Many audiophiles have heard of Devialet because of their outstanding sound quality. However, the general public has had a keen interest ever since the company launched its (compact) Phantom speaker because it’s beautiful and produces incredibly powerful and clear sound at the same time. This size and power an extremely rare combination because at the end of the day, speakers are about moving air, and it’s hard to be powerful if you’re not big.
We’ve had a great audio experience with the original Phantom, and this time we played a bit with the Devialet Gold Phantom before it was announced.
On the surface, the general design looks very similar. There are differences, however. For once, the cable is now white instead of yellow. It’s a small detail, but we didn’t think that the power cable was a good place to make a design statement in the previous version.
Obviously, the sides are now 22-carat gold-plated. We asked Devialet why it wasn’t 24-carat, and we’ve been told that 22-carat is much less prone to scratches. Mystery solved. The final, and possibly most important design change isn’t immediately visible, but the sides have been allowed to have more lateral motion during music playback because they need to push more air.
There is still no controls of any kind on the speaker itself (except the “ON” button in the back), although at Ubergizmo we would love to see the “D” logo become a power button, and we would recommend using the touch sensor at the top as a volume controller. The idea of using only a smart device to control simple functions isn’t the most practical. We understand Devialet’s choices but think that many users would agree with us.
Not surprisingly, the sound is amazingly beautiful. I’m using these two adjectives carefully, but there’s no other way to put it. Of course, the raw specs are impressive: 4500W of power and 108 decibels of peak volume. Just to give you an idea, 100 decibels is the noise level of a jet taking off at 305 meters or a jackhammer near you. 110 decibels the threshold of human pain. If Devialet goes any louder, their speakers could pretty much be used to disperse the crowd by riot police.
The 14Hz-27kHz frequency range of the Gold Phantom is also very impressive. In fact, 14Hz is too low for human ears to hear, but your body can “feel” the vibrations.
Of course, it is recommended to find high-resolution audio files, because your MP3 download from YouTube isn’t going to cut it. But with quality files (and music), the experience is sublime. We like how the sound remains the same wherever we were in the room (20×20 feet).
At $2990, the Devialet Gold Phantom is relatively expensive, but on the other hand, it’s tiny and beautiful. In case you are curious, you can connect to the Gold Phantom via Bluetooth, or WiFi.
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