Phantom Premiere and Dante

[Snoopy8]

@njaiswal I am about to help someone set up their HT with 4 Golds and 2 subs driven by an Anthem AVM60.  I have identified all the Dante components, the PoE network switch and all the necessary cables.  Your work here has been invaluable.  Thank you.

Given that I will need optical direct mode enabled, the Phantoms must remain on DOS1.  I will also need to find an iPhone to do this (have only Android phone!).  I also note in this How to thread (thank you @alandbush) that there could be a slim chance that an older Phantom may not have Optical Direct Mode.  I have asked that person to send the serial numbers to Devialet to eliminate this slim possibility.

Anything else that I should watch for, be aware of?

[njaiswal]

@njaiswal I am about to help someone set up their HT with 4 Golds and 2 subs driven by an Anthem AVM60.  I have identified all the Dante components, the PoE network switch and all the necessary cables.  Your work here has been invaluable.  Thank you.

Given that I will need optical direct mode enabled, the Phantoms must remain on DOS1.  I will also need to find an iPhone to do this (have only Android phone!).  I also note in this How to thread (thank you @alandbush) that there could be a slim chance that an older Phantom may not have Optical Direct Mode.  I have asked that person to send the serial numbers to Devialet to eliminate this slim possibility.

Anything else that I should watch for, be aware of?

I can't think of anything else.  One thing I found was that I needed to swap ethernet cables for the Dante dongles a couple of times during the setup because the dongles would randomly drop off the network.  So have some extras around in case that happens to you.  Recently I had to swap out all of the optical cables for 3 gold phantoms I have due to them dropping out randomly.  I found that the lowest end version from Audioquest correct the problem.  

Good Luck!  I would love to get your thoughts on how the HT sounds after its all setup.

[Snoopy8]

I can't think of anything else.  One thing I found was that I needed to swap ethernet cables for the Dante dongles a couple of times during the setup because the dongles would randomly drop off the network.  So have some extras around in case that happens to you.  Recently I had to swap out all of the optical cables for 3 gold phantoms I have due to them dropping out randomly.  I found that the lowest end version from Audioquest correct the problem.  

Good Luck!  I would love to get your thoughts on how the HT sounds after its all setup.

Thank you for advice on having spare Ethernet cables. And also getting the Audioquest (Forest is lowest end) optical cables; I was planning to get el cheapo ones, so will change.

The HT system is not mine. Currently set up as 2 stereo pairs of Gold, so it will be a no contest once I have set it properly and getting ARC Genesis running with dual SVS subs. The challenge is that it will be in a large shared room with no room treatment. Will post results when it is set up in a few weeks time.

[alandbush]

And also getting the Audioquest (Forest is lowest end) optical cables; I was planning to get el cheapo ones, so will change.

Not wishing to sway your judgement but I’m happily using el cheapo cables.

Personally, I think the important thing is the connector. I know, I know, they must be all the same otherwise it cannot be a standard. It’s the body of the connector that I found was crucial because the wrong size could interfere with the ‘locking’ mechanism. A cable could appear to have locked in but hadn’t which could cause dropouts over time. And of course, the installation is not made easy by the awkward position of the optical block.

Still, the problem with el cheapo cables is that they can vary in their connectors whereas the Forest, presumably, can be guaranteed to have the same and compatible connector.

Good luck.

[Snoopy8]

Not wishing to sway your judgement but I’m happily using el cheapo cables.

Personally, I think the important thing is the connector.  I know, I know, they must be all the same otherwise it cannot be a standard.  It’s the body of the connector that I found was crucial because the wrong size could interfere with the ‘locking’ mechanism.  A cable could appear to have locked in but hadn’t which could cause dropouts over time.  And of course, the installation is not made easy by the awkward position of the optical block.

Still, the problem with el cheapo cables is that they can vary in their connectors whereas the Forest, presumably, can be guaranteed to have the same and compatible connector.

Good luck.

I hear you! I now recall other threads which said the same thing about the size of the connector. I would be tempted to try a cheap one but this place is 3 hours drive away and I need to have it work first time. Thank you for the good advice.

[njaiswal]

Not wishing to sway your judgement but I’m happily using el cheapo cables.

Personally, I think the important thing is the connector.  I know, I know, they must be all the same otherwise it cannot be a standard.  It’s the body of the connector that I found was crucial because the wrong size could interfere with the ‘locking’ mechanism.  A cable could appear to have locked in but hadn’t which could cause dropouts over time.  And of course, the installation is not made easy by the awkward position of the optical block.

Still, the problem with el cheapo cables is that they can vary in their connectors whereas the Forest, presumably, can be guaranteed to have the same and compatible connector.

Good luck.

I hear you!  I now recall other threads which said the same thing about the size of the connector. I would be tempted to try a cheap one but this place is 3 hours drive away and I need to have it work first time. Thank you for the good advice.

I found the Amazon receipt for the cables I bought.... they were Audioquest Pearl.  I thought that was the lowest end cable they sold...

[jespinal1]

This might sound like a silly question but here goes:

I currently have an Anthem MRX-510 with a Monitor Audio Silver 10 Towers and a Monitor Audio Center.

I just purchased a pair of Phantom Classics that I was planning on using to replace the above system.

By going Optical out of my LG OLED into one of my Classics and then creating a stereo pair in the app, is this inferior (sound-wise) to going the Dante Route?

What will I be missing by not going Dante and going simple optical from the tv?

[Johnnydev]

This might sound like a silly question but here goes:

I currently have an Anthem MRX-510 with a Monitor Audio Silver 10 Towers and a Monitor Audio Center.

I just purchased a pair of Phantom Classics that I was planning on using to replace the above system.

By going Optical out of my LG OLED into one of my Classics and then creating a stereo pair in the app, is this inferior (sound-wise) to going the Dante Route?

What will I be missing by not going Dante and going simple optical from the tv?

I think nothing!

[jespinal1]

This might sound like a silly question but here goes:

I currently have an Anthem MRX-510 with a Monitor Audio Silver 10 Towers and a Monitor Audio Center.

I just purchased a pair of Phantom Classics that I was planning on using to replace the above system.

By going Optical out of my LG OLED into one of my Classics and then creating a stereo pair in the app, is this inferior (sound-wise) to going the Dante Route?

What will I be missing by not going Dante and going simple optical from the tv?

I think nothing!

[Snoopy8]

This might sound like a silly question but here goes:

I currently have an Anthem MRX-510 with a Monitor Audio Silver 10 Towers and a Monitor Audio Center.

I just purchased a pair of Phantom Classics that I was planning on using to replace the above system.

By going Optical out of my LG OLED into one of my Classics and then creating a stereo pair in the app, is this inferior (sound-wise) to going the Dante Route?

What will I be missing by not going Dante and going simple optical from the tv?

The Classics have about a 180 ms latency (delay) with the optical input and thus would be out of sync with TV.  I believe that neither the Anthem & TV can compensate for such a large lip synch delay.  You will need to set the Classics into optical direct mode and then use an optical 1 in 2 out splitter to run 2 optical cables to each of the phantoms.  Note that, for now, optical direct mode is available only with DOS1.