Back in 2014, French audio house Devialet launched a $2,000, 750-W wireless speaker that looked like nothing else out there, with the drivers at the side pulsing in and out of the unit's curvy body to generate its enormous distortion-hating sound.
More powerful versions followed, including the 3,000-W silver edition and a 4,500-W gold version, as well as a 600-W mini Phantom called the Reactor. And now the company has upgraded its flagship compact all-in-one speaker for 2021.
The new Phantom is still based around the company's Analog Digital Hybrid, or ADH, technology that combines Class A (analog) amplification architecture with Class D (digital) for a best of both worlds listening experience. Speaker Active Matching technology is also present and correct for optimum amplifier and speaker harmony, as is the Heart Bass Implosion process that's reported to emit low frequencies "with extreme depth and physical impact."
New for 2021 is a matte finish in black or white, with side panels available in black, dark chrome, light chrome or 22-carat gold. Music can be sent wirelessly to the Phantom I over Bluetooth, it's now compatible with AirPlay 2 and UPnP too, and there's support for Spotify Connect.
And if you have the budget, you can add a second unit to the living room for stereo, or employ numerous Phantoms around the home in a multi-room configuration.
It's also reported Roon ready, a music management platform for multi-device, multi-room playback, and can be cabled up to an audio source through analog or optical ports, Gigabit Ethernet or via a new accessory called the Arch – which allows for RCA or wired analog connections. Dual-band Wi-Fi is cooked in as well.
Devialet's next-gen audio processing, signal processing and amplification system-on-chip beats at the heart of the new all-in-one speaker, for low distortion in the signal path, higher power efficiency and increased thermal dissipation. And the Phantom I is available in two power configurations.
The Phantom I 103 dB model features an aluminum tweeter, mid-range driver and bass drivers, outputs 500 watts RMS over a 16-Hz to 25-kHz bandwidth and, as the name suggests, boasts a sound pressure level of 103-dB SPL.
The Phantom I 108 dB bumps the power up to 1,100 watts RMS and 108-dB SPL over a slightly wider 14-Hz to 27-kHz bandwidth, and rocks a titanium tweeter, an aluminum mid-range driver and an aluminum bass driver.
Both 253-mm x 255-mm x 343-mm (9.96 x 10 x 13.5-in), 11.4-kg (25.1-lb) models have a 24-bit/96-kHz Devialet digital-to-analog converter, an ARM Cortex-A9 800-MHz dual-core processor and 512 MB of DDR3 memory. The total harmonic distortion figure is reported to be 0.0005 percent, and there's zero saturation and zero background noise. And the units promise an accuracy of plus or minus 2 dB between the 20-Hz to 20-kHz frequency range.
The 2021 Phantom I 103 dB carries a price tag of US$2,200, while the Phantom I 108 dB model comes in at $3,200. There's also a special Opera de Paris version available for $3,800.
Product page: Devialet Phantom I
