Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsSuch great sound - such poor tech
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2020
Update (Feb 4th, 2021) - my fear as come true. The latest firmware update DOS 2.12.3 broke my stereo phantom classic. Now only one speaker works. I am not optimistic about how long they will take to fix this. It's really sad. I now own 2 classics and a remote. A $5000 speaker set should never go down like this! And customer service tells me that they don't have a solution for it and others are also experiencing this very same issue.
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I've been obsessed with this speaker for years now, so much so that I prepared our new house for this speaker by adding outlets at the right height, so I could mount the speaker with a Devialet Gecko mount without having to fish wires. It's just the kind of design that appeals to me. But I am also a miser, so I waited years to buy this. I wasn't sure if it would be a good use of money.
Finally, when I'd achieved all the goals I had set for myself before I could allow myself to buy it, I bought the Silver, which by the way, has now been discontinued by Devialet. Unfortunately, Amazon sent me one with a European plug! When you spend 2k+, you can't accept that kind of a flaw. So then, I bought a pair of 600W Phantom Reactors. I experienced tech issues with them, and the sound quality didn't even come close - so I bought a Classic.
In the process, I ended up with 10k worth of speakers at one point in my living room, a great opportunity to run some tests! I called some friends over, one by one, and ran some blind tests - I played 5 of their chosen songs on each one of Classic, Silver and Reactor. I only used a single Reactor for the test, to keep the comparison fair and it was also necessary for blind testing to work, people would immediately know the difference between stereo and mono.
I only asked people which sound they preferred. And I tried to make it as blind as possible, I co-located them, I made them face away from speakers, I played them out of order. I even did A/A tests etc. Here's what I found in my pretty non scientific study. No one could tell any difference between Classic and Phantom. Between Reactor and Classic, 90% of folks preferred Classic. But some consistently preferred Reactor - this could have something to do with their choice of music.
In my own very non scientific opinion, Classic is completely a different beast than Reactor. I love the sound so much - and I only have 1 speaker. I've taken to a lot of classical music listening and this speaker just takes me to a different place. I've never experienced the music like this before. But I've never really owned a 2 grand speaker before. My previous system was a yamaha amp, Wharfedale diamond 10.1 speakers and a cheap sub. Total cost about $600. I can't emphasize enough, the sound on this speaker is just something else, if you have the right space for it.
Tech though, is a completely different matter. It's like they hired the worst engineers they could - so so broken and frustrating. Others have also noted this. Here are difficulties I ran into:
- Reactor stereo pairing while playing via apple air-play, broke sound.. it was so awful! How could you Devialet?
- Air-play has basically disappeared from Classic. It doesn't show up in any of my devices now. Thankfully, I am using a google chromecast audio with optical output, so I can still play remotely.
- Reactor had this really funny feature/bug, I couldn't tell which, when I brought my hand within 1 inch of the speaker, the sound would stop. I can't remember if it only happened on air-play or also with optical in.
I love the sound. But I do worry that they might actually break their app / tech so that one day I won't even be able to control the volume on this thing via their Devialet app. Which so far has been a reliable way to change volume - thankfully! With all my experience with them so far, and considering all the comments, I am sure that one day they might render this speaker unplayable via an update! I just don't trust their software chops.
Devialet has made an excellent speaker, a dumb speaker though, this is not a smart speaker! Air-play is unreliable, and their app is very basic. It doesn't even support restarting the speaker. As I've mounted it on the wall, It's tedious for me to restart it by unplugging it. So I don't have airplay, but I guess I don't care much as long as optical in is working.
I've returned the Silver and the pair of Reactors. I now have a single Classic.
Sound is so good though. If it lasts 2 years, I'll consider is money well spent!
