better the devialet you know....

[andrew Ivimey]

Like total HERESY but I bought a pair of Phantom Silvers boasting 105dB without distortion and lots of other hyperbole. ...

A month later and they are .... absolutely wonderful.

Small & like something out of science fiction these bookshelf speakers have an appalling dynamic range and a clarity to die for. There are no interconnects or cables, just one toslink for the Squeezebox and one on t'other Phantom for dvd audio, or CD. STUNNING.

I haven't gone through my entire music yet but it is a little breathtaking.

time to sort the tannoysns, Heils and Gu48s - what a reference!

[IslandPink]

Are you claiming it purifies and magnifies the audio signal ?
We need a demo next time you're up in't North .

[pre65]

I looked them up. £1390.00 ?

[Greg]

Good for you, Andrew, I am much impressed. I have heard the Devialet silver Phantoms and as you say they give stunning presentation and considering the size, confound science as we currently understand it.

Philip, the price is no big deal if you take into account that they are active and can be used without a power amp and also can be wirelessly set up. Because I have a friend using and being very into Devialet, I have had extensive opportunity to listen to their amps etc. They are so advanced with the opportunity to model your sound to your preference, interact with your speakers to tune to suit your listening room and to facilitate the very latest options on streamed music. They may be chip sand amps but to be sure they produce magnificent sound. Furthermore, if you consider their collective versatility, their price is not that outrageous if you add up the cost of your individual boxes of Phono stage, pre amp and power amp, all incorporated into one slim (two if you want to monoblock) very attractive item.

Listening to Nick's Devialet system, I very much feel many of us, including me are playing in the past. No problem if that is what we want to do, but my opinion is that what Devialet is offering is very much the cutting line for the future. I am seriously considering going this way, not based on what I have read, but very much based on what I have extensively listened to over several months.

Of course, going this route would rule out tinkering and building which you and many others enjoy within the hobby. No doubt you will reject simply on that basis alone

Greg

[andrew Ivimey]

Silver phantoms are a little bit more expensive but never mind! How much have we already spent on this ' hobby' ? How much time?

There's a new hi-fi shop just over the fields from me and I was cruising down the A1 one day and thought I'd pop in. 'Not bad, not bad at all...' l thought and still do.

I've got a 2a3 push pull jobbie on the slab as I type - am I fooling myself but solder, speaker boxes and valves aren't all about the single minded pursuit of excellence. I've always had several systems on the go anyway, revelling in the differences. But if I was to choose one system then yes it would be these devils. Their achilles ' heel is the necessity for a wife setup. Then all is wonderfully smooth and fab by ppppphhhhhrrrrroooooaaaarrrrrrrrr- Ness.

Having seriously done my back in the size of the Phantoms ( but they are very heavy) was appealing too. How they produce such enormous sound at such a level of quality and dynamic range I have no idea. They are made of plastic and I can't help thinking that they will rattle themselves to death. A devil amp could have been better but these things do it all - except... no analogue input!!!!! Blame the Squeezebox for starting this.

The two streaming services that Paul demo-ed the system with could not find my first two choices to play so I am not going that way. I have all the music I need to while away the hours and there is always Internet radio. That is a stream though, isn't it.

Anyway, when all 's said and done they are nearly perfect 10/10. I'm not really looking for 11, not really ;----)

[Ali Tait]

Something like this would sort an analogue input-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/19167988 ... ue&ff13=80

[pre65]

Perhaps I need to listen to these silver phantoms.

[andrew Ivimey]

Something like that indeed Ali - only they are far cheaper from Hongkers!

[chris661]

Would be very interested to hear these, Mr I. If another Owston turns up, do you think you could be convinced to bring them along?


FWIW, the way they get all of that sound out is a lot of power. Smaller boxes are far less efficient than bigger boxes, as we all know. If you want to increase the sound level, throwing power at it is one way to do it, and doesn't involve making the cabinet any bigger. So long as the drive units can take it (since they're designed in-house, I expect they will), it'll just keep getting louder.

A question, if I may: do you notice the variable low-frequency cutoff at all? - the specs suggest that, as you get louder, you'll lose that last bit of low-frequency extension they have at lower volumes. Its probably to keep the drivers from bottoming out, though the videos suggest they can move a good bit of air!

Chris

[Dave the bass]

Small ...

To the river! Bring the ducking apparatus.

[andrew Ivimey]

Mea culpa, mea MAXIMA culpa
Whatever that's supposed to mean

[Dave the bass]

Ya dun baaaaaaaaaaad!

[andrew Ivimey]

Sho'nuff

[Dave the bass]

4reel!

[Dave the bass]

So, at Frank Whittlebury 2015 (its a HifI show) yesterday there was a demo room being run by Devialet. They had 2 Phantom summats firing down the mahoosive room and a couple scattered about for singular demonstrations.

They were playing rubbish music clearly designed to show off the product, so the Kent Massiff (smelling a rat), asked the friendly chap MC'ing the demo if he'd ever heard 'Angel' by Massiff Attack through them at volume (Kent Massiff sniggering to itself hoping they'd expode and catch fire etc etc) and..... the chap obligingly downloaded and played Angel.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkin Ganora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The light fittings rattled, no really

Nothing blew up or caught fire, they sounded very very good except for the fact there was approxingmatley zero soundstaging, odd. Our MrT mused that maybe each Phantom was in mono, I think he's right, that'd explain it.

Really good fun actually.

Report ends/