Page 39 - Hi-Fi World (January 2020)

REVIEW

The only drawback was that this Although small the Phantom 900
arrangement would set you back over weighs in at a hefty 4.3kg thanks to a
£4000 – a not insignificant sum. glass fibre-filled polycarbonate interior,
Since the launch of the original aluminium core and the stainless steel
Phantom there’s been a slew of white exterior. Despite such build
different models – Classic, Silver, Gold complexity it will fit in the palm of
and even an Opéra De Paris. But your hand so moving the Reactor
they’ve all remained the same size, around is easy.
differing mainly in power output. At the top of the unit are
Now, however, comes the touch controls for volume, pause
Phantom Reactor – available in two and Bluetooth pairing but – as ever The top of the unit includes touch con-
models, the 600 and the 900 on review nowadays – there’s also a dedicated trols for volume, Bluetooth pairing and
here. Measuring 16.8cm in height and Devialet app for both iOS and Android pause/play.
21.9cm deep it looks exactly like its to make things easier.
larger brethren but is smaller and has At the front – behind that with the bass superbly controlled
less power. That said it still has 900 attractively-shaped grille – is a full horizontally.
Watts of power on board – more range driver that handles the mid That’s a credit to just how well-
than enough to fill a medium-sized to high frequencies. The grille is not engineered and constructed the
room with sound and, with two paired just an aesthetic adornment – it’s cabinet is, plus its weight. And, once
together, capable of taking on even been designed to disperse the sound you get used to it, there’s something
larger spaces. as widely as possible so if just one quite fascinating about seeing the sides
That power comes from Devialet’s Reactor is being used you get breadth pumping frantically in and out.

proprietary ADH (Analogue Digital of sound. So, space age looks, compact
Hybrid) technology where a small But it’s the bass response that dimensions and some clever
Class A amplifier is connected to the really marks out the Phantom for such technology are all rolled into one with
loudspeaker’s output while a parallel a relatively small loudspeaker. Devialet the Devialet Phantom Reactor. But
Class D stage provides the necessary claim a low-end of 18Hz – something all that counts for nothing unless its
grunt. not many tracks actually contain (see sound quality matches those attributes.
Some reviewers have compared our Measured Performance for the
the topology to Quad’s current definitive figures). SOUND QUALITY
dumping technology, devised by Turn the volume up with anything I started out using a single Reactor
founder Peter Walker, but it’s rather containing low-end clout and their placed centrally in the Hi-Fi World
more sophisticated than that. hemispherical side panels vibrate listening room on a dedicated
Inside is a DAC capable prodigiously. In fact on first use it can loudspeaker stand.
of handling file sizes of up to seem rather alarming, as though they King Tubby’s ‘Dub Fever’ – which
24bit/192kHz while connectivity are going to shake the whole ‘speaker is not shy of bass – had more low-
includes UPnP, Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, apart. But walk over and put your end power than I’ve heard from any
Spotify Connect, plus digital optical and hand on top of the unit and there’s similarly sized loudspeaker. In fact the
analogue inputs. no rattle or shake. It feels rock solid Phantom brought out all of the lower

www.hi-fiworld.co.uk JANUARY 2020 HI-FI WORLD 39