Moving from Sonos to Phantoms

[andrew_brown]

I am considering buying a pair of Phantoms. I am very happy with the way they sound but I have reservations about their functionality.

For more than six years I have been using Sonos for streaming music (mainly classical) around my house from music files (ALAC) on a NAS and from internet radio such as BBC Radio 3 (320AAC), Linn and other classical stations. This is so easy on Sonos. With it I can search my NAS by composer then album, and then track. At first sight, it does not appear that I can do this with Spark.

Has anyone on the forum made the transition from Sonos to Phantoms using music built up on a NAS and found it relatively easy to search by composer?

Andrew

[EvPa]

If you are so accustomed to Sonos' ecosystem, and provided that you have a Connect lying around, you can simply use an optical cable from the Connect to one of the Phantoms (or Dialog).

Then you can pretty much forget Spark (except for volume control if the Connect is set on fixed volume) and proceed as usual.

[andrew_brown]

Thanks EvPa and karebe for your quick responses. I thought that would be the easiest way, but it does limit me to 16 bit music, and it is another device in the chain.

karebe, you say, " A native NAS is not supported yet"? Do you think that there is a possibility that it will be in the near future?

[fgueho]

Yes. There is a plan to do so.

"A free update in the future will allow access to NAS servers, which integrates UPnP technologies, to be connected to PHANTOM via DIALOG, the Wi-Fi router by DEVIALET."

See here: https://help.devialet.com/hc/en-us/artic...to-PHANTOM-

[andrew_brown]

Thanks, fgueho. I am going to have another listen to Phantoms tomorrow and compare them to other possibilities for improving my sound system. If they win out, then I shall have to decide whether to take this on trust and buy, or wait until the update appears and try it out.

[Dvlt PhD]

In the mean time, you could also request Devialet to add the feature of sort by composer for Classical music, etc. The sooner people tell Devialet what they want, the sooner it'll be implemented.

[andrew_brown]

Dvlt PhD

Earlier today I did ask Devialet, by e-mail, if and when such functions would be implemented and received a reply within 5 minutes:

"We do not at the moment have these information. However you can be assured that our systems will progress in the futur. We will add progressively more and more possible sources (including NAS) and the Spark application (now in version 1) will with time be completed and improved."

This does not give me any great confidence to buy now. I would be happy to connect via a Sonos Connect for, say, six months, but not indefinitely.

[alandbush]

Dvlt PhD

Earlier today I did ask Devialet, by e-mail, if and when such functions would be implemented and received a reply within 5 minutes:

"We do not at the moment have these information.  However you can be assured that our systems will progress in the futur. We will add progressively more and more possible sources (including NAS) and the Spark application (now in version 1) will with time be completed and improved."

This does not give me any great confidence to buy now.  I would be happy to connect via a Sonos Connect for, say, six months, but not indefinitely.

As surprised as I am to write this, I believe it would be a mistake to consider Phantoms at present.
Having experienced the ease and simplicity of Sonos, you would quickly become exasperated with the current inadequacy of Spark. Devialet have a roadmap of future plans but we are not privy to the timescale of their promises. Perhaps next year will see a major delivery of software that will do justice to the hardware.

[andrew_brown]

Thanks to all who have given advice. I listened again to phantoms today, and on sound quality they thrashed the other systems I considered. However, I have decided to wait and see what future updates to Spark have to offer. Maybe when bluetooth is implemented (in a month or two) I'll discover a work-around; if not I'll wait until UPnP is implemented (next year sometime).

[Dvlt PhD]

Thanks to all who have given advice.  I listened again to phantoms today, and on sound quality they thrashed the other systems I considered.  However, I have decided to wait and see what future updates to Spark have to offer.  Maybe when bluetooth is implemented (in a month or two) I'll discover a work-around; if not I'll wait until UPnP is implemented (next year sometime).

May I ask what systems you compared them to?

Thanks.