Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Phantoms and Dialog in limbo
#11
I usually don't use Spark either; most of the times I use iTunes via Airplay (when not actively listening music).
However, there is still this annoying crackling issue and the customer support told me, it is due to a faulty Airplay protocol which can only be resolved by a Spark update.
So, although I don't use the application I would substantially benefit from an update of it. Like this I can't fully use the advertised Airplay compatibility and hence, the speakers are far from producing "the best sound of the world" with Airplay.
Reply
#12
Thanks Confused for putting the resolution v reproduction issue far more eloquently than I managed. It makes far more sense to me now.

Ca I ask your views on the Spark app front? If most users shy away from Spark and use third party apps then is this all sent via Airplay? If I was to use Tidal app or Spotify for example, I can see my “room” via airplay but thought that type of connectivity was not as good as using the built in Tidal app within Spark. Does it not make any difference in sound quality?

I was also thinking of getting Roon but again it was stated yesterday that Roon is not on the Phantom roadmap. Can Roon only work if Devialet has a tie in with Roon?

Sorry to be so basic but each time I think I’m getting a hang of how these things work, another baffling set of statements set me off course.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reply
#13
Roon works with Phantom already via AirPlay. But as AirPlay has crackle issues this isn’t ideal. Of course this is also limited to 44/16

To me it seems like Phantom is now a dead product. Developers for the app etc have no involvement in certification. So I don’t buy the excuse. I think the product is dead and end of line. Time to sell maybe.
Reply
#14
So they don’t see latency or multichannel as issues needing addressing for the “foreseeable future”. Hard to believe.

(13-Jul-2018, 10:45)jonstatt Wrote: To me it seems like Phantom is now a dead product. Developers for the app etc have no involvement in certification. So I don’t buy the excuse. I think the product is dead and end of line.

That was the impression I immediately got this from report as well. I do wonder why though.

(12-Jul-2018, 23:24)Confused Wrote: They did mention that they are looking at other "tie-ups"

Were they marketing spivs all along?
Reply
#15
Devialet treat their customers with contempt at their own peril. The old adage is true that it is a damn site easier and cheaper to keep a customer than attract a new one. They have lost any future business from me.
Reply
#16
I do not own a Phantom, but I do have some sympathy with those that do and who feel a little abandoned by Devialet. It reminds me of the early days with the Expert range. There was a kind of "golden period" where there was a firmware update every six months, often with some decent enhancements. The updates then started to slow to nothing, and from the outside it appeared that Devialet had limited resources, and all of those resources were being fed into the Phantom project. During this time AIR was very unstable for many of us, so it was not like the Expert project was mature and everything perfect. Furthermore, it then turned out that the "big one" for Expert, Devialet "SAM", was in fact a spin-off from the DSP work that had been done specifically for Phantom. It now looks a bit like the opposite is true, and that the Pro CI board is getting all the attention, to the detriment of Phantom.

But is this the case? It might look like it, but one casual observation I would make from the OAC event is that this was an Expert Pro event, and it was hosted by the top two guys from the newly formed Expert "Core Team". (see the Munich 2018 thread for more details on this.) There were some Phantom questions, but the answers sometimes started with something along the lines "well we are not directly involved with Phantom now......". This I think could have made the Phantom side of things, as seen through the lens of the OAC event, seem far more negative than they really are. Or not? Does anyone know?

This begs a couple of questions. Is there a Phantom "Core team" and "Extended team" for Phantom, similar to that for expert, and if so, who are they? Also, are Devialet planning any dealer events for Phantom, similar to that run for Expert and CI recently? (At least two in the UK last week) OK, the Phantom is a lower priced product versus the Expert, but it is not exactly cheap, plus I assume Phantom is achieving much higher sales numbers. So why not a Phantom event or two? If there is more going on that nobody is aware of, it might be a good idea to let us know and get a bit of the Phantom "buzz" back.

The link below takes you to the photographs of the slides that Guillaume posted from the Munch event this year. They clearly show the Expert / CI teams, it was an Expert presentation after all, but I have to say it would not have been that strange if the personnel for the equivalent Phantom teams were also shown, in terms of Devialet's new structure under the new CEO. Does anyone know any details? Clearly there must be some kind of Phantom team, but the number and type of people involved might give a hint as to what the future might hold.

https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Munich-2...ght=munich
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
Reply
#17
I’m not a Phantom owner, but my main frustration with Devialet about Spark (which i used it at a few demos and thought was rubbish and did something weird at two of them) wasnt so much that it was poor (although that’s stil a reason) , but that Devialet were being deliberately obstructive in allowing alternatives. Their stance on Spark being the sole player for this amazing Devialet ecosystem was pretty arrogant but more so considering how bad it was. That’s why I asked them about RoonReady - a viable option that they’d ruled out completely.

Devialet have a long, long way to go to restore faith in their brand. If you think Phantom owners have it bad now (and to be fair you’ve had it pretty good recently), think about all owners of Expert systems. For years Devialet have been marketing Experts as ‘an answer to eradicating planned obsolescence’ with constant evolutive updates through their EVO platform. Except they then planned for obsolescence by updating the EVO platform to the same architecture as Phantoms, and stopping development of all older models without warning or without a viable OS board update for those older models. It just kind of petered out and took two years for them to finally admit that anything older than Pro’s are dead-end products. Ok so they’ll reopen the upgrade programme, but needing to spend £3-6k to update your hardware is hardly the same thing, despite it being quite unique.

Fact is Devialet dont deliver on many of their promises, and they’re seemingly happy with imperfection at least in software terms. Things may be changing, but I imagine it’s going to be a long time before we see where the brand ends up.

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

Reply
#18
Clearly the most disappointing is this statement from Joachim quoted from thumb5's report.: "Back on the Phantom, Joachim said Devialet feel they've reached the best they can achieve with respect to sound quality..."
I've had Phantoms on my wish list for a long time waiting for Devialet to improve the sound i.e. make them time-coincident and so on. This is probably naive of me, but the whole design of the speaker is 'just right' and when I first learned that it was not time corrected I couldn't believe it! It was first when I tried a pair in my own listening room I understood that the phantom was, in fact not time-coincident.
I have removed Phantoms from my wish list...
*
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
#19
I knew it. it's dead.

8 months ago, I asked Devialet support team what was their plan to fix numerous issues with the Phantom and the app.
I wasted hours on phone to talk and share with them my expectations on how to improve things.
They seemed to have a clue on what was not going well.


that was their answer ! i couldn't believe it !
They clearly stated there was nothing to expect for the upcoming year.

[Image: Untitled.png]


I wrote an open letter to Sannié (who's Devialet's CEO) that i never sent mainly because the tone of the letter was sarcastic and aggressive.
I mocked the fact the Phantom was poorly designed.

I also noticed most of users here are quite satisfied with Phantoms right now despite of:

No Bluetooth security
Spark is the worst player ever created (i miss you winamp 1998)
Different audio volume presets depending you're using Bluetooth 70/100 or DLNA 35/100 (basically you can't keep your own preference after switching...)
Poor DLNA compatibility.
Audio drops via Toslink


Lets combine our thoughts and maybe we could write them a letter ?
Reply
#20
I don't think users really are satisfied, just lazy (I know I am...). I'm definitly not satisfied with everything that's half working. It's a too expensive product to leave half finished and riddled with bugs. I have enough with that kind of software at work >_<

I have a really annoying problem with DLNA f.ex. Sometimes the volume just keep rising, and I can't do shit about it - I have to cut power to my phantoms.
Personally I don't use BT, but the only reason I've turned it off is the lack of security.
Dropout on toslink, I've connected my tv directly to one of my phantoms and it works fine (dialog is in another room with router).

But what I'd really like is the ability to FORCE the damn things to stay on MY choice of connection, I always get problems restarting the phantoms after I've been gone and it takes too long for them to settle down working. Highly annoying.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)