India, Jan. 29 -- The room was far from ideal. Hard floors. Large glass windows. Almost no acoustic treatment. Yet when Devialet powered on a single Phantom Ultimate speaker, the sound filled the space with ease. This was intentional. The French audio company wanted its newest speaker judged in real-world conditions, not a controlled demo room.

Phantom Ultimate marks the first major evolution of the Phantom line since 2015. It arrives after nearly ten years of development and refinement. Rather than chasing a radical redesign, Devialet focused on strengthening its original promise: delivering the scale and emotion of traditional hi-fi systems in a compact form suited for modern homes.

Devialet's founding goal was ambitious. Match the pe...