Tag Archives: Devialet

Devialet Phantom I Yang Bao Wa Liu is a golden take on the renowned speaker for Chinese Year of the Dragon

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French audio brand Devialet’s Phantom I is already a celebrated wireless speaker with side-firing bass reflex ports and subtle color variants. Fittingly, two eminent artists have been summoned to give this iconic speaker a stunning new vibe for the Chinese Year of the Dragon, a festivity that marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Dubbed the Phantom I 108 dB by Yang Bao & Wa Liu, after the designers behind the new gold and red colored speaker, this lustrous take on the Devialet flagship creates a nice, visible amalgamation of physical and analog connections. To be available in limited edition between 23 January 2024 and 23 April 2024 (or until the stock lasts) this speaker also dubbed ANIMAL impresses with its “colors and textures reference the dragon of our cultural imagination” designer Wa Liu says.

Designer: Devialet

On the back of the hand-crafted speaker come the 22.5-carat gold leaf accents complemented by the red strokes. This artistic element replicates the rippling motion of the dragon’s movement. It’s more of a musical instrument that seems to have a personality of its own. According to Bao the play of light and shadows helps it cryptically blend into the surroundings. Another good reason it has a deliberate sculptural design to evoke a subtle presence.

The limited-edition Phantom I, justifies the symbol of the dragon with its intimidating presence as opposed to the Western counterpart. In a way, it mixes nature and music, power and serenity all in one go. Creating this version takes around two weeks which explains the attention to detail put in the making. As the artists explain, ‘We obviously work on a number of units at the same time.’ To this end, two gilders showcase their craft, brushing hammered gold leaf onto the surface of the Phantom, juxtaposing it with the thin lines of red lacquer. The intricate design is not only a visual combination of gold leaf and red lacquer, but the lacquer itself requires three painstaking layers of application!

No wonder the  Phantom I 108 dB by Yang Bao & Wa Liu will set you back a mind-numbing $6,700 a piece.

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Devialet’s Gemini II TWS Earbuds look like Tiny Versions of their High-end Phantom Speakers

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In keeping with its iconic design language and honoring its most famous speaker, Devialet revealed the Gemini II, a pair of TWS earbuds that puts the company’s signature sound in a tiny, portable format that fits in each ear. The beauty, aside from its sound, lies in the fact that each Gemini II earbud looks like a miniature version of the company’s Phantom speaker, creating a visual call-back that isn’t just adorable, it’s also a reminder that each earbud actually packs a punch… and that comes as no surprise, given that Devialet is one of the most awarded audio tech companies on the planet.

Designer: Devialet

Venturing into the earbud space after multiple award-winning speakers and soundbars, Devialet hopes to capture a larger audience with its ‘more affordable’ offering. At €399 ($425), the Gemini II is certainly a pocket-pincher, but it’s still the most budget offering in Devialet’s catalog. The TWS earbuds are also a great way for the company to maintain profitability, given their high margins.

Devialet debuted the Gemini nearly 3 years ago… and with the Gemini II, the company has addressed quite a few upgrades and improvements. For starters, the earbuds are now 22% smaller than their predecessors, weighing only 6 grams a pop, and come with 4 ear-tips to fit a wide range of ear sizes. Titanium drivers power the insides, and the earbuds offer a whopping 40dB of attenuation with their ANC mode.

The Gemini II’s ANC is powered by their company’s secret combination of design and software engineering, which also offers Active Wind Reduction and Internal Delay Compensation. The wind reduction feature relies on a clever bit of engineering that hides the microphone away from wind-prone parts of the earbud, behind an ‘anti-wind’ material. On the software front, wind detection algorithms smartly control Adaptive Noise Cancellation and Transparency intensity according to your environment. As a feature, noise cancellation usually results in a minute delay, but Devialet’s patented algorithm perfectly compensates for it, resulting in a significant gain in noise cancellation, especially at higher frequencies.

The charging case is also a significant 40% smaller than the first-gen Gemini, with a newer design that’s much more reminiscent of a TWS earbud case. While some would probably opine that the previous generation’s case was a little too experimental/sculptural to actually be handy, the Gemini II fixes that with a conventional flip-top case that reveals the two earbuds inside. The case is also adorned by a metallic band that sports the Devialet branding, including a special-edition Opéra de Paris version with a gilded belt and golden segments inside the earbuds.

The Gemini II runs Bluetooth 5.2 which allows it to connect to two devices at the same time. Devialet boasts that the Gemini II offers 22 hours of playback with the charging case, is IPx4 water and sweat resistance, has USB-C as well as Qi-supported wireless charging, and also comes with a companion smartphone app that allows you to configure EQ settings, ANC, transparency mode, and more.

The post Devialet’s Gemini II TWS Earbuds look like Tiny Versions of their High-end Phantom Speakers first appeared on Yanko Design.

Devialet Mania portable speaker with intelligent optimized sound gets matching sci-fi looks

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Devialet, the high-end French audio technology company known for its winning audio equipment and accessories – including Expert 1000 Pro Amplifier, Dione soundbar, Phantom speakers and Gemini earbuds has added another product to its lineup. The premium brand has debuted its first-ever truly portable speaker with the promise of exceptional intelligent sound delivery without compromising on design.

Christened Devialet Mania, the portable speaker has the peculiar Daft Punk helmet vibe to it, and geeks will want to sport it in their desk setup without a doubt. Not surprisingly the battery-powered speaker carries a mind-numbing price tag of $790, and will only be the privilege of rich brats, or a crazy audiophile who wants to burn a hole in their pocket.

Designer: Devialet

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The meticulously designed speaker has no front or back, boasting a roundish design like a kettlebell at the gym. What makes this portable speaker premium in audio quality is the intelligent use of technology to calibrate sound based on where it is placed. For example, if the Mania is placed near a wall, the speakers will pump the sound to make it wider and thumping. This is done via the four microphones at the base of the speaker, performing Active Calibration to map the room for acoustics. Things like bigger obstacles, furniture and walls to “automatically adapt the audio rendering” to adapt to the surroundings.

Just for the record, Mania has six individual drivers, four Hi-Fi speakers projected in each corner, and high-excursion woofers to create the best sound out there you can expect from portable Bluetooth speakers. The company provides this speaker with an automatic room mapping option to guide the machine learning model to ascertain the level each speaker needs to operate at for the best-sounding audio. IPX4-rated Mania gets built-in Alexa for voice commands along with support for AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect.

Devialet Mania is available in three finish options – Deep Black and Light Gray for $790 and the flamboyant Opéra de Paris has 24-karat gold components priced at $990. The charging dock is priced at $80 for the first two, while the third will get it as a part of the package.

 

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Stunning Devialet Butterfly speaker concept comes with an elegant design and dual-firing audio chambers

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A successor to the Phantom, this fan-made concept takes Devialet’s unique design language to new heights.

I’ll be honest, it’s been nearly a decade since Devialet unveiled the Phantom and it’s still the most beautiful speaker out there (it also still remains on my bucket list, even with its $2k price tag). However, seems like the Phantom has some competition, at least in the looks department) from the Devialet Butterfly, a fan-made concept from the mind of Carota Design. The butterfly boasts of a design that seems like a beautiful intersection between nature-inspired design and luxury design. The speaker has a soft triangular side profile, and sports audio chambers on each side. Just like the Phantom, the Butterfly has the iconic detailed speaker grille on the front, and mounts on the signature Devialet tripod for a (literally) elevated sonic experience.

Designer: Carota Design

A visual exercise in recreating Devialet’s product language, Carota’s Butterfly speaker is all about looking elegant. The speaker sports the same CMF choices as Devialet’s previous speakers, with an interplay between white and chrome, and is even designed around the same architecture as the Phantom, with reverberating radiators on the left and the right, while a full-range speaker sits on the front, right behind Devialet’s signature grille.

Unlike the Phantom, however, the Butterfly is a delicately designed speaker that can only be mounted on a tripod. The lack of a flat base means the Butterfly can’t quite be kept on tabletops, although the slender legs of the tripod definitely help maintain the illusion of a butterfly with delicate legs. Carota Design also rendered the beauty in red and leather-trimmed finishes, although I’d really like to see one in all black!

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Imagine if the Google Home smart-speaker charged your phone, and had audio drivers from Devialet

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The future is truly in multitasking. It isn’t enough that your wireless charger charges only one device. It needs to charge three at a time… and your wristwatch? It should tell you the time, indicate your health, and also let you send and receive calls. In a world where all our products are designed to multitask, it seems like the smart-speaker is capable of a lot more than playing audio from the web on command. Meet the Soundform Elite. It’s a smart-speaker enabled with Google Assistant (and it looks a bit like the Google Nest Home too), as well as a wireless charging dock equipped with Belkin’s charging technology, and incredibly powerful audio drivers by none other than Devialet.

The partnership between Belkin and Devialet is interesting for a number of reasons. Belkin is famed for making some of the best charging cables, hubs, adapters, and extension boxes on the market, while Devialet still reigns as the most awarded audio company in the world. The companies announced their collaboration at CES this year, with the Soundform Elite, which happens to be Devialet’s second smart-speaker after its collab with Huawei. The Soundform Elite works just like any smart-speaker, albeit with a docking area for your phone. Equipped with a fast-charging 10W Qi charger, the Soundform Elite has the unique feature of being able to charge a wide variety of compatible Android phones as well as iPhones, making it a worthy pick for Apple enthusiasts too. Moreover, fitted with Devialet’s incredibly capable driver and woofer technology, the Soundform should easily outperform other speakers in its price category of $299.

The Soundform Elite comes in the classic Black and White color-schemes (much like the HomePod), and has a neat fabric clad around the outside which is practically a standard for smart-speakers now. It ships in Spring 2020, although it’s up for preorder on Belkin’s site.

Designers: Belkin & Devialet

Huawei + Devialet join forces to create the Sound X, a smart speaker to rival the HomePod

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Before we dwell on the Sound X’s familiar design, let’s just address that this speaker might just be the best smart speaker on the market. Let’s ignore the fact that it’s only slated for a China release and focus on Huawei’s partnership with Devialet, the most awarded audio company in the world. Devialet’s Phantom speaker remains one of my favorite speakers of all time, and I still remember it giving me literal goosebumps when I heard the demo. Its art-deco inspired styling and the internal analog+digital drivers quite literally blew me apart. Devialet’s speakers cost a fortune, starting at $1090 and going up to $2990, so to see the company partnering with Huawei to launch the Sound X which only retails for $285, is definitely something worth watching out for. Trusting Devialet to deliver on the audio drivers and Huawei to deliver on the internet connectivity and internal AI, the Sound X is an extremely compelling buy for audio aficionados in China… especially for the people who want HomePod-quality audio without the price, and with that, let’s briefly touch upon the design.

In its black, cylindrical shape, the Sound X is roughly the same size and shape as the Homepod. It, however, comes with a fabric base and a plastic upper, somehow looking like a cross between the HomePod and the 2013 Mac Pro. On the inside, the Sound X sports a 60 watt double subwoofer and 360-degree sound thanks to a ring of 6 drivers below it. The smart speaker also has 6 microphones that capture any voice commands you give it from anywhere in the house, and even pack a touch-control panel on the top. The Sound X ships with Huawei’s voice assistant Xiaoyi, and is currently limited to a China-only release, but I’m sure a review unit should find itself on YouTube anytime soon!

Designers: Huawei & Devialet

Altice’s smart speaker uses Alexa to control your TV set-top box

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You probably don't associate cable giant Altice USA with the cutting edge of smart home technology, but it's determined to change your mind. The company has unveiled a smart speaker, the Amplify, that can serve as a complement to your existing cable...

Why can’t all set-top boxes be as stylish as the Freebox Delta?

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It might seem strange to do a deep-dive of an internet and TV set-top box, let alone one that you can't have in the United States. But the Freebox Delta from French carrier Free, equipped with Devialet speakers, is so strange, stylish and interesting...