Paris – Audiophile supplier Devialet is bringing its spherical multiroom Wi-Fi speakers to the U.S., planning preorders through its web site on June 18 and bringing the models to its U.S. dealers and to a planned Devialet store in New York City’s SoHo district.
Availability dates haven’t been announced. The high-resolution stereo tabletop speakers, which stream 192kHz/24-bit audio, were shown at International CES.
The $1,990 Phantom and $2,390 Silver Phantom, both with stainless-steel side panels, will join the company’s Devialet Expert series of four low-profile integrated amplifiers with built-in DACs, phono stage, and streaming capability.
Each speaker can be used as a standalone stereo speaker to stream music from a tablet, PC, or smartphone via Wi-Fi 801.11 a/b/g/n or via HomePlug AV2, which turns a home’s powerlines into Ethernet cables. When used with an optional Dialog hub, up to 24 speakers can be used to deliver multiroom audio. Also with the hub, two can be paired to deliver stereo and to stream cloud-based music from Deezer, Qobuz, Tidal and other planned services. The hub also enables multiple speakers to be paired for use in a multichannel sound system.
The hub is priced at 299 euros. U.S. pricing hasn’t been released.
The speakers also re-stream audio from audio sources connected via optical input and via Bluetooth, said marketing director Romain Salzman.
The speakers measure 10 by 10 by 13.5 inches, but despite their compact size, they deliver bass down to 16Hz at 82dB SPL and bass down to 49Hz at 102dB SPL.
Devialet invented its own technology to enable multiroom use, making 1 million operations per second compared to DLNA’s 10 operations per second, Salzman noted.
