No, this isn’t the most expensive Wireless system I’ve heard of but its right
up there with them, read why below, scanned this out of today’s local paper.
Headline, Phantom of the flopera, by Rod Easdown.
Devialet is a French company that had its beginnings in 2003 with ingenious
technology that combines digital and analogue amplification. Yes, its amps
sound good, but what most appeals to me is that they look like nothing else at
all in hi-fi. They are sleek, elegant, stylish and expensive, of course: $8300
to $39,500.
Now Devialet is making speakers called the Phantom ($2990) and the Silver
Phantom ($3590) that also look like nothing else in hi-fi. Both can be used
singly or set up as stereo pairs. They are Bluetooth AptX-compatible, and by
hooking into your home wireless network, they can go in any room and play the
music you have stored on wirelessly connected devices. Well, that's the theory.
Maybe you haven't noticed, but since everything went online, the instruction
books provided with new gadgets have become thinner, lighter and, most of all,
cheaper. Often all you get is a quick-start guide that usually invites you to
visit a website if you have problems. I suspect Devialet has set the minimalism
record with its guide for the Phantom.
You get a little round book 6.5 centimetres in diameter that mostly boasts
about the technology. The set-up and operation instructions total just three
pictures and 15 words, five of which are the invitation to visit the website
("Oops! Need help? Visit ..."). The folk at Devialet have obviously assumed
that everything is going to go exactly to plan when you plug the Phantom in at
your place, but it didn't at my place.
I downloaded the app and everything worked nicely until I got to the screen
declaring that everything was ready and to press "continue". Then a little
timing wheel came on and kept turning. I went to the website. There I learnt
there was a button to be pressed and a connection to be made. Once done, the
app told me the next step of installation would launch automatically. No,
nothing. Try as I most assuredly did, the Phantom app went no further. The
Bluetooth worked, so I could listen to music on my phone and high-resolution
music player, but the home wireless network remained as silent as a stone, and
so did the music on my computer.
I kept trying. I even tried with Devialet's optional Dialog box ($499) that
plugs into the router (instructions: four pictures and 20 words), and still
there was nothing but darkness. After two days of mucking about, I decided I
had better things to do.
Devialet's Australian product manager called by and got everything running
beautifully on his MacBook, but nothing he could do would persuade the Phantom
to join my wireless network through my PC, which was the point of the exercise.
It seems the Phantom app prefers Apples to PCs and doesn't like Windows 10 at
all, although the factory says Windows 10 is expected to be supported soon.
I can say, however, that this is absolutely the best Bluetooth speaker I've
ever listened to. It has powerful but never overwhelming bass, brilliant
definition and beautifully defined and crisp highs, and it's extremely
powerful, filling a big space even at low volume.
Looking like the progeny of a motorcycle helmet and a football, it's big and
it's heavy - 11 kilograms. If you go to the Devialet website, you'll find a
video of the Phantom pumping out bass, the convex cones at each side thrusting
dramatically. I had no test tracks that made them gyrate that hard (at normal
volume anyway), but Lucia Micarelli's Samarkand got them excited. Yes, it's an
expensive speaker, but it sounds good, especially given that it can live on a
shelf.
Now, here's the good thing. These are sold on a 45-day trial basis. If it
doesn't work at your place or you just don't like it, return it for a full
refund. But I have a better idea: its price is such that you can ask the dealer
to install it at your place for free. That way his brain cells will be killed
by the set-up, not yours, and if it doesn't like your wireless system you can
tell him, gently, that the deal's off.
**********
Those of a positive and enquiring frame of mind will leave the rest of the
halfwits in this world behind.
