The main goal of ADH® is to combine the ultra-linearity and musicality of the analog (Class A) amp with the power, efficiency, and compactness of Class D amplification. Devialet’s custom silicon gets you into a level of performance that is close to a Class A amp without the weight, size, or heat generation.
Thanks to the class A analog amplifier, think of music with a “warmer,” “musical” sound profile and bass that has a more tuneful sense-of-timing and a rhythm-and-pacing that will make you want to tap your feet especially when you crank up the volume.
SAM® Acoustic Signal Processing
SAM® (Speaker Active Matching) is another state-of-the-art innovation from Devialet that trickled down from their Expert line of amplifiers to maintain acoustic accuracy within specific speaker drivers.
Where ADH® is the high-performance engine powering the output stage within a Phantom speaker, SAM® is the special processing that allows the engine to adapt (in real-time) to the audio signal going through it. It works by learning a speaker’s unique electroacoustic behaviors and then controls each driver to reproduce the exact acoustic pressure that was captured by the recording studio’s microphone. For every sample in the recording that is analyzed, SAM® will know the exact voltage required by the power amp to drive each Phantom driver, so that the acoustic pressure is a one-to-one image of the audio signal.
For the Phantom line, the result is a noticeable difference in bass response as you step up to each model in the line. So, as you step up from the least powerful to the most powerful Phantoms there will be more impactful bass with deeper bass extension as you move up the line.
With SAM® processing involved, another great advantage all Phantoms have is woofer protection that kicks in to save your speaker from potential damage should something happen in the signal. This is a great feature for protection and does not alter or distort the signal. Very nice touch.
ACE® — Omnidirectional Soundstage
ACE® (Active Cospherical Engine) Loudspeaker technology is the Phantom’s acoustic directivity pattern for its transducers to spread the sound waves out evenly in all directions with optimal dispersion management.
Whenever sound waves coming out of a speaker bounce back to hit the surface of the speaker’s cabinet, the cabinet can sometimes bend the waves and we call this type of breakage “surface diffraction.” Essentially, a curved cabinet will have less sound bouncing off of it compared to a square one.
Since Phantoms are curved like a sphere, their curved surfaces do not bend or diffract the sound waves. The result is an amazing bass reproduction with a more spatial sound that minimizes the effects of surface diffraction to near-zero.