Pantheone I Speaker Review: Sonos Smarts with Style
"The Pantheone I is an exceptional speaker for both your eyes and your ears."
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Excellent audio quality
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Connected: Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm and AirPlay
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Unique design
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Supports high definition audio
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Easy to use and set up
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Expensive
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Imperfect app experience
When I asked the founder of Pantheone about his upcoming networked home speaker system, I saw a passion in him for creating something that many have tried and few have achieved: a home audio system that looks as good as it sounds. I have to take his side – most speaker systems are inherently ugly because they are nothing but functional. Most of the time, we just want to hide them (which is an important factor we consider when checking sound bars, for example).
The Pantheone I is not a speaker that anyone will try to hide. But does it sound like $ 2,200 and does it have the brain we expect in 2020? Let's go through it.
Unpack the giant
I feel bad for the delivery guy who pulled the 60 pound Pantheone box up a flight of stairs to my front door.
It was just as massive as I expected. The speaker itself was secure in foam in one box, in another box, wrapped in plastic, and held together with shipping tape and thick cardboard bumpers. I was kind of horrified at how much packaging was scattered around my living room. That is much. Pantheone won't score any points here on sustainability, but I'll say the product made it all the way to me with no flaws.
You can see the packaging carnage spread from my dining room to my living room. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The first thing you see when you open the inner box is a small zippered pocket that contains two white gloves. I am assuming that it is a "service with white gloves". I found the inclusion of these gloves cute and branded, but also pretty goofy and funny as I have never experienced a white gloved service that I actually had to attend. As silly as they are, I appreciate them as the Pantheone unit can fingerprint and the gloves that came with it were definitely helpful in mitigating this while I got them to their final location.
Aside from being wrapped in foam, the Pantheone comes in a silk-like bag that, while nice to the touch, feels a bit free. It's not that I plan to box this speaker up and take it with me everywhere.
The Pantheone is powered by a standard power cord, but is strangely short for a home speaker. If you don't have electrical outlets in your floor, four feet of cord won't be enough for most people to bring the device to a central location in the living room. We plebeians with only a few sockets per room will most likely need an extension cord. My black speaker also came with a white cord that stands out a lot more than black on my hardwood floors. I wish Pantheone had included both colors in the box to give me more flexibility.
The power connector and the physical on / off switch are located on the underside of the device. Since there is also a touch-sensitive power switch on the top of the device, I'm not entirely sure why this physical switch is needed at all. It might have something to do with the power converter that I'm sure is wrapped up here (since the cable doesn't have a transformer) but that's just my guess.
Physical controls
The Pantheone I is a smart speaker like a Sonos or Amazon Echo. Hence, you need to set up a few minutes to use it. Just like Sonos, this process is thankfully quick and painless. When you turn on the Pantheone, a pleasant voice informs you that it is waiting to pair and downloads the app to get it started. Once downloaded, the Pantheone app will immediately search for the speaker and guide you through a simple process to connect it to your home's WiFi. No more than 30 seconds later, everything is set up and ready to use.
Setup is thankfully quick and painless.
The top gives you basic music controls like volume, play / pause, and skip. However, since there is no screen, you'll have to rely on a second device to broadcast the speaker content (in the same way as Sonos). I rarely use these controls mounted above because you can do everything they can and more from your phone or computer.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
Since the buttons don't physically click, a chime will sound every time you press a button to confirm your command. This can get annoying when adjusting the volume as it disrupts the sound of your music. Nitpicky, I know.
Easy on the eyes
A section of a review that deals with the look of a product is pretty unusual to us, but remember: this isn't just a speaker, it's art.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
I've shown the Pantheone to a number of friends and colleagues and received a fairly polarizing series of responses about its design. One of my associate editors called it hideous and refused to spend more than a few seconds looking at it. My wife likes it and thinks that if our house were not designed in a French country house style, but modern or modern, it would look fantastic. One of my co-workers said it looked like alien eggs. Another said it looked "majestic".
The upper speaker array contains a tweeter and midrange driver, while the lower one contains a subwoofer. The same arrangement is repeated on the other side. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
I think they are all correct. Art is meant to be subjective, and what appeals to me may not necessarily appeal to you. I think we can all agree that the Pantheone looks most unusual for a speaker. If you like the lines it draws and can see it in your home, that's all that matters.
App and integration
With Spotify labels all over the Pantheone box and manuals, it's clearly the streaming platform of choice for this speaker. Fortunately, the Spotify experience is fabulous too and is on par with the experience you would expect with Sonos. Regardless of which platform Spotify is open on, you can instantly see that music is being streamed to the Pantheone, and you also have full control of the Spotify platform. Hence, the Spotify experience with this speaker is the best.
Although several other services are supported, their integration is not necessarily as good. TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Apple Music, Tidal, and Napster are all directly supported, but I found that the Tidal experience wasn't that optimized. Unlike Sonos, Tidal doesn't seem to be fully integrated. While you can stream master tracks (which Pantheone supports) by logging into Tidal through the Pantheone app, the Pantheone won't show up as a supported source when using the Tidal app on your phone or computer.
Granted, Sonos doesn't seem as connected to Tidal as it is to Spotify, at least as far as the desktop app is concerned. My Sonos Move doesn't appear as a source in the desktop app, but it does appear in the mobile app. Pantheon does not appear either.
The start screen has plenty of room to grow. Up to 8 Pantheone devices can be connected. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
Easy access to multiple music sources. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The turntable spins while the music is playing, which is cute. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The Pantheone app gives you access to all offers of a music streaming service. So, if you don't mind using Pantheone's user interface, you have no problem here. However, I have found that whenever you put your phone to sleep, the Pantheone app seems to forget the connection and has to spend a few seconds reconnecting each time. Music continues to play without interruption, but it is not a perfect user experience. In addition, you can only control the volume of the Pantheone I from your phone when the app is open (e.g. from the lock screen as you can when using the Spotify app).
The Pantheone I works with AirPlay, but there is a delay of more than a second when you select a new track, pause a track, or even adjust the volume on your phone. This feels like something that can be ironed out with a firmware update and I hope they do because it's annoying enough that I stopped using AirPlay with the Pantheone at all.
Software is usually the biggest hurdle for companies that even make great hardware to leap successfully. So I'm going to loosen up Pantheone a bit here, especially since this is the company's first product.
The Alexa integration works perfectly. When you speak to him, the lighted upper control buttons will turn dark blue to indicate your voice has been heard and will flicker when starting a command. It's sufficiently visible and better integrated than I've seen on most other Alexa-enabled devices.
There is currently no way to adjust the Pantheone's EQ values to your personal preferences (except for Spotify on mobile devices, when there is a direct connection via a 3.5 mm jack). However, this feature will be available for the app at a later date.
Room-filling noise
If a giant $ 2,200 speaker didn't sound great, we'd have a problem. Fortunately, there is no problem here – the Pantheone produces extraordinary sound. The multi-level driver layout and two-sided design result in a truly wonderful audio projection that transmits rooms through and through with incredible fidelity. While other speakers I've tested require more than one unit to get a strong sense of immersive sound, the Pantheone achieves this from a single monolithic egg.
For a company's first product, the Pantheone is shocking, incredibly good.
Personally, I love the sound quality of professional studio monitors as opposed to the processed sound that can be achieved with more consumer-centric headphones. It is usually more neutral in quality and clean, with even emphasis across the frequency spectrum. With that in mind, the Pantheone is like a pair of fabulous over-ear studio monitors for your entire room. Every detail of every note is clear, beautifully rendered, and danced through your living space.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
The highs are beautifully balanced with the mids, and the bass is strong but not overwhelming. High definition audio streams from Tidal highlight the effect. For example, in some songs where the bass is much more important, it will get a boost. In other cases, when it falls behind so as not to overwhelm the other channels. If you've ever wondered how a musician wanted their music to be heard and you trust Tidal to get all this information in their master tracks, then you know the Pantheone stays true to that sound.
If a giant $ 2,200 speaker didn't sound great, we'd have a problem. Fortunately there is no problem here.
Most impressively, the Pantheone maintains a balanced EQ regardless of volume. From soft background music to window-shaking maximum power, I never had the feeling that what I was hearing wasn't exactly perfect as the music was supposed to sound like. This level of control is unusual and extraordinary.
Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends
Basically there aren't any other speakers like the Pantheone I, but if we had to compare, we'd immediately look at Sonos, Bose, Amazon, and Bluesound as they are the only other big brands making connected home music solutions. You may also want to consider Phantom, although personally I have no previous experience with their product.
I took a Sonos Move and put it next to the Pantheone to hear the difference in sound quality. I did the same with a bluesound soundbar that I praised for its musical chops. Totally unfair, I know, but I was curious as the Move is considered a great speaker and I liked the bluesound bar.
Side by side, the Pantheone blows them both out of the water – as it should. Where there's a cloudy, cloudy mix where highs, mids, and lows cross on the Sonos, each one was rendered clearly and beautifully on the Pantheone. The bluesound soundbar also didn't achieve the same level of sparkling detail and balance and was much weaker in the lows. It was absolutely not a fair fight, but know that when you throw serious coins at the Pantheone, the price of the system isn't just for looks and connectivity: this thing can really sing.
Our opinion
The Pantheone is incredibly expensive, and that's its biggest flaw. It pains me that the vast majority of those who read this review will never personally experience the audio quality of this speaker because they will never see or hear one in person. Not only is it a beautifully designed speaker aesthetically, but also from an integrated as well as an auditory point of view. For a company's first product, the Pantheone is shocking, incredibly good. We hope the company can make additional products that are more accessible to the average person as it clearly has the capabilities to compete with Sonos' Goliath.
Is there a better alternative?
As I mentioned earlier, there really is no other product like the Pantheone I. There are expensive high-fidelity speakers like the Devialet Phantom that we have looked at in the past that are possibly the closest thing to a direct competitor (though I did haven't personally tested). Or, you can buy a Sonos 5 or the Bose Home Speaker 500, which are much cheaper than the Phantom or the Pantheone but pale compared to the audio quality. But Pantheone markets its speaker as a work of art in addition to a home speaker solution and stands alone in this area.
How long it will take?
The Pantheone I is incredibly well built and made of resin, not traditional plastic. Backed by regular firmware updates and a great 2 year warranty, I expect the Pantheone I to perform wonderfully for years to come.
Should you buy it?
If you can afford to save $ 2,200 on a home speaker solution and your décor matches the Pantheone's unique design, I would emphatically say yes. The Pantheone I is extremely expensive, but I'm confident that you can enjoy it while playing music as well as not playing it.
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