Firmware 1.2.0.0 released

[Vivialet]

- There's a constant hissing noise coming from the Phantoms when playback starts and for about 2 seconds after stopping/pausing. I asked Devialet about it at the High End and they are aware of this and working on it (?). Strange I don't see other users over here mentioning it. Anyone? Or I might have missed it.

the hissing was one of the reasons that I have sent the Phantoms back after a week. SQ was very good indeed, but Devialet is promising 0 noise and currently this is absolutely not the case. It seems as if they mute the noise if no music is being played. I'm not convinced that this is a firmware bug, I think this comes from the ADH shrink to chip size. But maybe I'm wrong...
They also told me that they plan to reduce this with every new firmware version, but the newer version I get within my test week was producing even more hiss...

[davidadamson]

Strange mine are absolutely quiet?
Two bad pairs or network ,power line interferences?


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[f1eng]

- There's a constant hissing noise coming from the Phantoms when playback starts and for about 2 seconds after stopping/pausing. I asked Devialet about it at the High End and they are aware of this and working on it (?). Strange I don't see other users over here mentioning it. Anyone? Or I might have missed it.

the hissing was one of the reasons that I have sent the Phantoms back after a week. SQ was very good indeed, but Devialet is promising 0 noise and currently this is absolutely not the case. It seems as if they mute the noise if no music is being played. I'm not convinced that this is a firmware bug, I think this comes from the ADH shrink to chip size. But maybe I'm wrong...
They also told me that they plan to reduce this with every new firmware version, but the newer version I get within my test week was producing even more hiss...

Mine have never had this hissing.

[invader]

Hmm, ok, strange. Devialey told me at High End it was a known issue and are working on it. I'll contact them again...

[davidadamson]

Tidal
Tidal integration is working superbly on my silver phantoms, very impressed with SQ.
One issue is there seems to be no way to store a playlist or favorites from the Spark app and when you sign in not all your lists are brought over?
I hope the work on this as I am pretty much addicted to Tidal and what it has opened up for me in new listening experiences.
IMO crystalline highs and tonal separation plus earth shaking tuneful bass much better than my martin Logan Theos and Goldmund amp


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[streamy]

Tidal
Tidal integration is working superbly on my silver phantoms, very impressed with SQ.
One issue is there seems to be no way to store a playlist or favorites from the Spark app and when you sign in not all your lists are brought over?
I hope the work on this as I am pretty much addicted to Tidal and what it has opened up for me in new listening experiences.
IMO crystalline highs and tonal separation plus earth shaking tuneful bass much better than my martin Logan Theos and Goldmund amp


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I'm trying to find out the differences in SQ between Qobuz and Tidal. Both are superb. However, by now I hear in direct comparison a slight advantage of Qobuz in the heights. For me, specifically cymbals and hi-hat are more defined and velvety in most tracks I compared over the last two days. But, I'm not yet sure if it is placebo as I'm switching between the tracks in Spark myself and therefore am not blinded. So, any other opinion? 
From a more technical standpoint Tidal behaves better in Spark. Using the slider to jump forward or backward in a track takes 2-8s in Qobuz until Spark finds the position and plays whereas Tidal is almost instananeous, less than 1s. From a usability point a clear winner.
Regarding dropouts Tidal has from time to time (maybe 10-20 times per hour) very short data loss, few milliseconds interrupts that make the stereo image disturbed, not so in Qobuz.
For now Qobuz is still my personal winner unless I can proof myself wrong with respect to the better SQ in the hights.

[brighty]

I'd like to add that I compared Tidal, streamed from my ipad and sent via optical cable on an Airport express, to Tidal directly integrated into the Dialog.

The Dialog direct Tidal had much better instrument focus and a slightly wider soundstage. The depth of the soundstage also seemed clearer. Instruments as a result were far more precise, particularly with plucked strings.

I was quite surprised at the difference, actually.

Deezer sounds awful to me. Spotify via ipad streaming sounds much better for low res music.

[stonedragon]

I'd like to add that I compared Tidal, streamed from my ipad and sent via optical cable on an Airport express, to Tidal directly integrated into the Dialog.

The Dialog direct Tidal had much better instrument focus and a slightly wider soundstage.  The depth of the soundstage also seemed clearer.  Instruments as a result were far more precise, particularly with plucked strings.

I was quite surprised at the difference, actually.

Deezer sounds awful to me.  Spotify via ipad streaming sounds much better for low res music.

Deezer has a bit setting that goes upto 320/kbs - so the sound can be very good

[ragwo]

Found another minor bug.
When I'm pushing play after pausing while playing from toslink via Dialog, I get 0.5-1 second of buffered sound from the point I pressed pause before the Dialog catches up and streams the actual sound from the toslink. Can anyone confirm this bug?

[markminnoye]

I've updated too, but not without a good share of problems with failed downloads. I had to retry at least 20 times and it only worked when I eventually reset Dialog and both Phantoms.

More problematic is my overall experience with the whole system so far. I've had all updates, but the most important problems have not been fixed.

Sound:
- Stuttering at the start of each track with all online services (tried Deezer, Qobuz and now also with Tidal). Most of the time a couple of stutters in succesion or random ones in the middle of a song.
- There's a constant hissing noise coming from the Phantoms when playback starts and for about 2 seconds after stopping/pausing. I asked Devialet about it at the High End and they are aware of this and working on it (?). Strange I don't see other users over here mentioning it. Anyone? Or I might have missed it.
- Sync issues when using optical in on Dialog, tried TV and PS4. After a reset for some time it works with some 'acceptable' latency (I guess around 200ms) but then all of a sudden it's all bad with up to 2 second delays. This makes it pretty much unusable for watching TV and gaming.
- Crackling sounds with optical in when playing a game. Could be due to my optical cable not fitting properly, see 'hardware'.


Spark:
- Misclicking is very common. A click can get interpreted as a swipe to another screen. Very annoying!
- I occasionally get a 'Service A is not available' and this seems to cut the interaction with Spark, also when using Service B.
- A lot of times I need to double or triple click on a playlist/song to actually add it to the queue. Very annoying as well!
- Adding e.g. an album does not always allow me to play every song from it. It skips through the whole playlist and that's it, no sound. Clearing the playlist and re-adding the same album usually works. Again very ann....

Hardware:
- Optical cable not fitting in Dialog. I've tried 2 of which only 1 fits, but it hangs loose and won't click in. Need to try if it'll click in a Phantom.
- Dialog (new one after recall) is getting extremely hot. Might not be an issue, but please don't touch the metal!

All in all not the best experience, to say the least. And all standing in the way of a good listening experience big time. I've actually not been able to make up my mind about the sound quality so far because of all these problems. I'll hang on for another couple of weeks, but I'm seriously considering sending the whole bunch back to France. 

I'll have to second you on the listening experience.  The phantoms sound great .. once you get them working.
The Dialog does indeed get very, very hot, so do the phantoms.  So I'll plug them out when not in use.  But most of the times when I'll turn them on again, Im having loads of problems.  Very often I have to do the whole setup procedure.  Sometimes the setup seems fine, but It does not play the toslink input.  Sometimes it won't play some music files.  Sometimes it just stops playing and the dialog has lost it's connections with the phantoms and I have to reset the whole system --including touching the phantoms etc.
And adding songs or album for playback with spark often results in three entries per track in the playlist .

On top of all these problems the phantom does not seem to like HD audio (24 bit).  Very often the sounds get distorted and once that has happend you have to reboot the dialog and pray that you won't need to do a new setup procedure.
Unfortunately I have a lot of HD audio !
For me most listening experience until now has started with at least15 minutes to 'fix' the setup and did not last for more than 30 minutes until something got jammed.
Me too am considering to send it all back.

PS : I first bought one phantom, then decided to but an additional one and the dialog.  Strangely enough, the latest phantom and dialog have version 1.2.0 on them, while the first has 1.2.1 as firmware.  I don't see any possibilities to up- or downgrade.