Phantoms and home cinema

[GTX]

Ouch. I connected one of the 2 phantom optically with my DVD player. The connected phantom works, the other one does not. Am I missing anything?

[RobLnd]

Hi,
i connected blue ray and sky hd box to each phantom via optical. then the sources are connected to my tv via hdmi. my tv is a 65u7500 uhd samsung and its known to be slow in processing due to the 4k up-sample (not good for gaming apparently but i don't play..and perfect for phantom!!)
the results are fine. i guess around max 30ms difference. you won't notice that.
of course if you have a fast processing tv or if u use the tv optical output as audio source the results are bad and to me impossible to use.
but otherwise are ok. and i am fussy about those things! so trust me.

PS: obviously no surround involved in my case


2 silver/1 dialog

[rpomeroy]

My setup: 

    AppleTV -->HDMI --> Pioneer Elite Plasma --> Toslink --> Dialog --> Phantom (2X).


When using this setup for listening to audio everything works perfect (I mean I absolutely LOVE my Phantoms!) as long as I turn down the TV's attached sound bar.

The fun begins when I try to use the TV's sound bar at the same time at the Phantoms (when watching video from the AppleTV).  Yea - huge delay and you get a lovely echo effect. This makes me wonder about the implications of using the Dialog and Phantoms (possibly adding more Phantoms) for a home theater setup.

So, I'm assuming that with wireless buffering and all the Dialog's processing the Phantoms are actually delayed relative to the TV's built-in sound bar. I wouldn't mind a little feedback from the forum on my assumptions.  I'm not sure how to reason about say - the delay that may be introduced by the TV separating out the audio from the HDMI in the Pioneer.  

Originally I had: 

     AppleTV --> Toslink --> Dialog --> Phantom (2X).

...but that option will disappear with the next generation AppleTV due in November and it also suffers the echo problem.     

What I'm contemplating is adding two rear Phantoms and leveraging the TV's sound bar to effectively act as a center channel for a pseudo 5.1 system.  I don't really want to have two separate and distinct audio solutions for home theater and music.  The whole thing has me wondering about managing both audio and video delay in such a (mixed) system -- for both the lip-sync problem and keeping multiple audio paths in sync.

Thoughts/Advice/Product recommendations?

Ron

[f1eng]

Devialet have announced that they will implement a surround system for the Phantom system (integrated into Spark) at a later date. It will probably be worth waiting until then since the likely hood of a mixed system working, given the reality of timing issues in mixed digital systems, is near zero.
The only down-side is that Devialet do not have a good track record of expediting software enhancements.

I use my Phantoms for TV connected to the optical output of a Humax tuner. The timing is OK most of the time but a couple of times has been off, which seemed to be fixed by removing and then reselecting the optical input from the playqueue in Spark. I am just happy with stereo. Personally I appreciate a good quality stereo sound with TV more than a modest surround system.

[RobLnd]

I totally agree with f1eng. "better a good quality stereo sound with TV more than a modest surround system"
Trying to create surround system with Phantom at this stage it simply doesn't make sense. I cannot even seen the point of talking about how to connect it and what performance one can obtain.

The Phantoms are not for surround systems until proper software is release and you buy at least 4 of them! The phantom concept is not made for working with other audio equipment (av receiver, subwoofers, rear channels, etc.).

If you want a surround system, just buy one.

And again I agree with f1eng, they are good as stereo speakers in a video system, but that is a different story.

And yes, i noticed myself that i need to reset the source sometime....as after a while the delay starts accumulating. Not sure how and if there is a trigger... or they slow down what they are reproducing (scary if it is the case!)

[mixart]

I'm also enjoying my two Phantom Silver for bluray movies. Dont know if I will buy two more for surround. Maybe one more for center, if it makes a different. If they come with a improved Phantom speaker, I could use my Phantom Silver for surrounding.

[stonedragon]

I use 3 to create a WALL OF SOUND for stereo when watching movies. Because the bass is prodigious I don't feel the need for a sub

IT IS VERY, VERY SCARY....

BUT GREAT FUN.....

[mixart]

I use 3 to create a WALL OF SOUND for stereo when watching movies. Because the bass is prodigious I don't feel the need for a sub

IT IS VERY, VERY SCARY....

BUT GREAT FUN.....    

How does the center work for movies, when Dialog is not supporten surround for now?

[RobLnd]

As said in my previous post....this conversation doesn't make sense.
having a mono phantom as central will screw up the stereo image. really doesn't make sense even to write about it.
surround in one things/ having 20 phantoms all playing in the same room is another. i guess noisy but not surround as in an proper encoded way.
but then ....let them (users) play after work!

[fgueho]

Well, I don't totally agree.
It is not surround so it does'nt sound how it should with all the effects. True.

BUT I have heard a demo with 4 phantoms. I can't remember the movie, but they show us the difference between 2 phantoms (front) and 4 phantoms (front and rear), and there was a big gap. It was very pleasing with 4 phantoms.
Even without the real surround, just in double stereo, it really filled the room. There was a huge difference. Just because there was sound behind us, we were wrapped by it.
The sound seems more like what you have in a movie theatre.
It was very good to immerse you in the movie.

I don't have a room where I can put two more phantoms behind my couch, so I will stay with a stereo setup, but it was really good. I liked it a lot.
And it will even be better with the surround effects...

(there was of course a delay of 200ms, which to me was very annoying, and still is)