Intro
Contents
The world of cinema and custom install is very different from that of traditional hi-fi. Custom Install is, however, a strongly emerging market. For years. Just look at the range of all major brands. Where first bookshelfs and floorstanders dominated, you now see more and more in-wall and active models. The wishes and demands of the modern man are different. Fortunately the flexible brands know how to combine these new wishes with good reproduction. We take a look at the DALI Phantom M-375.
In the world of custom install, very different requirements play a role. Installation depth, paintability and ease of installation are crucial. So very different from ‘normal’ speakers where very different things play a role. Think of the footprint or appearance in general. Also, in the design of an ordinary speaker very different things play a role. They are placed somewhere in the room. A built-in speaker is…. well…. build in. In short: fewer variables to take into account.
DALI Phantom M-375
DALI is a well-known Danish speaker designer with a wide range of speakers. Both floorstanders and bookshelfs as well as subwoofers, active models and… Custom Install. A few years back we tested the Phantom S-280. Their flagship. And boy… what a speaker. It did open our eyes and ears. So it is simply possible to achieve a super sound with in-wall!
The Phantom M-375 does it for the more budget-critial enthusiast. We see fewer units. It is less large and… less expensive. Where the S-280 are around 7000 Euro per pair, you get the M-375 for around 2200 Euro per pair. That’s just under a third of the price. And that brings a nice in-wall speaker a little closer to the “common man” again.
What does that money buy? Quite a lot. Think of the famous hybrid tweeter of DALI where a ribbon and a soft dome work together. In addition, a 7-inch woofer and two passive radiators for some extra bass. All together, the range is 57 Hz – 25 kHz. This is sufficient for normal use, however a subwoofer is recommended for those who use these speakers as main speakers. DALI positions them as multi-channel in-wall speakers. And in a multi-channel installation almost always a subwoofer plays along.
Installation of the Phantom series is easy. In the box is a cut-out template. This shows exactly what you need to cut out. The installation depth is only 10cm which is very shallow. This is a good thing, because it means that little space is lost if you have to install a wall. Since the Phantom already has a back-box (part of the speaker), a separate back-box or other isolation is not necessary. In short: if the hole is there, you can just put the speaker in and you are done. If it is tight…it is right. (We documented everything in our review of the Phantom S-280) Once in the wall, you can still place the front. This is paintable / repaintable.
