The charismatic Parisian brand Devialet remains faithful to its legend as a standard-bearer of creativity and premium engineering, proposing two brilliantly updated interpretations of the most iconic of its products: the “all-in-one” audio system with connectivity to Phantom networks, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of its market launch. Named Phantom Ultimate, this highly refined component retains the form factor and basic conception of its predecessor, with its interior having been completely remodeled in order to further improve its sound performance. To achieve this ambitious goal, new transducers have been developed, the bandwidth has been expanded (up to 35,000 Hz in the top model) and the latest generation digital signal processing (DSP) has been incorporated with 32-bit/96 kHz technology (24-bit/48 kHz in the previous Phantoms), expanding in parallel the wireless connectivity with the update of Bluetooth (5.3 in the top model and 5.2 in the bottom one) and WiFi (6 and 5 respectively). the addition of Google Cast for Android and extra streaming protocols. In the practical field, the range has been simplified (only two references instead of four: Phantom Ultimate 108 dB and Phantom Ultimate 98 dB, both figures indicating the maximum sound pressure they can reach), the overall capacities have been raised to a higher level and the sales price has been adjusted to optimize the quality/price ratio.
Going deeper into the details of these ultra-sophisticated realizations, we should first point out the presence of a revised version of one of Devialet’s iconic technological elements: the ADH hybrid amplification scheme, which combines the advantages of the efficiency of Class D with the musicality of Class A. Thus, in the Phantom Ultimate, extensive work has been done to predict in real time the interaction between the ADH and the speakers, the result being greater efficiency, lower distortion and faithful frequency reproduction. located above the limit of human hearing. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that the Devialets maintain exclusive and widely celebrated technologies from the French brand, such as HBI (“Heart Bass Implosion”), SAM (“Speaker Active Matching”) and AVL (“Adaptive Volume Level”). In parallel, it is worth highlighting the use, in the Phantom Ultimate 108 dB, of latest generation treble/midrange (coaxial) and bass speakers originating from Devialet. As for the total amplification power, it is 1,100 watts in the 108 dB and 400 watts in the 98 dB.
The interaction with the user has also received special attention, starting with the unification of the interface used (with 4 capacitive control buttons in the upper area of the enclosure and an LED indicator light) and continuing with a software architecture based on a quad-core NXP iMX 8M Nano processor with increased power (4 times compared to the previous generation!) and the third version of the operating system “Devialet Operating System” (DOS3). For its part, the dedicated “app” includes functionalities as versatile in daily operation as three audio modes (Music, Movie and Podcast, each with advanced customizable settings for subwoofer, volume and physiological compensation), a 6-band equalizer and a bass attenuator (“Bass Reducer”). Let us finally note that the Phantom Ultimates have been entirely designed and built in France, while they are Roon Ready approved and can be configured in mono, stereo and multi-room. They are available in Light Pearl, Deep Forest and Opéra de Paris finishes and there are custom accessories (stands, tripods) to optimize their installation in any space.
