Is Reactor 600 high end?

[torikelz4545]

I've decided to buy a pair of Reactor 600 as soon as RAAT is available. Provided that RAAT supports up to 24/192 that is.
I used a pair of modified Monitor Audio 201's for many years. The speakers sounded close to unlistenable 'au naturel', but with modifications, Audiolense XO filters in Roon's convolver and some parametric eq in the deep bass the sound quality was totally transformed. I was able to get a SAM profile for the speaker and was rewarded with even better sound quality. The resulting sound quality was quite stunning!
My hope is that I can 'transform' Reactors with the help of Audiolense to perform better. I am not expecting the same miracle I got with the MAs, but then the Reactor is a better speaker to begin with. I would probably get better result with a pair of Classic Premiers (or Golds), but the price difference is too big for my budget at the moment.
The chain will be Roon->EtherRegen (B->A)->Reactors. I'll report back on my journey.

Hi! 

I'm waiting for the Feb news - deciding between Reactor 900 and Phantom Classic.

Waiting for black Classics to be announced - hoping no price increase though :-)

I already use Audiolense XO with DIY DSP speakers (ripped out the passive crossover and now use 10 channel Focusrite 18i20Gen3).

And I would of course use it with the Phantoms !

Just a question, why use Audiolense XO but then also use Roon's parametric EQ?

Whatever you're doing in Roon EQ, just do the same to do the target curve in Audiolense?

To make sure time alignment is all preserved?

[ogs]

Because I'd loose too much overall gain if I use AL for all of it. My target for AL is primarily for tonal balance. PEQ was only used in the deep bass to create a sense of 'full range'.

EDIT: with Phantoms+AL I would probably not need to use PEQ at all!

[torikelz4545]

Because I'd loose too much overall gain if I use AL for all of it. My target for AL is primarily for tonal balance. PEQ was only used in the deep bass to create a sense of 'full range'.

Are you adding headroom management in Roon to account for Roon PEQ?

Doesn't that reduce gain anyway by same amount?

[ogs]

I used headroom adjustment in Roon, yes. Not quite the same as AL would do. I have better control with Roon PEQ and headroom management.

[torikelz4545]

I used headroom adjustment in Roon, yes. Not quite the same as AL would do. I have better control with Roon PEQ and headroom management.

Understood but losing 6dB headroom in Audiolense will result in same overall gain loss, as losing 6dB headroom in Roon, no?

6dB gain reduction is 6dB reduction, no matter where it comes from?

I may be wrong though.

[ogs]

You are right, but AL is somewhat tricky (time consuming) to use for fine tuning. PEQ in Roon is much more direct and almost real time... AL behaves differently in the bass with TTD enabled compared to pure amplitude correction. There is better correlation between the target curve and what you hear when doing amplitude correction only. With TTD (I always use TTD) I prefer to just use a 'sensible' target curve and do bass fine tuning with PEQ.

[torikelz4545]

You are right, but AL is somewhat tricky (time consuming) to use for fine tuning. PEQ in Roon is much more direct and almost real time... AL behaves differently in the bass with TTD enabled compared to pure amplitude correction. There is better correlation between the target curve and what you hear when doing amplitude correction only. With TTD (I always use TTD)  I prefer to just use a 'sensible' target curve and do bass fine tuning with PEQ.

Ah yes, I know what you mean regarding tweaking the Target Curve Designer in Audiolense. Time consuming indeed.

[ogs]

I am somewhat disappointed to see that Devialet has halted my plan to purchase a pair of Reactor 600 (now the Phantom II 95dB) by limiting the sample rate. I was looking forward to becoming a Devialet owner again. It's not the limitation of 48kHz itself that is the problem, but the way Devialet has done it. Who knows what they will do in the future!

[streamy]

I am somewhat disappointed to see that Devialet has halted my plan to purchase a pair of Reactor 600 (now the Phantom II 95dB) by limiting the sample rate. I was looking forward to becoming a Devialet owner again. It's not the limitation of 48kHz itself that is the problem, but the way Devialet has done it. Who knows what they will do in the future!

I think when the limitation of 48k is not a game stopper for you, I would pull the trigger, now that RAAT is implemented. Maybe wait for a few days to see if the implementation on the Phantom II is reliable. I have strongly the impression that Devialet had implemented in DOS2 the limitation of 48k to reliably use wireless or networked stereo and multi room streaming on home networks, which is state of the art and RAAT certification forced them to be transparent as this is part of the protocol to transparently show the full audio path. Something, not many networked audio systems show. From that point it is difficult to get better solutions outside of professional equipment. Probably, but I so far have no proof for it DOS1 with the Dialog was more ambitious, but in many configurations and households failed. Not with me, that’s why I still keep my system on DOS1, but have no way so far to measure or test if 24/192 gets to the DAQ in my first series Gold Phantoms. I stick to DOS1 and RPi’s via optical until I will find out DOS1 is/was also limited to 48k. In my case I do it because I purchased about 500+ albums with 96k or higher that would not make much sense to play. But do my ears and brain hear the difference to omit the RAAT comfort? I do not know. I know for sure that the best MP3 resolution is audibly inferior when played on the Phantoms vs. CD quality red book recordings. This I can distinguish in blind testing. So, I’m sort of hesitant to go the DOS2 route, but when the 48k specs is not a killer for you then the Phantom line is really great, precise, low distortion, accurate, small foot print, great WAF, no second I would hesitate to rebuy them. In the end it is a good day to see RAAT in the Phantoms to have transparency in the signal chain and this with hopefully every ®evolution from now on

[ogs]

I am in a similar situation as you. I have bought a rather large number of 192k albums. Because my Devialet amplifier did 192kHz very nicely. And I have around 130 albums in 88.2 and higher.
My current system maxes out at 48kHz however, so I am familiar with the consequences. I'll take your advice and follow the forums for some time and decide after that. Thanks for your thoughtful input @streamy .