacement white power cable for the Branch stands, meaning the supplied yellow one becomes redundant?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is indeed the case.

I rather like the Branch stands -- an unfashionable opinion, perhaps.
 
I like them too, especially knowing they can be broken down for transport and its possible to have them at different heights (centre channel) wireless is never truly wireless as they still need something to power them. Not so keen on the wood finish. I much prefer the aluminium extrusion of the originals. The geckos look interesting as well.
 
I note that Dev are opening a new 'flagship' store at Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush, west London. The launch event is tomorrow. Only ten mins from me on the 94 bus. Don't think I'll bother to go though.
 
QUBIQ said:
Interesting.
Can you really imagine them still working ok in twenty years time? Or being able to get spares, or backup? Mind you, I guess we live in a throw away society so maybe that is no longer of interest. Just a concern which might stop me from making a purchase.
Click to expand...

To be honest, this is one of the main reasons I upgraded my system recently.

I had a pair of KEF Reference Model 4s. Came a point where one of the woofers had torn (glue had cracked) and I needed a replacement. After phoning every single KEF regional office I finally tracked down a matched pair to KEF America.

Purchased the last two in the world held by KEF. Their UK office said I'd gotten lucky since they don't carry parts that long, not even for the reference series.

The only audio brand who springs to mind who try to maintain their products for a reasonable length of time are Bryston. 20 year warranties as standard on both their amps and their speakers. Beyond that they offer a full refurbishment of their amps (including replacing all the old capacitors) for a few hundred. Top company.
 
They're offering a 45 day free trial here, so I've signed up. They also assure all, according to the ad, that turntables can also be connected. I'm sceptical, but, hey, it's a free trial.

P.S They're throwing in a Pro-ject turntable if you buy two speakers.
 
Optical out of the turntable into any of the three optical ins of the phantom setup you have just ordered. That's it. If you already have a turntable then a Pro-Ject A/D Phono Box S will do just fine.
 
bownose said:
Optical out of the turntable into any of the three optical ins of the phantom setup you have just ordered. That's it. If you already have a turntable then a Pro-Ject A/D Phono Box S will do just fine.
Click to expand...

It couldn't be any easier.
The particular Project turntable they are including in the price for free, is the Project Essential Digital, which has an optical output.
It normally costs £309 to buy in the UK.



 
However, if you want to use your own turntable, easy turns into difficult. There's no way I'd even think of replacing any of my turntables with the Pro-ject and its basic OM5 cartridge.

Anyway, will discuss the oroblem with them today. It is a deal breaker if they can't come up with a solution.
 
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