Phantom II Custom 5.0 surround system experience and suggestions

[mcallega]

Thanks!
So it is actually 1.0.12 followed by 1.1.2? No indication of the specification change in this doc. Maybe (hopefully) the web version for the CI is wrong. It is the same as the ordinary Phantom II which says max 48kHz sampling rate. I am hoping for 192kHz on the AES/EBU input

I am not sure but the specs on the official page say:
Dedicated Devialet OS custom install "DOS CI" (1.1.12) up to 24bits/48kHz

[ogs]

So presumably the version before 1.0.12 supports the spec in the CI technical document, but from version 1.1.12(or 1.0.12?) there is a limit of 48kHz? Very difficult to know what is correct here. What I do know (from Devialet support) is that the DAC and ADH3 supports 192kHz (same as Expert amps on ADH2) so any limit in sample rate below 192kHz is not a hardware limitation, but done in software.
Anyway this is not all that relevant for your setup as you use analog inputs.

[njaiswal]

Excellent write up! Please share your experiences with various tv shows and movies. :-)

[arzka]

@mcallega
Thanks for an excellent write up! Really interesting reading about your setup. I have a Phantom Gold/Silver surround 5.0 setup, but way less user friendly than yours, using three zones, optical inputs and the Devialet app. Would love to have the simplicity you have achieved.

Would you be willing to tell how you built it? I've currently got a pair of Phantom 1's and I'd love to use them as a part of a surround set also but so far been just hitting my head in the wall trying to figure out how to get them to work through optical. I'd prefer adding reactors or something for the back / center channels as I can't afford to buy 5 of these. I'd even be ok with having the Phantom pair as L+R and something cheaper (even passive) as the rest of the channels, but finding a processor/amp that can do that seems hopeless. The SDP-55 mentioned in the thread could apparently handle at least a pair of Phantoms but it's waaaay out of my budget.

[ragwo]

@mcallega
Thanks for an excellent write up! Really interesting reading about your setup. I have a Phantom Gold/Silver surround 5.0 setup, but way less user friendly than yours, using three zones, optical inputs and the Devialet app. Would love to have the simplicity you have achieved.

Would you be willing to tell how you built it? I've currently got a pair of Phantom 1's and I'd love to use them as a part of a surround set also but so far been just hitting my head in the wall trying to figure out how to get them to work through optical. I'd prefer adding reactors or something for the back / center channels as I can't afford to buy 5 of these. I'd even be ok with having the Phantom pair as L+R and something cheaper (even passive) as the rest of the channels, but finding a processor/amp that can do that seems hopeless. The SDP-55 mentioned in the thread could apparently handle at least a pair of Phantoms but it's waaaay out of my budget.

Here's my setup for 5.0 surround with Phantom I:
First, the Phantoms are divided into three zones; LR, C and surround LR.

The signal chain:
Optical output from the TV to an Onkyo PR-SC5507 surround preamp. Balanced analoge outputs  from the preamp to 3xRME ADI-2 AD/DA-converters. Optical outputs from the ADCs to LR, C and surround LR Phantoms.

Works really well but it's not very user friendly.

[ogs]

Hi @mcallega you've lived with this setup for around two years now. Care to comment on long term stability/usability? Have you used any newer firmware versions? Any differences worth mentioning?

[stevenswall]

Can anyone speak to the price of these units? I'm curious how it would compare to my Genelec system and have reached out multiple times to Devialet but either the rep doesn't know what I'm talking about or they beat around the bush and won't disclose.

Thanks for posting the manual, I think these with normal audio inputs would be great for people considering high end soundbars as these will perform better and I had issues with the Powerline Ethernet and wifi communication.

[Nputcha]

@mcallega
Thanks for an excellent write up! Really interesting reading about your setup. I have a Phantom Gold/Silver surround 5.0 setup, but way less user friendly than yours, using three zones, optical inputs and the Devialet app. Would love to have the simplicity you have achieved.

Would you be willing to tell how you built it? I've currently got a pair of Phantom 1's and I'd love to use them as a part of a surround set also but so far been just hitting my head in the wall trying to figure out how to get them to work through optical. I'd prefer adding reactors or something for the back / center channels as I can't afford to buy 5 of these. I'd even be ok with having the Phantom pair as L+R and something cheaper (even passive) as the rest of the channels, but finding a processor/amp that can do that seems hopeless. The SDP-55 mentioned in the thread could apparently handle at least a pair of Phantoms but it's waaaay out of my budget.

Here's my setup for 5.0 surround with Phantom I:
First, the Phantoms are divided into three zones; LR, C and surround LR.

The signal chain:
Optical output from the TV to an Onkyo PR-SC5507 surround preamp. Balanced analoge outputs  from the preamp to 3xRME ADI-2 AD/DA-converters. Optical outputs from the ADCs to LR, C and surround LR Phantoms.

Works really well but it's not very user friendly.

Hi Ragwo, realize I’m responding very late on this thread. Am curious why this setup is difficult though. Why the three “zones”? Can’t you put the phantoms into direct optical mode and just send sepetate optical cables to each? Obviously that would mean 5 different ad/da converters but otherwise I’d assume that’s very straightforward, no? Sorry if this is a dumb question!

[ragwo]

@Nputcha
Good question. Actually, the only thing needed to use optical direct mode is two optical splitters to split the two LR signals. I chose three zones because I wanted to have the ability to use Roon, Spotify Connect and the other inputs. Roon also sounds better than the analogue outputs of the PR-SC5507.

[Nputcha]

@Nputcha
Good question. Actually, the only thing needed to use optical direct mode is two optical splitters to split the two LR signals. I chose three zones because I wanted to have the ability to use Roon, Spotify Connect and the other inputs. Roon also sounds better than the analogue outputs of the PR-SC5507.

Gotcha that makes sense! I’m leaning towards actually not even enabling the super low latency “optical direct” (from your description it sounds like you didn’t either). So basically would have a similar layout as you except using phantom ii in the back. The 60ms lag while not using optical direct is actually fine as Apple TV easily corrects for it (and has a function which uses your mic to sync audio). I haven’t finished setting it all up but seems like it’ll be fairly straightforward (I still need to buy the receiver) 

Hopefully no weird last minute complications!