Alternatives for Devialet Phantom Gold?

byakuya83

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What home-friendly alternatives are there in same price range? Assuming you use a phone as your source and want deep bass. By home-friendly I mean something that's sleek and stylish. Studio monitors are ugly and too many old fashioned boxes is never a good look.
 

newlash09

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byakuya83 said:
What home-friendly alternatives are there in same price range?  Assuming you use a phone as your source and want deep bass.  By home-friendly I mean something that's sleek and stylish.  Studio monitors are ugly and too many old fashioned boxes is never a good look.

Is a pair of phantom golds :)
 
newlash09 said:
byakuya83 said:
What home-friendly alternatives are there in same price range? Assuming you use a phone as your source and want deep bass. By home-friendly I mean something that's sleek and stylish. Studio monitors are ugly and too many old fashioned boxes is never a good look.

Is a pair of phantom golds :)

That's a good question

If phone is your only source I wouldn't even considered spending out on speakers such as these. GIGO.
 

jmjones

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Try some of the BeoSound range. Stylish speakers from a grand to £22k. Hexagons for your wall or Daleks if preferred. And they will work with a phone.

Although I reckon AI is right about the quality side of it.
 

rainsoothe

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byakuya83 said:
What home-friendly alternatives are there in same price range? Assuming you use a phone as your source and want deep bass. By home-friendly I mean something that's sleek and stylish. Studio monitors are ugly and too many old fashioned boxes is never a good look.

Anything. They sound like schiit!

Joke aside, indeed do check Bang and Olufsen stuff out. Look great and designy, and also sound very nice.
 
For £4,400 I'd get a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless and an SVS SB4000 subwoofer, and you've still got enough change for a pair of bespoke Custom Design speaker stands. All serviceable (unlike the Phantoms), and with a dedicated sub to take over the low end, the bass won't be so compressed as it is in a small active design like the Phantoms (DSP ensures any potentially damaging low bass will be curtailed).
 

byakuya83

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What's the issue with using a phone as a source? You can stream lossless and even HD - not that it's necessary.

I would only looking at a single unit, not a pair.

Just looking for ideas for alternatives that will produce same range of sound without looking too old-fashioned.
 

jjbomber

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davidf said:
For £4,400 I'd get a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless and an SVS SB4000 subwoofer, and you've still got enough change for a pair of bespoke Custom Design speaker stands. All serviceable (unlike the Phantoms), and with a dedicated sub to take over the low end, the bass won't be so compressed as it is in a small active design like the Phantoms (DSP ensures any potentially damaging low bass will be curtailed).

Sleek and stylish???
 
jjbomber said:
davidf said:
For £4,400 I'd get a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless and an SVS SB4000 subwoofer, and you've still got enough change for a pair of bespoke Custom Design speaker stands. All serviceable (unlike the Phantoms), and with a dedicated sub to take over the low end, the bass won't be so compressed as it is in a small active design like the Phantoms (DSP ensures any potentially damaging low bass will be curtailed).

Sleek and stylish???
Maybe not, but it'll kick the Dev's butt!
 

chris_bates1974

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Have had the misfortune of hearing the Phantoms a few times. To my ears, they're like the Beats of the solo speaker world.

In my (extremely humble) opinion, the Naim Muso sounds sooooo much better. And costs waaaay less.

No issue here with using a phone as a source.... I use AirPlay a lot.

Prefer records though.
 

daveh75

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davidf said:
For £4,400 I'd get a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless and an SVS SB4000 subwoofer, and you've still got enough change for a pair of bespoke Custom Design speaker stands.

Have they finished the software yet? Or are customers still being used as unsuspecting beta testers?
 
daveh75 said:
Have they finished the software yet? Or are customers still being used as unsuspecting beta testers?
The software of virtually every single product that gets released nowadays isn’t 100% on launch, which means that early adopters are beta testers, for want of a better phrase - it’s always an ongoing thing due to many factors.

But as asked, pretty much everything is sorted - the app itself is stable. Issues like the app needing to be closed down and opened back up to reconnect are long gone. I may have them switched off for a week or two sometimes - set them back up, plug them back in, power up, connects as soon as you open the app up. I think many will move over to Roon for control now anyway. Although it’d be nice for Spotify to allow them to incorporate it into the app.
 

byakuya83

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I woud obviously need to give the options a listen but the specs for even the basic Phantom are impressive. Can a pair of Sonos or a single Muso match it in terms of going loud and dynamic range?

101 dB SPL at 1 meter

Bandwith: 16Hz to 25kHz (@-6dB) Accuracy in frequency response : ± 2dB from 20Hz to 20kHz

THD+N* : 0.0005% | Saturation : 0 | Background Noise 0 dB SPL at 50 cm (-15,5 dB SPL at 3m)
 
byakuya83 said:
I woud obviously need to give the options a listen but the specs for even the basic Phantom are impressive. Can a pair of Sonos or a single Muso match it in terms of going loud and dynamic range?

101 dB SPL at 1 meter

Bandwith: 16Hz to 25kHz (@-6dB) Accuracy in frequency response : ± 2dB from 20Hz to 20kHz

THD+N* : 0.0005% | Saturation : 0 | Background Noise 0 dB SPL at 50 cm (-15,5 dB SPL at 3m)
The numbers are hard to believe, and I’ve not seen any independent tests. I’ve heard one Phantom stereo dem, and while undoubtedly impressive it didn’t sound at all realistic to me. I was disappointed as I was a big fan of their amplifiers. The constant revisions and updates smack more of rushed releases than ongoing improvements.
 

rainsoothe

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nopiano said:
byakuya83 said:
I woud obviously need to give the options a listen but the specs for even the basic Phantom are impressive. Can a pair of Sonos or a single Muso match it in terms of going loud and dynamic range?

101 dB SPL at 1 meter

Bandwith: 16Hz to 25kHz (@-6dB) Accuracy in frequency response : ± 2dB from 20Hz to 20kHz

THD+N* : 0.0005% | Saturation : 0 | Background Noise 0 dB SPL at 50 cm (-15,5 dB SPL at 3m)
The numbers are hard to believe, and I’ve not seen any independent tests. I’ve heard one Phantom stereo dem, and while undoubtedly impressive it didn’t sound at all realistic to me. I was disappointed as I was a big fan of their amplifiers. The constant revisions and updates smack more of rushed releases than ongoing improvements.

+1. The only thing they got going for them is that they DO go loud. And I gues they look kinda cool, if that's your thing. But other than that, they sound like glass-paper. Or, how a previous poster said, beats headphones. And no, I don't think you'll ever be able to reach those levels with Naim Muso or Sonos. If you got a huge room to fill for parties, where there's lots of noise anyway, I guess you could do worse. But again, you could do better - with B&O.
 
Specs are all very well, but you can hear the speakers (in a negative way) when the “wings” are flapping due to trying to reproduce loads of bass - they don’t list a spec for that aspect do they...

You can’t break the laws of physics - so why do people think they’re going to get the sort of sub bass and impact they get from big, high end subwoofers?
 

byakuya83

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drummerman said:
I think HifiNews reviewed and measured them.

Thank you - it's nice to read a review rather than rely on speculation saying they probably sound horrible.

I am also interested to read what you make of the AE speakers as they seem a very neat and capable solution.

Most my listening is low level but when my fiance is out of the house I do want to have some fun and fill the room with sound.
 

rainsoothe

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insider9 said:
byakuya83 said:
Most my listening is low level but when my fiance is out of the house I do want to have some fun and fill the room with sound.

I'd question whether filling room with sound and listening loud are the same thing... for me they're not
+1. Also, no speculation on my part, I heard both the silver and the gold (briefly, granted). And they both sound horrible :) Typical class D garbage, only thing they're good for is making a LOT of noise, or a very expensive one-use football.
 

drummerman

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rainsoothe said:
insider9 said:
byakuya83 said:
Most my listening is low level but when my fiance is out of the house I do want to have some fun and fill the room with sound.

I'd question whether filling room with sound and listening loud are the same thing... for me they're not
+1. Also, no speculation on my part, I heard both the silver and the gold (briefly, granted). And they both sound horrible :) Typical class D garbage, only thing they're good for is making a LOT of noise, or a very expensive one-use football.

No speculation at all then on class D amplification :)
 

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