Re: Devialet Phantom
LVB,
Like you I was sceptical, which is why I posted the specs. Devialet says "zero distortion" on their landing page so I assume again this is objective and verifiable.
I agree with most of your points, except that I think Devialet might have achieved things that others haven't done to date. I saw the engineering, the amount of R&D that has gone into this "little" speaker. I don't think I've ever seen engineering like this save for really high tech industries. For example, they needed a gasket to be thinner than they had found, yet be very strong and resilient. The company looked outside the industry to the automotive world and worked with people specializing in transmissions, clutches etc. Miniaturizing the ADH technology takes great effort, knowledge and cost. Heat evacuation. Developing pistonic drivers that don't bend due to high pressure etc.
Re the low power stability, one of the benefits of an active speaker is the manufacturer has prior knowledge of the load and characteristics of the drivers. Not the same as driving speakers that might drop down into 2 ohms.
Your statement about "no one in their right mind..." is precisely one of the reasons I'm curious. Basic acoustic engineering knowledge has been around for a long time. Again, disregarding the subjective observations, the team at Devialet are not dumb, and would certainly know the "traditional" wisdom of crossing over at appropriate frequencies. Before anyone accuses me of being a fanboy, I am actually quite sceptical. My engineering background coupled with years of enjoying some of the finest speakers, and having talked with many respected designers, naturally lead me to be sceptical when such claims are made.
Having said all the above, I am willing to be swayed because so far, Devialet has done many things that no one single audio company has achieved. DSP is not a cure all as you implied. There is almost always a trade-off. One very interesting paper I read from Grimm Audio. You can read about the problems with DSP off axis:
http://www.grimmaudio.com/site/assets/files/1088/speakers.pdf
I reiterate my interest due to the claimed specs. Strictly from a technical perspective, the Phantom claims to have achieved frequency response at "zero distortion" out of a small box beyond anything I've seen. If you can point out other speakers that claim the same, I would be very interested in knowing how they achieved it and who they are. Also, claimed tolerance of +/- 3dB is common. Tolerance of +/- 0.5dB throughout the audio band is extremely rare, REGARDLESS of size or cost. I am not saying other parameters are not as important, or EVEN more important. I'm simply stating that this is phenomenal if achieved by such as small box. Narrowing the tolerance increases the difficulty exponentially.
