Dante, Atmos and Arvus H1-D

[booshtukka]

Okay, I hope so. My living is definitely an unusual space!

[njaiswal]

I upgraded my initial Dante configuration by swapping out my Anthems and analog to digitial AVIO dante dongles with JBL SDP-55s. There is a definite improvement in sound quality by going all digital. The one "downside" is that in my configuration, the bit and sampling rates were limited to CD quality. I don't hear a difference but some may and you might be disappointed with the results.

I can say that my Dante enabled HT's are amazing. I have had so many people look dumbfounded when they watch a movie and ask me where the speakers are and I point to the phantoms. :-)

[booshtukka]

Do you think it makes a big different to HT to have all Phantom Is? I’m thinking I could get away with the centre and surrounds being Phantom II Customs…

[Yondu]

Do you think it makes a big different to HT to have all Phantom Is? I’m thinking I could get away with the centre and surrounds being Phantom II Customs…

Hi for L/R Phantom I are a must have. For Surround and "Atmos" effects speakers Phantom II (the AES67/Dante capable) are great. A Phantom I for center channel will have clearer voice and more impact than a Phantom II.

[njaiswal]

Do you think it makes a big different to HT to have all Phantom Is? I’m thinking I could get away with the centre and surrounds being Phantom II Customs…

I think the center needs to be phantom 1.  You can get away with phantom 2 customs for the remaining channels.  I have Phantom 1's for L/C/R and Phantom 2's for surround and am happy with that configuration.  The only downside with mixing models is that there will be a latency discrepancy between the phantom 1 and phantom 2 which may cause some issues with surround and atmos mixes.  I'm compensating for the latency issues with a symetrix.  i have the JBL send its output to the symetrix and then to the phantoms.

[Yondu]

Do you think it makes a big different to HT to have all Phantom Is? I’m thinking I could get away with the centre and surrounds being Phantom II Customs…

I think the center needs to be phantom 1.  You can get away with phantom 2 customs for the remaining channels.  I have Phantom 1's for L/C/R and Phantom 2's for surround and am happy with that configuration.  The only downside with mixing models is that there will be a latency discrepancy between the phantom 1 and phantom 2 which may cause some issues with surround and atmos mixes.  I'm compensating for the latency issues with a symetrix.  i have the JBL send its output to the symetrix and then to the phantoms.

Phantom I needs to be configured with the "direct optical mode" with Devialet Dantestick https://stilus.ch/en/item/dante-stick;400623 (dante to optical converter) and Phantom II needs to be the custom version (built in Dante/AES67). In this case Dante network will manage latency with the (Dante/AES67) Dolby/DTS decoder. As Dante is a clock based network, latency will be the same on each product so without issues while decoding. They explained it here : https://www.devialet.com/en-gb/professio...ter-seven/  
Devialet has presented this solution many times in pro and consumer tradeshows, ISE in Barcelona, Cedia in the USA, PAVS in France and probably more that I don't know.
Here : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nngHoVyM...Y2VkaWE%3D
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxQBM-KF...Y2VkaWE%3D

[njaiswal]

Thanks for the info Yondu. :-). Even with the above configurations, there will be latency differences between the two models. They'll be off somewhere between 2-5ms. That's normally not an issue for stereo but for atmos it makes a difference. In my experience, almost all atmos processors assume that there is almost no latency with the speakers and don't compensate for it if it exists.

[Yondu]

Thanks for the info Yondu.  :-).  Even with the above configurations, there will be latency differences between the two models.  They'll be off somewhere between 2-5ms.  That's normally not an issue for stereo but for atmos it makes a difference.  In my experience, almost all atmos processors assume that there is almost no latency with the speakers and don't compensate for it if it exists.

Latency between Phantom 1 (optical direct mode with Dantestick) and Phantom 2 custom will be nearly the same (as Devialet shows it in tradeshows). On multicast they recommend (in relation with the manufacturer of the Dolby/DTS processor/decoder) to set Dante/AES67 latency to 5ms. When i've listened to it I do not experienced issues on dolby atmos or DTS:X contents. I suppose also that the room calibration solution (depending on manufacturer, Dirac, REWS or Room Perfect) is there to compensate delay and gain. No ?

[Yondu]

Thanks for the info Yondu.  :-).  Even with the above configurations, there will be latency differences between the two models.  They'll be off somewhere between 2-5ms.  That's normally not an issue for stereo but for atmos it makes a difference.  In my experience, almost all atmos processors assume that there is almost no latency with the speakers and don't compensate for it if it exists.

Latency between Phantom 1 (optical direct mode with Dantestick) and Phantom 2 custom will be nearly the same (as Devialet shows it in tradeshows). On multicast they recommend (in relation with the manufacturer of the Dolby/DTS processor/decoder) to set Dante/AES67 latency to 5ms. When i've listened to it I do not experienced issues on dolby atmos or DTS:X contents. I suppose also that the room calibration solution (depending on manufacturer, Dirac, REWS or Room Perfect) is there to compensate delay and gain. No ?

Network latency and QOS priorization could help (in particular with Dante networks) because this AoIP solution is working on layer 3 (OSI Model) instead of layer 2 (like AVB).

[njaiswal]

Thanks for the info Yondu.  :-).  Even with the above configurations, there will be latency differences between the two models.  They'll be off somewhere between 2-5ms.  That's normally not an issue for stereo but for atmos it makes a difference.  In my experience, almost all atmos processors assume that there is almost no latency with the speakers and don't compensate for it if it exists.

Latency between Phantom 1 (optical direct mode with Dantestick) and Phantom 2 custom will be nearly the same (as Devialet shows it in tradeshows). On multicast they recommend (in relation with the manufacturer of the Dolby/DTS processor/decoder) to set Dante/AES67 latency to 5ms. When i've listened to it I do not experienced issues on dolby atmos or DTS:X contents. I suppose also that the room calibration solution (depending on manufacturer, Dirac, REWS or Room Perfect) is there to compensate delay and gain. No ?

Thanks for the info Yondu.  :-).  Even with the above configurations, there will be latency differences between the two models.  They'll be off somewhere between 2-5ms.  That's normally not an issue for stereo but for atmos it makes a difference.  In my experience, almost all atmos processors assume that there is almost no latency with the speakers and don't compensate for it if it exists.

Latency between Phantom 1 (optical direct mode with Dantestick) and Phantom 2 custom will be nearly the same (as Devialet shows it in tradeshows). On multicast they recommend (in relation with the manufacturer of the Dolby/DTS processor/decoder) to set Dante/AES67 latency to 5ms. When i've listened to it I do not experienced issues on dolby atmos or DTS:X contents. I suppose also that the room calibration solution (depending on manufacturer, Dirac, REWS or Room Perfect) is there to compensate delay and gain. No ?

Thanks for sharing. Maybe the current set of processors are able to take into account the differences in latency between the models. :-)

Network latency and QOS priorization could help (in particular with Dante networks) because this AoIP solution is working on layer 3 (OSI Model) instead of layer 2 (like AVB).

QoS is an option if you're running multiple VLANs on a switch. I just have a separate switch for my dante network. keeps everything simple...