Audiophilepure

Like the original 600M, the new MKII needs some room to breathe, especially with such a large port in the rear. To that end, I placed the speakers on my 24” metal stands about three feet away from the front and side walls.

As always, I started with the speakers pointed straight ahead, and unlike the first 600M which needed a bit of adjustment in terms of toe-in, the 600M II immediately snapped into focus and projected an awesome soundstage.

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But they’re just as effective with the exuberant playing on Tuomas Antero Turunen’s ‘Joy Dance’ from his Lifesparks album [Skip Records SKP 9154-2], fully making the listening experience live up to the title. Similarly, albeit different, the Helensburgh Tango from the Tord Gustavsen Trio’s Opening album [ECM 2742] is wonderfully dark and sombre, with its snare rolls and recessed instruments very unsettling.

Then again, the speakers soar with Sandrine Piau’s voice on her Rivales album [Alpha ALPHA824, 96kHz/24-bit], her aria from Gluck’s ‘La Clemenza de Tito’ especially vibrant thanks to the speaker’s free-breathing sound and purity of tone. They present Holly Coles voice on ‘I Could Write A Book’ [Holly, 2xHDRR1101; DSD128] with superb intimacy as she duets with Wycliffe Gordon before slipping into the languorous ‘Lazy Afternoon’, her voice set against the gentle Hammond B3 of Larry Goldings. It’s all delicious stuff – and addictive.

One of Devialet’s clever innovations from the Expert Pro line that easily crosses over to the Phantom is SAM, or ‘Speaker Active Matching’. In the traditional audio world, this meant Devialet had to assess the performance of a range of different loudspeakers from hundreds of manufacturers to create an optimum amplifier profile (in the digital domain). This number crunching is baked into the Phantom models, allowing a very high degree of interaction and control between amplifier and loudspeaker. This has three direct benefits: the amplifier is running at its most optimal for any steady-state or musical signal; the amp has better drive-unit control even in deep bass, and the Phantom is pretty much ‘unburstable’ unless you consciously try to destroy it. It’s not fully ‘party proof’ as those pulsating side drivers are something of a drunk-magnet and the rated 108dB peak SPL is a bit of a limit, but in real-world terms unless you are using the Phantom as a weekend-long PA system pumping out square waves at full throttle, the Phantom remains unfazed when you are in the mood to party hard.

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That said, the bass extension it does have is detailed and commendably quick and, given the choice between a floorstander with a little bit less bass that keeps up with the music or one that has great lumps of the stuff half a beat after it’s needed, I’ll always choose the former.

When faced with the wonderfully overblown marathon of Welcome To The Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the ZX-3 wades in with genuine enthusiasm, managing to provoke a response that is as much emotional as cerebral.

Comparing it with Mission speakers of old, I’d say that while it doesn’t feel quite as fast and energetic as some of its predecessors, it certainly knows a thing or two about tonality, soundstage and sheer realism. These are valuable developments and it’s a sure sign of the brand’s new-found maturity that the ballistic edge of past offerings has been reined in a little.

Like Schiit, he explained, they offer great value for the money (as the owner of a Schiit Audio Yggdrasil Analog 2 DAC, I agree— read more HERE). He’d recently purchased my Mini Dancer 2s, and has since been outspoken about their performance up and down the sound spectrum. Bottom line, he wants a pair of speakers that reveal everything when he’s mixing music recordings. However, for me, this sale opened a window of opportunity.

The ML-801 and 802s they were designed to bridge the gap between Usher’s Dancer series and their flagship TD lines. Boasting more refined internal components and crossovers, better bracing and a deeper cabinet than my Mini Dancers, they piqued my curiosity. Already impressed with the Usher house sound, I was fascinated with the idea of experiencing these first hand. Hence, when the opportunity finally arrived, I pounced.