No doubt this appears nice, but for $2000 for this seems overpriced compared to what $2000 can buy in A/V equipment these days.
Very true! Companies and products like this get by (and thrive) on the fact that people don't normally come across true mid to high-end audio. The offerings of any reasonably "sound" audio company at that price range would not just be better than this speaker, they would be in another league altogether. A comparison with say, these:
would make the difference laugh-out-loud apparent.
I actually think it's a shame that Apple aligns itself with companies that have the trappings of true audio quality — but are more about style. Sadly, this is such a case.
I'm not saying this company is a charlatan. Perhaps $2000 is the true cost of this thing. If that's the case, it's an engineering failure.
There is a path to beautiful, and unceasingly astonish sound. Audio equipment such as the Devialet Phantoms is not that path!
Appleinsider, you are obviously paying attention to good sound. This is my urging, which would be lost on some: get thee to a true audio shop with a good listening room!
Hearing good speakers in the $4000 price range (for a pair) will be not just a somewhat better sound. It will not be subtle. The Devialet speakers will quite suddenly resolve themselves into a postcard of the Grand Canyon, and the ho-hum boxes with front-facing drivers will sound like the actual subject of that bit of cardboard. Surely I exaggerate? My man, I do not!
We love to poke fun at audiophile malarkey. As we should! Be that as it may, there is a level of hi-fi that most don't experience, because they don't know what the trip is — which they would be very pleased to have made.
Lest you think I would feel triumphant in my sound system with just such a set of $4000 speakers, which I foolishly bought when I was young and without obligations:
The sound achieved by true (and very expensive) hi-fi is just such a "real-thing" jump again. When hearing these, powered by ultra high-end amps...
...I actually involuntarily vocalized "oh". This seemed just not possible. Hearing the first sounds of In Between Days (Shiver Mix) by The Cure, the effect was not just a clear stereo picture, and all that good stuff. I felt surround by instruments that, if I didn't know better, I would swear were being played in the room around me. The bass sounds at 2:10 felt like physical waves, and the synthesized voice sounded like it was... what... like that effect of headphones, where sounds feel like they're generated inside your head... only this sound was truly existing in the room. Imagine that, with every tone being equally superlative.
This was maybe 15 years ago, and I remember a like it was yesterday.
Surely I exaggerate? No, AppleInsider, I do not! Here's to air molecules...
I agree with ChristianCS above, and as I posted somewhere below, I thought the same thing and you would be surprised if you were putting side by side a very expensive system (mine, Focal Nova Utopia Be, Simaudio W5, P5, Eclipse, Siltech cables), and play a CD vs the same cut from Tidal or an apple lossless version and switch back an forth and close your eyes. Just do this and you will be surprised. I did that because I first laughed when I saw these at a High End store close by. I was listening to a pair of smaller Focal and ask the folks to switch off what I believed were toys but was asked by somebody I trust to listen, was intrigued, and took them home for a test, and now I am selling all my $75,000 equipment. In the last 10 years, I had heard nothing better than what I had, or it was too expensive for the difference. It was time to downgrade (space), but it really has not been that much of a downgrade! I might not get the same presence, same precision in the image as I had, but it is so close that I had to rethink the way I was going to listen to music now. And this base is amazing and I could go on and on. And the Focal were no slouch in that department. I had the B&W 801 (Nautilus) too before the Focal, which were no match to the Focal, but cheaper. I have read quite a few posts where folks did not even listen to these, criticize them, did not compare, side by side, and show their nice system, but like me, put them to the test and you will be amazed.
I'm not saying this company is a charlatan. Perhaps $2000 is the true cost of this thing. If that's the case, it's an engineering failure.
There is a path to beautiful, and unceasingly astonish sound. Audio equipment such as the Devialet Phantoms is not that path!
Appleinsider, you are obviously paying attention to good sound. This is my urging, which would be lost on some: get thee to a true audio shop with a good listening room!
Hearing good speakers in the $4000 price range (for a pair) will be not just a somewhat better sound. It will not be subtle. The Devialet speakers will quite suddenly resolve themselves into a postcard of the Grand Canyon, and the ho-hum boxes with front-facing drivers will sound like the actual subject of that bit of cardboard. Surely I exaggerate? My man, I do not!
Engineering failure? Differences that are not subtle?
Can I ask if you've ever even heard the Phantoms? Because you give no indication that you have. And if you haven't, well you seem pretty confident for someone who has no factual basis for what he's saying.
I have a pair of Silver Phantoms. I also have a pair of B&W 802 Diamonds and owned for many years a pair of Nautilus 801s. So I have direct experience comparing the very speakers you reference (actually, better ones than you reference).
Are the B&W's better sounding than the Phantoms? Well, ultimately, yes they are. But let's keep this in mind:
The B&W's go for about $22,000 a pair. Oh, and they're not amplified like the Phantoms, so you'll need an amplifier with that. And you don't want any old amp, you want something befitting the 802D. I'm using a Rogers EHF200 right now, a 200 W/Ch tube amp that can operation in either triode or ultralinear. That's about $15,000. So yes, for nearly $40,000, this combination outperforms the Phantoms sonically, particularly as to dynamic range, the lowest bass octave and soundstage.
But the phantoms -- in the Silver edition -- cost about $6K all in (for a stereo pair; a single Phantom is mono). So the question is, how do they compare to the B&Ws at about one sixth of the price?
The answer is that they are damn good. No, you will not mistake them for B&W reference monitors of the type used in Abbey Road studios. Yes, they rely on large excursion, small-bore bass drivers and passive radiation, which gives the bass a notably tubby sound. But for their price -- including amp AND speakers -- they are very competitive with what you can get in the hi fi world at that price, and for even twice that price. And at the kinds of volumes most people use in their homes, many of the sonic differences just don't matter.
But here's the catch. The Phantoms take up almost no space. And they operate over a wifi network (NOT just bluetooth, though they can do that too). So you can put them almost anywhere and setup is a breeze. So in the real world, with real houses and real apartments, these compact speakers that punch well above their weight will appeal to many folks who won't even consider the type of shrine you need to dedicate to traditional high-fi equipment.
Ultimately, it's for the customers to decide whether Devialet is offering a decent value proposition. I do find a lot of their hype over the top, but the product? Its much better than you are giving it credit for.
The speakers have great sound but the software that controls them is quite awful. The app for iPhone is a mess and terrible to use, and the version for Mac is even worse. But the worst part is the optical input in the Dialog router, which is built in such a way that makes it impossible to use. It´s a recessed plug and despite trying 4 different optical cables, not a single one worked. They just don't stay firmly in place. I spent almost 5.000€ in a system with serious design flaws and the company doesn't offer a solution. I guess they spent too much time with the sound and forgot usability!
Not sure what you are talking about. I have Spark on my iPhone, Macs, iPad Pro, and there is no issue with it at all. I go wireless with Tidal and the apple lossless versions on my Mac and it is perfect. And yes for those using the optical input, I can see the problem.
I'm curious about one of the concluding statements:
"If, however, you're looking for a true stereo rig, Phantom cannot oblige."
I know I'm old-fashioned, but I like separated stereo. Can you buy two, separate them, and link to separate channels?
No-one seems to be complaining about the merged stereo, so perhaps I'm missing something.
To use more than a single Phantom, whether in the same room or in different rooms, you need the Dialog hub/router box. Two Phantoms can be set up through the Dialog to run as a stereo pair. You simply assign them as left and right speakers during the set up routine. Dialog will route the left and right channels to the appropriate Phantom speakers.
I'm curious about one of the concluding statements:
"If, however, you're looking for a true stereo rig, Phantom cannot oblige."
I know I'm old-fashioned, but I like separated stereo. Can you buy two, separate them, and link to separate channels?
No-one seems to be complaining about the merged stereo, so perhaps I'm missing something.
To use more than a single Phantom, whether in the same room or in different rooms, you need the Dialog hub/router box. Two Phantoms can be set up through the Dialog to run as a stereo pair. You simply assign them as left and right speakers during the set up routine. Dialog will route the left and right channels to the appropriate Phantom speakers.
I've had the two (2) Phantoms and the Dialog (which serves as the hub for the speakers) since August and they are honestly amazing. The software was buggy after one of the firmware updates and made my speakers drop off line every now and then - which is crazy.
The finally got the firmware fixed and they are rock solid now. The clarity and presentation is spot on across the full volumetric range.
One kind of a bummer (which I found a work around) was with the new Apple TV (4) the optical output (which are the primary inputs for the Phantom system) was no longer available (on the Apple TV). I bought a nice little HDMI/Pass-through, w/Optical out... Back to perfection.
With the new Apple TV, it's a great system.
I bought a nice little HDMI/Pass-through, w/Optical out.
Comments
Not sure what you are talking about. I have Spark on my iPhone, Macs, iPad Pro, and there is no issue with it at all. I go wireless with Tidal and the apple lossless versions on my Mac and it is perfect. And yes for those using the optical input, I can see the problem.
"If, however, you're looking for a true stereo rig, Phantom cannot oblige."
I know I'm old-fashioned, but I like separated stereo. Can you buy two, separate them, and link to separate channels?
No-one seems to be complaining about the merged stereo, so perhaps I'm missing something.
To use more than a single Phantom, whether in the same room or in different rooms, you need the Dialog hub/router box.
Two Phantoms can be set up through the Dialog to run as a stereo pair.
You simply assign them as left and right speakers during the set up routine.
Dialog will route the left and right channels to the appropriate Phantom speakers.
Shown here in this YouTube instructional video...
And what exactly the sonic difference between Phantom and Silver Phantom?
Link?