Phantoms delivered this afternoon

[f1eng]

With the Dialog and stereo the intermittent sound on one channel always happens at the beginning of each track, and monitoring wifi data transfer coincides with the track being initially (presumably) sent to the Dialog.
The music still sometimes stops mid track, and Spark is in pause mode but does not re-start where it left off.

This sounds like a network problem to me, in particular the stopping mid-track and going into pause mode. Maybe there are problems with buffering.

It seems like a network problem to me too, I have reported the details to support.
Having said that the network has been working fine with wireless AIR in high def on the 800 for a couple of years or more.
I wait with interest for diagnosis or a suggestion of more tests from support.

The sound quality is very, very good for the money. The biggest shortcoming for me at the moment is that Devialet support have confirmed that the optical input on the Dialog is not yet enabled, so presumably stereo is not an option with CD. We already know USB isn't implemented so integration with my main system isn't possible either, so I am stuck with streaming which is my least favourite source.

Hello You can go from your CD directly to the Phantom via Optical - it works very well

Thanks, I saw that one could connect to the Phantom but thought that was for combined mono.
Enjoying a CD now!

[Jwg1749]

Have you got the Phantoms working in stereo now, Frank?
Matt

[stonedragon]

My initial problem with reconfiguring the phantoms was that starting up Spark again would not let you get past the "I Accept" screen. That is solved by unplugging the Dialog...and then plugging it back again. Turning on the Phantoms and waiting for the noise. Then Spark lets you get by the "I Accept" page. From there everything seems to go OK...."You have 2 Phantoms"? Yes.....touch 1of2......touch 2of2. Now configuring....everything seems to be OK, (tells you this should last a minute or two [which it did on the initial setup that worked]). Consistently there is a silence that arises about 1.5 to 2 minutes into these subsequent configurations that makes you feel like something has gone right, but the drone noise just starts up again and it continues to say its configuring. I've waited up to 10 minutes listening to this loud drone while the Phantoms tell me they're configuring. (Did Devialet not experience or anticipate this agonising drone noise attack for customers who might have problems with installation and setup!?, What a headache!!)

I've removed and reinstalled Spark over 5 times, unplugged and plugged in the Dialog and Phantoms as many times or more. I think this is a software bug/malfunction, not a procedural problem. I just don't think Spark is ready for paying customers. I'd return them if I'd purchased these locally.

Yes this is about the same procedure I followed, except there is one other thing people can try.

If SPARK is saying picking up one speaker and you are actually in the app, try this.

From the HOME page swipe to the left.
This will take you to the page where the songs are queued up.
Swipe to the left again.
This will take you to the page 'Playing on'
In the top left corner there is a icon of a large cog. Press that.
This will take you to the 'Devices' page
At the bottom of this page there is an option 'Restart setup'
Hit that button, which will wipe all your settings and allow a fresh setup.

At this stage I would follow the advice of DSJ that was given above (unplug Dialog before continuing etc).

But I think DSJ is correct about the software. This is beta and not fit for commercial release. That said I've got mine working and I'm loving it to bits. Just watched 'Thor' on it. Amazing bass and general sound. I honestly do not miss having a dedicated sub woofer as per my old system.

Sound wise, things seem very promising.

Would you please elaborate on the setup used to 'watch' Thor?
Previous L+R replaced with Phantoms in a 5.1 setup? Or just the Phantoms?

Hello alandbush,

All I had playing was just my two Phantoms. It was amazing. I was watching it through the Playstation, which I have configured just for 2 channel set up. So everything from top to bottom should be going through Phantoms, unlike when you have the rig set up as 5.1 with a dedicated bass channel. In any case, the experience was fantastic. When Odin hits the chamber floor of the court room with his staff, that was brilliant. Just ooddles and oodles of lovely bass washing over you. Very good.

I have just come away from listening to some classic music as well. I have the Phantoms set at 10. Yes, that is only 10 out of 100 and I can tell you, even at such a minuscule volume setting nothing was lost . It was all there. Somebody posted and said the treble was lacking. Really? I don't think so. I know this all subjective, but given the choice of my B&W Diamonds and these I know which ones I would choose every time. I just love the ease of listening. You can listen to these at a really, really low volume without any loss of imaging or detail in the mid, high's or lows. Whereas with the B&Ws although a wonderful speaker, they need to be cranked up, which can become a bit wearisome after a while.

By the way, I have my Dialog connected with just the ethernet cable, going to the switch. That's it. Seems to work, just about, but the app is still crap.

[alandbush]

My initial problem with reconfiguring the phantoms was that starting up Spark again would not let you get past the "I Accept" screen. That is solved by unplugging the Dialog...and then plugging it back again. Turning on the Phantoms and waiting for the noise. Then Spark lets you get by the "I Accept" page. From there everything seems to go OK...."You have 2 Phantoms"? Yes.....touch 1of2......touch 2of2. Now configuring....everything seems to be OK, (tells you this should last a minute or two [which it did on the initial setup that worked]). Consistently there is a silence that arises about 1.5 to 2 minutes into these subsequent configurations that makes you feel like something has gone right, but the drone noise just starts up again and it continues to say its configuring. I've waited up to 10 minutes listening to this loud drone while the Phantoms tell me they're configuring. (Did Devialet not experience or anticipate this agonising drone noise attack for customers who might have problems with installation and setup!?, What a headache!!)

I've removed and reinstalled Spark over 5 times, unplugged and plugged in the Dialog and Phantoms as many times or more. I think this is a software bug/malfunction, not a procedural problem. I just don't think Spark is ready for paying customers. I'd return them if I'd purchased these locally.

Yes this is about the same procedure I followed, except there is one other thing people can try.

If SPARK is saying picking up one speaker and you are actually in the app, try this.

From the HOME page swipe to the left.
This will take you to the page where the songs are queued up.
Swipe to the left again.
This will take you to the page 'Playing on'
In the top left corner there is a icon of a large cog. Press that.
This will take you to the 'Devices' page
At the bottom of this page there is an option 'Restart setup'
Hit that button, which will wipe all your settings and allow a fresh setup.

At this stage I would follow the advice of DSJ that was given above (unplug Dialog before continuing etc).

But I think DSJ is correct about the software. This is beta and not fit for commercial release. That said I've got mine working and I'm loving it to bits. Just watched 'Thor' on it. Amazing bass and general sound. I honestly do not miss having a dedicated sub woofer as per my old system.

Sound wise, things seem very promising.

Would you please elaborate on the setup used to 'watch' Thor?
Previous L+R replaced with Phantoms in a 5.1 setup? Or just the Phantoms?

Hello alandbush,

All I had playing was just my two Phantoms. It was amazing. I was watching it through the Playstation, which I have configured just for 2 channel set up. So everything from top to bottom should be going through Phantoms, unlike when you have the rig set up as 5.1 with a dedicated bass channel. In any case, the experience was fantastic. When Odin hits the chamber floor of the court room with his staff, that was brilliant. Just ooddles and oodles of lovely bass washing over you. Very good.

I have just come away from listening to some classic music as well. I have the Phantoms set at 10. Yes, that is only 10 out of 100 and I can tell you, even at such a minuscule volume setting nothing was lost . It was all there. Somebody posted and said the treble was lacking. Really? I don't think so. I know this all subjective, but given the choice of my B&W Diamonds and these I know which ones I would choose every time. I just love the ease of listening. You can listen to these at a really, really low volume without any loss of imaging or detail in the mid, high's or lows. Whereas with the B&Ws although a wonderful speaker, they need to be cranked up, which can become a bit wearisome after a while.

By the way, I have my Dialog connected with just the ethernet cable, going to the switch. That's it. Seems to work, just about, but the app is still crap.

Thanks for the reply.
If it's amazing in stereo, what must it be like in surround?  If it can do surround of course. 

To all you early 'beta' testers, thanks for your impressions, good and bad.  Hang in there as I am sure the problems wll have to be sorted before long.

Ps - reminds me a lot of the early days of the Auralic Aries LDS app.

[brighty]

Hi,

New member here, been lurking for weeks and thought I'd post my impressions here in case it's of any help to anyone. I apologise for offending anyone with my music choices, which are rather eclectic. I once went to a Naim dealer who frowned on my choice of M.Jackson.

I ordered a single silver phantom as a 'tester' rather than go the whole hog with a stereo setup. I set the phantom up to stream wirelessly from my main PC with spark installed on that PC. I control the volume and playlist with the android spark app which automatically synchs with the main PC's spark app. The files that are being played are dbpoweramp ripped from CD to AIFF.

I am comparing the single phantom with my usual system of a macbook/Amarra ->Chord QBD76->Krell 300iL->Focal 1007Be.

Setup via wifi was without incident. It was only getting tracks to play that had me annoyed initially. I had a lot of trouble playing AIFF content from my phone, which is why I started streaming from my main PC.

Everyone talks about the bass and yes it really is impressive. Not 'for it's size' alone - it really is good bass. It goes deep and is very well controlled. I did not feel that the bass was excessive and it was actually tuneful. I wondered how much money I would have to spend on a normal hifi setup to get that quality level. Rebecca Pidgeon's Spanish Harlem on The Raven, was extremely well controlled. On my focals, I felt that there was a bit of a hump in the bass during the opening few seconds (could be room resonance?) but with the Phantom everything was great and taught.

Leftfield's Leftism album is always good for a laugh for bass, and I very much enjoyed how clean the bass was on Afro Left and Original. I live in an apartment and the neighbours downstairs came up to complain specifically using the word 'bass' several times. This was with the volume set at about 55 on Spark.

It's worth mentioning that I tried a 20Hz test track and couldn't hear (or feel) anything. I was at least 8 feet from the speaker.

Midrange is good, but initially I felt it was a little lean. With more listening I concluded that it was not and that it was more a case of the speaker being neutral.

Phs had mentioned earlier that the treble is weak. I have to agree, particularly in comparison with the 1007Be. There's no real sibilance (thank goodness) and there's not much decay at the upper end of the spectrum. It's not rolled off - it's simply not there. Listening to Rebecca Pidgeon and Holly Cole Trio, I can usually hear a breathiness (non-technical term) to their voices with a lot of air. That wasn't present here. Quality of the voice was good without being overly warm and detail was sufficient, but it wasn't where the Focals are.

If anyone's familiar with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (as I mentioned - eclectic), their Grand Ole Opry track has a lot of banjo. On the focals, there's a sharp metallic twang to the steel strings which give them impact. That is lost on the Phantoms. I hear a banjo, but I don't hear how hard the strings are picked. The track is still very entertaining to listen to, but I lose that ultimate detail.

I haven't yet pushed the phantoms at high volumes with complicated tracks, so I don't know if it starts to sound muddled. Given my neighbour situation, I don't think I'll be testing that soon.

As for Spark, it's a reasonable start. It controls my main PC flawlessly from my phone and tracks begin very quickly after selecting them. Interestingly, it was midway playing a track once and it crashed. I deleted that track (i managed to play it directly from my phone) file completely not just from spark but from my phone itself and when i booted the app up again, the song played for a good 5 seconds. I wonder if there's a largish buffer somewhere to prevent dropouts during streaming?

Overall, the quality of the Chord/Krell/Focal system is higher but I'm selling it because I just don't have time to listen anymore. The Phantom is an ideal solution for me. It is small, flexible, streams music and sounds great. I can leave it on and walk around the living room and I get something higher end than the other 'lifestyle' systems available.

Hope someone finds all that somewhat educational!

Daryll

[GuillaumeB]

Midrange is good, but initially I felt it was a little lean.  With more listening I concluded that it was not and that it was more a case of the speaker being neutral.

Phs had mentioned earlier that the treble is weak.  I have to agree, particularly in comparison with the 1007Be.  There's no real sibilance (thank goodness) and there's not much decay at the upper end of the spectrum.  It's not rolled off - it's simply not there.  Listening to Rebecca Pidgeon and Holly Cole Trio, I can usually hear a breathiness (non-technical term) to their voices with a lot of air.  That wasn't present here.  Quality of the voice was good without being overly warm and detail was sufficient, but it wasn't where the Focals are.

If anyone's familiar with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (as I mentioned - eclectic), their Grand Ole Opry track has a lot of banjo.  On the focals, there's a sharp metallic twang to the steel strings which give them impact.  That is lost on the Phantoms.  I hear a banjo, but I don't hear how hard the strings are picked.  The track is still very entertaining to listen to, but I lose that ultimate detail.

Hi Daryll and welcome to Devialet Chat! 

I wonder whether the so-called weakness in the treble department is more due to Spark/Dialog/software than the speaker itself. As others have already commented the tough bit in this speaker design was getting the bass right. It almost seems inconceivable that they would have overlooked the midrange/tweeter in the speaker design, the easier part! 

If this is the case things should get better with software updates.

Guillaume

[f1eng]

Have you got the Phantoms working in stereo now, Frank?
Matt

Yes Matt, they work in stereo using CD connected to one of the Phantoms.
Stereo streaming from my computer is not free of stuttering and loss of sound though.

[Jwg1749]

Have you got the Phantoms working in stereo now, Frank?
Matt

Yes Matt, they work in stereo using CD connected to one of the Phantoms.
Stereo streaming from my computer is not free of stuttering and loss of sound though.

Well, I guess that's a step forward, and since you're a CD person, it's not such a bad place to be.

So the wireless connection between the Phantoms works; it's just Dialog and/or Spark that are causing problems? I'm beginning to feel a bit pessimistic about the prospects of the Dialog working with the "expert" amps this side of Christmas. 

Matt

[f1eng]

Have you got the Phantoms working in stereo now, Frank?
Matt

Yes Matt, they work in stereo using CD connected to one of the Phantoms.
Stereo streaming from my computer is not free of stuttering and loss of sound though.

Well, I guess that's a step forward, and since you're a CD person, it's not such a bad place to be.

So the wireless connection between the Phantoms works; it's just Dialog and/or Spark that are causing problems? I'm beginning to feel a bit pessimistic about the prospects of the Dialog working with the "expert" amps this side of Christmas. 

Matt

Spark is a very new bit of software. It may have years to go before it is as good as some of the old debugged programmes.
My Dialog smells v-e-r-y hot. I unplug it when I am not using it. I am concerned for its durability.

[mirekti]

So the wireless connection between the Phantoms works; it's just Dialog and/or Spark that are causing problems? I'm beginning to feel a bit pessimistic about the prospects of the Dialog working with the "expert" amps this side of Christmas. 

What does Dialog bring which is missing in the Amp section? I don't have any so I wonder what is so special with the Dialog.