Techilicious by Rajiv Makhni: The Pearl Vs the Phantom: It’s war!

Audio in the last few years has done a complete about turn. For years, audio played along legacy lines. Loudspeakers had technology from a 100 years back and people were still thrilled by them and even loved it if someone made something even more old school. Warm and classic was better than new and innovative and, at the end of the day, all speaker technology was dismissed as ‘moving air’ so no real breakthrough was required.

Audio now

Look at it now. The hottest category is TWS earbuds; active noise cancellation headphones are a different category altogether; Bluetooth speakers have been in demand and even traditional speakers are now experimenting with flat form factors and different technologies. But one category has seen the most innovation and technology. Premium wireless speakers. It’s an amalgamation of everything that the audio world has to offer. They need no extra equipment as the amps and all other stuff is built in, have multi-room capabilities, have a form factor that makes them very distinct, play everything and have their own app. Till now, the king of this category was the Devialet Phantom. Now it has a new and very worthy contender. The Cabasse Pearl.

The Phantom

My first encounter (I have to call it that) with the Phantom was around three years ago. I was blown. The sound was incredibly rich, the mids were pure, it could play at dangerously loud volumes with no distortion and the bass was the kind where you started to hunt for a separate subwoofer only to realise that it was all coming from within the Phantom. Devialet called the Phantom Gold the most powerful wireless speaker in the world and backed it up with a 4500 watt and 108 dB SPL performance. They said it could drown out the sound of a jet taking off and I could believe it. For years the Phantom has ruled the roost. Until now that is.

Enter the Pearl

Two large and heavy boxes landed in our test area. The only things I knew about the Cabasse Pearl was that they were a French company and that they have been doing this kind of stuff for years but for a very different audience. Cabasse Le Sphère speakers have been spoken about in audio circles in hushed tones for their performance and price (priced at around USD 200,000 they have their own demonstration room on the fifth floor of Harrods). Thus the Pearl has a high pedigree. Opening the box was quite an experience and picking up the Pearl to set it up was a two-person job. It’s almost perfectly spherical, 32cms tall, with a highly polished outer surface and sits in its own ring. In looks, this is a speaker truly from the future. Set-up was easy, the app is simple to use and each comes with a remote control. We had two but I wanted to pitch the Phantom versus the Pearl in similar circumstances. In about 30 minutes we were set. Both the Phantom and the Pearl were in launch mode. The Pearl has a sound output rating of 118dB but could it beat it in sound clarity? Time for a face off!

The face-off

Our tests were going to be done with wav files as well as with Bluetooth and streaming. Each track would be played and rated on both speakers. We played around with the two for over four hours. The Cabasse Pearl won, and won quite effectively. I cannot say it blew the Phantom out of the water, but it did make sound feel alive and harmonious and happy. The Pearl was more vivid with outstanding mid-range, voice reproduction and the bass was exceptional. In fact, some tracks played so well that we discovered new parts to certain tracks we hadn’t heard before.

The good part is, the entry of the Cabasse Pearl makes this category that much better. Devialet will have to step up its game. This also means an active wireless speaker can put complicated audio equipment that costs many thousands of dollars more to shame. I can’t wait to hook on both Pearl speakers as a stereo set-up and watch a movie. That might just be more joy than my ears can handle.

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

From HT Brunch, October 11, 2020

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