Devialet’s Hi-Tech “Phantom” Implosion Stereo Sounds Better Than Speakers 20X Its Size

You need a big sub-woofer for big bass, right? Wrong. After 10 years of research, French acoustic engineers as Devialet just unveiled a giant step forward in audio that’s just one foot long. The Phantom is a petite, spherical, all-in-one amplifier and speaker that delivers what audiophiles think may be the best sound in the world for around $2,000.

Of course, $2,000 is pretty steep, and that’s just for one of these things. But it’s about the same as a 5.1 stereo system from Sonos or a traditional set of hi-fi speakers, sub and amp.

When Sting from The Police heard the Phantom, he said “I want people to listen to my music on this.” Hip-hop producer Rick Rubin was amazed by the depth of its bass. And former Beats Music CEO David Hyman said: “This small beautiful object will create a sound in your house that is just staggering. I’ve heard it. Nothing comes close. It can knock your walls down too.”

demo-phantom-full

Devialet has been awarded 77 patents, and has racked up 37 awards for sound and design since its first line of amplifiers launched in 2010. It tells me it sold 3,500 units in 2014 to rake in $15 million. But now it finally built a self-contained speaker and amp. It’s a mesh of art, science and sensation.

The Phantom sounds so sweet because of a technology called ADH. This combines the rich, pristine sound of analog amplification with the raw power and compactness of digital. It excludes the impractical size of most analog amplifiers and the signal pollution of digital. The result is a tiny machine with crystal clear sound you can pump up to extraordinary volumes.

Another advanced Devialet calls “Heart Bass Implosion” gives Phantom speakers the thump of much bigger subwoofers. The Phantom sphere’s dome drivers protrude from the side, wobbling in and out to generate enormous sound from the vacuum inside its closed box architecture.

Devialet says this makes the Phantom “four times more powerful than the best
woofers on the market of an equivalent diaphragm size, yet 6 times more compact and 6 times
lighter.” Plus since the drivers are symmetrical, their vibrations cancel each other out so the device stays still and won’t rattle around.

You can see how a Phantom looks in motion with its components teased apart. Normally they’re all interlocked like in the other images here.

Read More

Comments

Samsung Galaxy S5 Review and Giveaway

Few smartphones are as aggressively marketed as Samsung’s Galaxy S5. The S5 can no longer be considered brand-new — but it is Samsung’s flagship, at least for the next few months. With a gorgeous screen, a capable camera, a waterproof build, and a user-replaceable battery, the Galaxy S5 has a lot to offer… at least on paper. Let’s find out how good it really is. What Makes This Review Different There are about a million Galaxy S5 reviews out there. Why should you read this one? Two keys points make our review different: We bought our own device . Unlike many tech blogs, we don’t use a review unit Samsung gave us. We went out to the store and bought one, just like you would. This means everything you read here is truly impartial – we owe Samsung nothing. We used it for more than a month . Some sites rush to be the first to publish a review on a new device. That’s not how we do things. I used the Galaxy S5 as my main (and only) Android phone for nearly two months,...

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9000 Review and Giveaway

When it comes to massive phones, nothing is more iconic than the Samsung Galaxy Note. It has gained popularity not only due to its size, but its additional features such as a stylus and a larger battery make it a more useful phone. Samsung released the third generation of the Galaxy Note in October, updating the phablet with a larger screen and improved hardware. Read through our review, then join the giveaway to win the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 ! Competitors Of course, other Android competitors haven’t let the $640 Galaxy Note 3 be the only player in the phablet market. There are others such as the Sony Xperia Z Ultra , the Samsung Galaxy Mega , and the other more common phones that are reaching 5″ screens such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 , the HTC One , and the Nexus 5 . Unlike the normal-sized top contenders, the Galaxy Note 3 has a bigger screen and larger battery. It also offers specific features (surrounding the S Pen stylus) th...

Ex-Skypers Launch Virtual Whiteboard Deekit

Although seriously long in the tooth and being disrupted by a plethora of startups, for many years Skype has existed as an almost ubiquitous app in any remote team’s toolkit. So it seems apt that a new startup founded by a team of ex-Skype employees is set to tackle another aspect of online collaboration. Deekit, which exits private beta today, is a virtual and collaborative whiteboard to help remote teams work smarter. The Tallinn, Estonia-based startup is headed up by founder and CEO, Kaili Kleemeier, who was previously a Head of Operations at Skype. She and three colleagues quit the Internet calling giant in 2012 and spent a year researching ideas in the remote team space. They ended up focusing on creating a new virtual whiteboard, born out of Kleemeier’s experience collaborating with technical teams remotely, specifically helping Skype deal with incident management. “Working with remote teams has been a challenge in many ways – cultural differences, language differences, a...

Kiran Upadhyay

Search This Blog