Phantom Premiere and Dante

[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?

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.

Understood. Would you know if you the Phantom Classics come with DOS1 or 2 from the factory?

[Snoopy8]

Understood. Would you know if you the Phantom Classics come with DOS1 or 2 from the factory?

If you buy now, likely to be DOS2. I am guessing that DOS2 Direct Optical Output is a few months away?

[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...

From my perspective, you're going to have lip sync challenges and volume control challenges.  Going the Dante route will ensure that you're latency will be less than 1 ms and that the stereo configuration will be rock solid.  Additionally, because you're leveraging the Anthem, you can control the volume of the Phantoms with it and use ARC to correct for any room irregularities.  

Good Luck and let us know how it works for you.

[jespinal1]

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...

From my perspective, you're going to have lip sync challenges and volume control challenges.  Going the Dante route will ensure that you're latency will be less than 1 ms and that the stereo configuration will be rock solid.  Additionally, because you're leveraging the Anthem, you can control the volume of the Phantoms with it and use ARC to correct for any room irregularities.  

Good Luck and let us know how it works for you.

Thank you for all the help!

[donniemcm]

@njaiswal Just read through this post ... would your solution be my solution for my setup too?
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-System-s...tion-ideas

[njaiswal]

@njaiswal Just read through this post ... would your solution be my solution for my setup too?
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-System-s...tion-ideas

Yup. :-)

[Lee inseok]

Hi Everyone,
I spent this weekend totally reconfiguring my phantoms to use Dante as the audio input.  I was able to work with a local custom installer and purchase 5 Dante optical adapters (https://www.audinate.com/products/dante-...er?lang=en) and 3 AVIO adapters (https://www.audinate.com/products/device...naloginput).  I'm fortunate that my preamp has balanced outputs and am using it to control sources and volume on the phantoms.  

I'm simply blown away at the improved sound quality I was able to achieve with this configuration than my old one (using parts ordered from Amazon).  The phantoms sound "huge" again.  Everything just sounds better.  Surprisingly setup was extremely simple and straightforward.  Once my house is ready, I'm going to fully retrofit all of my phantoms to use Dante.  It's the only way I can ensure that they work flawlessly in my environment. 

Niten

Hi Mr.
I have  one  question.

Is Symetrix Radius AEC-2 absolutely necessary when configuring 5 channels of home theater using dante with Phantom Gold?  Is it impossible to configure the system without that?

Thank you.

[njaiswal]

Hi Everyone,
I spent this weekend totally reconfiguring my phantoms to use Dante as the audio input.  I was able to work with a local custom installer and purchase 5 Dante optical adapters (https://www.audinate.com/products/dante-...er?lang=en) and 3 AVIO adapters (https://www.audinate.com/products/device...naloginput).  I'm fortunate that my preamp has balanced outputs and am using it to control sources and volume on the phantoms.  

I'm simply blown away at the improved sound quality I was able to achieve with this configuration than my old one (using parts ordered from Amazon).  The phantoms sound "huge" again.  Everything just sounds better.  Surprisingly setup was extremely simple and straightforward.  Once my house is ready, I'm going to fully retrofit all of my phantoms to use Dante.  It's the only way I can ensure that they work flawlessly in my environment. 

Niten

Hi Mr.
I have  one  question.

Is Symetrix Radius AEC-2 absolutely necessary when configuring 5 channels of home theater using dante with Phantom Gold?  Is it impossible to configure the system without that?

Thank you.

Hi There!
You don't need a Symetrix if all of your phantoms are from the same family (all Premiere or all Reactor).  Once you mix and match, then you need "something" (in my case it is a Symetrix) to add delays to the Premiers so that they're in alignment with the Reactors.

Hope this helps.

[Lee inseok]

Thank you very much.
In fact, it was difficult to receive accurate information because there were few users using Dante equipment in Korea.
It was very helpful.
Right now, I am configuring using 3 Gold, 2 Silver and ADC, and I will try to configure the system using DANTE soon after hearing your advice.

[booshtukka]

I’m still waiting for an Anthem equivalent that’s half the size and doesn’t consist of 90% features I don’t need!

Just a Dante surround sound decoder. Where is it??? I could probably just make one out of a Mac mini at this point…