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Newbie
#1
Just bought a set of Golds, tree stands, dialogue, & volume control for $5k (Used obviously). Don’t have them yet, but can’t wait!

Any advice on setup in an open floor plan Kitchen/living room?

Also, any other advice, tips, or tricks?
Reply
#2
Hi, welcome to DC and congratulations on your purchase!
I guess the first you will have to do is decide between DOS1 and DOS2. You'd depend on Dialog for Tidal/Qobuz standalone with Phantoms and thus DOS1. Othervice it depends on your play back software. If this is Roon it's not possible to use UPnP directly. Many use Audirvana. With Audirvana you can go with DOS2 and use Tidal/Qobuz etc.
At some point (maybe next year?) Phantoms will get RAAT in DOS2 so Roon is an option. As for placement, Phantoms behave like ordinary speakers which means you can easily get bass overload if placed too close to corners/walls. A symmetrical placement is necessary for proper stereo, the rest depends on your own experiments.
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
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#3
(03-Dec-2019, 17:21)ogs Wrote: Hi, welcome to DC and congratulations on your purchase!
I guess the first you will have to do is decide between DOS1 and DOS2. You'd depend on Dialog for Tidal/Qobuz standalone with Phantoms and thus DOS1. Othervice it depends on your play back software. If this is Roon it's not possible to use UPnP directly. Many use Audirvana. With Audirvana you can go with DOS2 and use Tidal/Qobuz etc.
At some point (maybe next year?) Phantoms will get RAAT in DOS2 so Roon is an option. As for placement, Phantoms behave like ordinary speakers which means you can easily get bass overload if placed too close to corners/walls. A symmetrical placement is necessary for proper stereo, the rest depends on your own experiments.
Ogs, thanks for the response. I’m new to the hifi world. Based on What you just wrote about I apparently have a LOT to learn. I was looking at tidal, but beyond that, just Apple Music or Spotify. Reading your response, sounds like that would be blasphemy. 
so much to learn. ??‍♂️
Reply
#4
Yes, there is a learning curve... As you will see from my signature I do not own Phantoms. My advice is therefore quite generalized. I would use energy on getting Spotify and Apple Music to work first and not worry too much on the other options to begin with. Blasphemy? Certainly not! I believe Spotify should work if you stick with DOS1 (Devialet Operating System...). If your Golds support Bluetooth you can use that from phones.
Let's see if anyone with Phantoms jump in with advice. One thing is certain though: Phantoms are seriously good hifi speakers!
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
Reply
#5
(03-Dec-2019, 04:55)ditdot Wrote: Just bought a set of Golds, tree stands, dialogue, & volume control for $5k (Used obviously). Don’t have them yet, but can’t wait!

Any advice on setup in an open floor plan Kitchen/living room?

Also, any other advice, tips, or tricks?

Welcome to the forum @ditdot.  I use Phantom Golds in an open floor plan kitchen/dining room and in my opinion you've made a great purchase!

@ogs is mostly spot on, just a few clarifications:
- I have upgraded to the recently released DOS 2 where you no longer need the dialog for stereo operation.  The whole system is more stable, the mobile client is great, I would say for the vast majority of users this is a big step forward (see my impressions after upgrading here).  There are a couple of things DOS 2 doesn't do yet like low latency mode for AV-syncing but I don't think that applies in your case.  In my opinion the DOS 2 upgrade is a "no brainer" for most people.  Read the caveats on the Devialet site first, but don't be scared off if they don't apply to your use case.  By skipping the whole DOS 1/Spark/Dialog experience you will miss a lot of the things that have had folks here tearing their hair out for years!
- You can stream music from Spotify via Spotify Connect (i.e. from directly within the Spotify app), and Qobuz and Tidal via AirPlay with both DOS 1 and 2.  If you have your own library on a disk somewhere then Audirvana and Roon are both great alternatives, and there are many many more.
- Regarding speaker placement, as @ogs says, these are just regular speakers, which in practice means they will probably sound best where they are domestically least convenient to place.  I have mine on very solid window sills in a bay window in the dining area.  Not optimal (they should ideally be out in the room a ways) but this is very much a living space and not just a listening space and that is what works best for us.  They sound great.  The tree stands should put the tweeters/midrange drivers at about the right height when you are sitting down so use them if you can.  Try to position them so that they are reasonably symmetrically positioned wrt room boundaries and the listening position (as far as possible), and try to avoid placing them too close to said boundaries (especially corners) for best sound staging and to avoid unpleasant bass overload.  If you google "loudspeaker setup" or "loudspeaker placement" you will no doubt find plenty of advice online, most of which is completely impractical in real living spaces!

Yes, there is a LOT to learn here, but you don't need to know it all in order to get going.  Try and keep it simple to start with and then grow into it from there.

Hope this helps!
Reply
#6
(03-Dec-2019, 04:55)ditdot Wrote: Just bought a set of Golds, tree stands, dialogue, & volume control for $5k (Used obviously). Don’t have them yet, but can’t wait!

Any advice on setup in an open floor plan Kitchen/living room?

Also, any other advice, tips, or tricks?

First congratulations on your purchase! It is really a great system.
In my opinion you should start with what you have. I assume that you receive the system in condition of installed DOS1. So before you start moving to DOS2 you should check if all is properly working. Probably DOS1 when it works for you as it does for me will be sufficient. So far, DOS2 only provides a subset of functionality that DOS1 has. So, for those that don‘t have problems DOS1 is still the simplest option not risking to get into troubles during the update.
I suppose you have a home WiFi network and also a WiFi or Ethernet plugged PC or Mac in your household.
If this is the case I propose you to do the following steps:
1. download Spark from the Devialet website and install it on you PC/Mac that you might run most often, and maybe can even run 24h/24h.
2. Open Spark
3. Plug an Ethernet cable from your router to the dialog and plug in the dialog and the Phantoms to power sockets and wait for 1minute for them to boot. Either you hear some spacing sound from your Phantoms (this indicates they are waiting to be set up) or you hear nothing and can assume that the previous owner has not reset his setup and it now runs on your network. In this case you can see in the Spark Software under Settings that the dialog and the Phantoms have been detected. All would run as the previous owner has configured the system. I continue here with the case that you hear the spicy sound or you would like to reconfigure from scratch.
4. You press on the back of the dialog 3 times short the lighted button and then also press 3 times short the reset buttons of each of your Phantoms. This resets both the Phantoms and Dialogs and in Spark you will see the setup initial screen. You now wait for a few minutes until you hear the space sound from both Phantoms and in Spark you should see how the two Phantoms are detected.
5. You follow the instructions step by step in Spark until the setup is finished. On the Devialet website you can find all the instructions. People here can help you when you experience problems with the network, defects of the system (hopefully not, as in general they are very robust), etc.
This is only one of the ways and topologies, but I believe a frequent one. The Phantoms and Dialog will Setup and use the built-in PLC and you will be able to play local files from you computer or an external drive, configure streaming services you have subscribed and become a happy user. You then also can download a mobile Spark app for Android, iPhone, iPad and control the Phantoms using this app as remotes. Since you have a Devialet Remote you can then control the volume with that remote.

I hope this introduction might be useful for you. It is not 100% detailed and only proposes one way to set it up, without using Ethernet cables. It can be that I forgot things here as I wrote this without going through the setup or having Spark in front of me.
Reply
#7
@ditdot you've got some very good advice from @struts and @streamy here.
In the link to Devialet in struts' post there is a clear feature comparison between DOS1 and DOS2. Both support Spotify Connect and Airplay (not Airplay 2) so my advice to stay with DOS1 for Spotify an Apple Music was not correct. Both versions will do this so your choice will depend more on how you prefer to play music.
Good luck!
*
Devialetless!
Roon, ROCK/Audiolense XO/Music on NAS/EtherRegen/RoPieee/USPCB/ISORegen/USPCB/Sound Devices USBPre2/Tannoy GOLD 8
250 Pro CI, MicroRendu(1.4), Mutec MC-3+USB
Reply
#8
(04-Dec-2019, 09:39)ogs Wrote: Yes, there is a learning curve... As you will see from my signature I do not own Phantoms. My advice is therefore quite generalized. I would use energy on getting Spotify and Apple Music to work first and not worry too much on the other options to begin with. Blasphemy? Certainly not! I believe Spotify should work if you stick with DOS1 (Devialet Operating System...). If your Golds support Bluetooth you can use that from phones.
Let's see if anyone with Phantoms jump in with advice. One thing is certain though: Phantoms are seriously good hifi speakers!
ogs, thank you for taking the time. I really go appreciate it. I also thank you for making me feel better about spending this kind of money on speakers. I’ve done my research and believed them to be good, but you affirming that is great to hear.
Reply
#9
struts
(03-Dec-2019, 04:55)ditdot Wrote: Just bought a set of Golds, tree stands, dialogue, & volume control for $5k (Used obviously). Don’t have them yet, but can’t wait!

Any advice on setup in an open floor plan Kitchen/living room?

Also, any other advice, tips, or tricks?

Welcome to the forum @ditdot.  I use Phantom Golds in an open floor plan kitchen/dining room and in my opinion you've made a great purchase!

@ogs is mostly spot on, just a few clarifications:
- I have upgraded to the recently released DOS 2 where you no longer need the dialog for stereo operation.  The whole system is more stable, the mobile client is great, I would say for the vast majority of users this is a big step forward (see my impressions after upgrading here).  There are a couple of things DOS 2 doesn't do yet like low latency mode for AV-syncing but I don't think that applies in your case.  In my opinion the DOS 2 upgrade is a "no brainer" for most people.  Read the caveats on the Devialet site first, but don't be scared off if they don't apply to your use case.  By skipping the whole DOS 1/Spark/Dialog experience you will miss a lot of the things that have had folks here tearing their hair out for years!
- You can stream music from Spotify via Spotify Connect (i.e. from directly within the Spotify app), and Qobuz and Tidal via AirPlay with both DOS 1 and 2.  If you have your own library on a disk somewhere then Audirvana and Roon are both great alternatives, and there are many many more.
- Regarding speaker placement, as @ogs says, these are just regular speakers, which in practice means they will probably sound best where they are domestically least convenient to place.  I have mine on very solid window sills in a bay window in the dining area.  Not optimal (they should ideally be out in the room a ways) but this is very much a living space and not just a listening space and that is what works best for us.  They sound great.  The tree stands should put the tweeters/midrange drivers at about the right height when you are sitting down so use them if you can.  Try to position them so that they are reasonably symmetrically positioned wrt room boundaries and the listening position (as far as possible), and try to avoid placing them too close to said boundaries (especially corners) for best sound staging and to avoid unpleasant bass overload.  If you google "loudspeaker setup" or "loudspeaker placement" you will no doubt find plenty of advice online, most of which is completely impractical in real living spaces!

Yes, there is a LOT to learn here, but you don't need to know it all in order to get going.  Try and keep it simple to start with and then grow into it from there.

Hope this helps!

@struts, thank you very much. I’ll go read the links you posted now. Very insightful, much appreciated.
Reply
#10
(04-Dec-2019, 12:01)streamy Wrote:
(03-Dec-2019, 04:55)ditdot Wrote: Just bought a set of Golds, tree stands, dialogue, & volume control for $5k (Used obviously). Don’t have them yet, but can’t wait!

Any advice on setup in an open floor plan Kitchen/living room?

Also, any other advice, tips, or tricks?

First congratulations on your purchase! It is really a great system.
In my opinion you should start with what you have. I assume that you receive the system in condition of installed DOS1. So before you start moving to DOS2 you should check if all is properly working. Probably DOS1 when it works for you as it does for me will be sufficient. So far, DOS2 only provides a subset of functionality that DOS1 has. So, for those that don‘t have problems DOS1 is still the simplest option not risking to get into troubles during the update.
I suppose you have a home WiFi network and also a WiFi or Ethernet plugged PC or Mac in your household.
If this is the case I propose you to do the following steps:
1. download Spark from the Devialet website and install it on you PC/Mac that you might run most often, and maybe can even run 24h/24h.
2. Open Spark
3. Plug an Ethernet cable from your router to the dialog and plug in the dialog and the Phantoms to power sockets and wait for 1minute for them to boot. Either you hear some spacing sound from your Phantoms (this indicates they are waiting to be set up) or you hear nothing and can assume that the previous owner has not reset his setup and it now runs on your network. In this case you can see in the Spark Software under Settings that the dialog and the Phantoms have been detected. All would run as the previous owner has configured the system. I continue here with the case that you hear the spicy sound or you would like to reconfigure from scratch.
4. You press on the back of the dialog 3 times short the lighted button and then also press 3 times short the reset buttons of each of your Phantoms. This resets both the Phantoms and Dialogs and in Spark you will see the setup initial screen. You now wait for a few minutes until you hear the space sound from both Phantoms and in Spark you should see how the two Phantoms are detected.
5. You follow the instructions step by step in Spark until the setup is finished. On the Devialet website you can find all the instructions. People here can help you when you experience problems with the network, defects of the system (hopefully not, as in general they are very robust), etc.
This is only one of the ways and topologies, but I believe a frequent one. The Phantoms and Dialog will Setup and use the built-in PLC and you will be able to play local files from you computer or an external drive, configure streaming services you have subscribed and become a happy user. You then also can download a mobile Spark app for Android, iPhone, iPad and control the Phantoms using this app as remotes. Since you have a Devialet Remote you can then control the volume with that remote.

I hope this introduction might be useful for you. It is not 100% detailed and only proposes one way to set it up, without using Ethernet cables. It can be that I forgot things here as I wrote this without going through the setup or having Spark in front of me.
@streamy, thank you!!!  Very detailed and really appreciate you taking the time. I do believe they are already updated to DOS2. At least if I read correctly.
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