The Devialet Phantom, a bold vision of the future?
It’s rare to come across truly revolutionary designs in the world of audio. When a new approach to hi-fi comes along, such as the Devialet Phantom, it pays to take a closer look. For this Blog review, we’ll be taking a look at the ‘entry level’, 750w Devialet Phantom. Make no mistake though, with a price tag of £1390 there’s nothing remotely entry level about the quality and design of this wireless speaker. Sitting above it in the Phantom range are the Silver Phantom (3000W – £1690) and the Gold Phantom (4500W £2190).
IT’S A SPEAKER JIM, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT
A first glimpse of the Devialet Phantom, will immediately confirm that this is no ordinary loudspeaker system. Looking more like a prop from the set of TRON, the Devialet Phantom is a starkly bold – futurist ‘egg’. The composite body and aluminium central core are wrapped by a glass-fibre filled polycarbonate and finally the glossy white, outer ABS shell. This fusion of high tech materials contributes to create a stiff, dense, rigid enclosure – essential to reduce resonances and provide peak performance from the drivers.
The Phantom range consists of three models; these can be externally recognised by the finish of the metallic side panels. The ‘basic’ Phantom, we have here features polished stainless steel panels, whilst the Silver Phantom receives sand-blasted stainless sides. The range topping Gold Phantom features Rose Gold plated side panels.
MULTIPLE DRIVERS, MULTIPLE ACRONYMS
The Devialet Phantom utilises Devialet’s proprietary HBI technology – that’s Heart Bass Implosion, for those who are curious. This essentially mounts both woofers facing each other, with hermetically sealed domes covering the rear of the woofers. HBI contributes to the Devialet Phantom’s recognisable appearance, the domes physically move to and fro in use.
Another Devialet technology – ACE (Active Cospherical Engine) mounts the mid range driver and the HF driver, flush to the spherical ‘nose’ of the Phantom. Devialet refer to this as being inspired by the ‘…thrusting sphere of Olson, the perfect acoustical shape‘.
The end result? An incredible frequency response of 16Hz to 25kHZ! Remarkable for any speaker – especially one so compact and elegant.
CONNECTIVITY
Physical connections on the Phantom are sparse: Optical digital and RJ-45 network sockets can be found behind the Phantom’s beautfully designed connection port. It’s with the addition of Devialet’s Spark App and the addition of the Devialet Dialog – an intelligent, hardware hub, that the true Phantom experience is unleashed.
The Devialet Dialog allows for up to 24 Phantoms to be connected. This permits true multi-room control, with connected users able to control connected phantom’s room by room – using the Spark App. Users can share playlists, music and also connect multiple Phantoms as stereo pairs. In this way, the Phantom could very easily replace your entire home hi-fi system with a pair of beautifully designed Objet d’art befitting a gallery space.
Forget all those ugly black boxes, and messy connections – Devialet would have you believe the future is NOW. They may just be right.