Found Gold with a Pair of Phantoms!

[Snoopy8]

   
Am delighted with my pair of Phantom Gold.  It makes for a superb stereo system with a wide and full sound stage, lots of detail and good resolution. Instruments and voices sound natural with good tonal balance between the bass, mids and highs. While it is best in the main listening position, the Golds perform well off axis with the music filling the room.

The Golds are on Triangle S04 speaker stands and Isoacoustics Aperta 100 stands. Together, both stands provided vibration isolation and positioning at ear level. The music setup is in an open plan family room with minimal room treatment.  There are heavy curtains on the right of photo covering glass sliding doors.  Broadband absorption panels on the back window counter reverb (echo), and are removed when not playing music.

Using UPnP to connect to the Golds, with BubbleUPnP on a Samsung tablet controlling the music from a NAS. BubbleUPnP also provides access to Tidal.  Running convolution DSP using Minimserver on an Intel NUC, which took the sound quality up another level.

It has clearly surpassed the previous complicated set up costing more than 3 times.

   

Truly found gold in a simple setup with a pair of Phantom Golds!

[ogs]

Using UPnP to connect to the Golds, with BubbleUPnP on a Samsung tablet controlling the music from a NAS. BubbleUPnP also provides access to Tidal.  Running convolution DSP using Minimserver on an Intel NUC, which took the sound quality up another level.

Very nice and clean setup! Are you using PLC or ethernet for Golds? Is Tidal also run through convolution?

[Snoopy8]

Using UPnP to connect to the Golds, with BubbleUPnP on a Samsung tablet controlling the music from a NAS. BubbleUPnP also provides access to Tidal.  Running convolution DSP using Minimserver on an Intel NUC, which took the sound quality up another level.

Very nice and clean setup! Are you using PLC or ethernet for Golds? Is Tidal also run through convolution?

PLC. Dialog, Phantoms all on one power board/strip and have had no problems. And very intuitive of you to ask about Tidal. Unfortunately no convolution for Tidal using this setup. 

Convolution on Tidal can be done via Roon. I trialled Roon but was not convinced. Convolution on Roon took up at least double the CPU resources compared with MinimServer for the same convolution filters. No RAAT during trial but unless everyone here raves about RAAT when it comes (which I doubt!), I am unlikely to revisit Roon.

One more thing, I am still a light Tidal user, yet to learn the joys of exploring new acts, new songs.

[ogs]

I don't use Tidal (or Qobuz) either. My main problem is I'd like to play vinyl. Not cheap, real high quality. When digital room correction is involved it becomes very difficult. Roon has been talking about 'the input device' for a long time, Devialet once promised convolution in Expert amps - nothing. So I'm waiting. This is promising, but too expensive: http://www.transvinyl.com/index_en.html
Nice that PLC is working. No extra cables.

[Jean-Marie]

Am delighted with my pair of Phantom Gold.  It makes for a superb stereo system with a wide and full sound stage, lots of detail and good resolution. Instruments and voices sound natural with good tonal balance between the bass, mids and highs. While it is best in the main listening position, the Golds perform well off axis with the music filling the room.

The Golds are on Triangle S04 speaker stands and Isoacoustics Aperta 100 stands. Together, both stands provided vibration isolation and positioning at ear level. The music setup is in an open plan family room with minimal room treatment.  There are heavy curtains on the right of photo covering glass sliding doors.  Broadband absorption panels on the back window counter reverb (echo), and are removed when not playing music.

Using UPnP to connect to the Golds, with BubbleUPnP on a Samsung tablet controlling the music from a NAS. BubbleUPnP also provides access to Tidal.  Running convolution DSP using Minimserver on an Intel NUC, which took the sound quality up another level.

It has clearly surpassed the previous complicated set up costing more than 3 times.



Truly found gold in a simple setup with a pair of Phantom Golds!

Very impressive, especially given that you were already on an actively multi amplified system!
That's very telling in terms of quality that you have been able to obtain.

Jean-Marie

[Snoopy8]

Very impressive, especially given that you were already on an actively multi amplified system!
That's very telling in terms of quality that you have been able to obtain.

Thank you.  

To add to my story, I had a good but complicated system and also had the (expensive) urge to upgrade things.  I was frustrated at the complexity.

The impetus for the change came from:

• post in another forum from someone who switched to Phantom Golds from same brand active speakers
  
• this old Gold review from Steve Huff (photographer)
  
• a listen to a lonely Phantom Gold tucked in a corner at a Hifi shop 
  
• same retailer who had a sales promotion
  

From the audition, I could tell that the sound was as clean and detailed as my then existing setup, but not the stereo image. I took the gamble and discovered that the huge sound stage was the difference between the Golds and my old system.  Further work with convolution filters improved things even more. 

It was my Marie Kondo (expert on de-cluttering) moment! A simple system which produces high quality music.

[Snoopy8]

I don't use Tidal (or Qobuz) either. My main problem is I'd like to play vinyl. Not cheap, real high quality. When digital room correction is involved it becomes very difficult. Roon has been talking about 'the input device' for a long time, Devialet once promised convolution in Expert amps - nothing. So I'm waiting. This is promising, but too expensive: http://www.transvinyl.com/index_en.html
Nice that PLC is working. No extra cables.

If I was to recommend a room correction solution, it will be this:
http://www.dspeaker.com/en/products/anti-mode-x4.shtml
Very good internals and easy to use with excellent results.  There are cheaper models, cheaper boxes like miniDSP but none have got the balance right.  My convolution setup is much cheaper but it is a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach which is too difficult for many people.

Regarding PLC, I was puzzled by people having problems with it.  Maybe I was lucky, but I am using a standard power board/strip and it works!

[pan]

awesome system, did you get the devialet remote?

[Snoopy8]

awesome system, did you get the devialet remote?

Thank you. Yes, have the Remote as well, expensive knob but most useful.

[eniriop]

Am delighted with my pair of Phantom Gold.  It makes for a superb stereo system with a wide and full sound stage, lots of detail and good resolution. Instruments and voices sound natural with good tonal balance between the bass, mids and highs. While it is best in the main listening position, the Golds perform well off axis with the music filling the room.

The Golds are on Triangle S04 speaker stands and Isoacoustics Aperta 100 stands. Together, both stands provided vibration isolation and positioning at ear level. The music setup is in an open plan family room with minimal room treatment.  There are heavy curtains on the right of photo covering glass sliding doors.  Broadband absorption panels on the back window counter reverb (echo), and are removed when not playing music.

Using UPnP to connect to the Golds, with BubbleUPnP on a Samsung tablet controlling the music from a NAS. BubbleUPnP also provides access to Tidal.  Running convolution DSP using Minimserver on an Intel NUC, which took the sound quality up another level.

It has clearly surpassed the previous complicated set up costing more than 3 times.



Truly found gold in a simple setup with a pair of Phantom Golds!

I took the same route from tube amp and horn speakers with expensive cables to the devialet gold and as I said in a post above, you get the sweetness, openness of the tube sound, without the trouble of messing up with cable and tube swapping. Furthermore, you can move the Golds or the reactors wherever you want, even outside on a terrace (see below), and get even better sound with no reflections from the walls...