Sounds dropping, one speaker not working

[tosehee]

Just bought a 3 phantom about 3 weeks ago, and I am running into these issues that I am seriously considering to return all 3.

1. Sporadically, only one speaker in stereo setup isn't working... There is no way to fix it but to re-setup again. Total pain in the butt as I have 2 in the living and 1 in the bedroom.
2. The sound randomly drops off in the middle of play. I hear the glitches, random pauses in between. Totally sporadic and no easy way to reproduce.

My system is fully upgraded to the latest firmware..

I am playing the music through optical through apple tv. I tried with chrome cast audio, and the issue is more or less the same.

[seb]

Just bought a 3 phantom about 3 weeks ago, and I am running into these issues that I am seriously considering to return all 3.

1. Sporadically, only one speaker in stereo setup isn't working... There is no way to fix it but to re-setup again. Total pain in the butt as I have 2 in the living and 1 in the bedroom.
2. The sound randomly drops off in the middle of play. I hear the glitches, random pauses in between. Totally sporadic and no easy way to reproduce.

My system is fully upgraded to the latest firmware..

I am playing the music through optical through apple tv. I tried with chrome cast audio, and the issue is more or less the same.

Hi, as recommended in many posts. A complete reset of your system is probably the best way to address this issue. From my personal experience I have to admit that Phantom is a highly sophisticated device that is really sensitive to network issues. These issues may root deep in your network and Phantom only exposes them. It is a complicated interdependence, so do not give up and experiment a bit. I had quite some trouble before, but with the current firmware Phantom works well. Still I have to reset my network once in a while, but I have a lot of devices connected and even a powerful router can run into troubles.

If you are "lucky" unplugging the Dialog & Phantoms for some seconds may help. If not, I suggest a complete reset of your network (sometimes only a Dialog/Phantom reset works, sometimes the whole network needs to be restarted). That means turning off modem / router etc. Then start from the source. Turn on the modem and wait until it has established its connection, then turn on your router and wait until it has fully started (wait for any WiFi symbols signal) and then turn on Dialog & Phantom (see below). The detailed procedures has been mentioned in many posts in this forum, but this (as far as I was told by Devialet Support) is the way to go.*

1) Simple problems may be solved with a "soft" reset:
- Just unplug electrically 15s Dialog + Phantom, this will make the Dialog's servers restart and usually solves Spark and e.g. TiDAL sync issues.

2) Complete Reset:

- Unplug modem and router
- Unplug Dialog
- Unplug Phantom
- Plug in modem (cable & AC) and wait until it is completely restarted
- Plug in router and wait until it is restarted (wait for WiFi connection being established)
- Replug Dialog, wait for the solid white light
- Replug Phantom
- Wait 30s
- Reset Dialog: press 3 times quickly on the button until it turns off off a few seconds, wait until solid white light.
- Reset Phantom: press 3 times as quick as on the Dialog, it must do a click, wait for sound starting.
- Do the set up in Spark

From my personal experience the network (!) and Phantom/Dialog reset solves even major issues. I am really happy with the Phantoms. Since firmware 1.501 the system works quite stable. Not there is improvement possible ...

There is one other factor you have to be aware of. It is also of importance to create a "smart" network configuration. Best would be all Ethernet but still the Dialog / Phantoms seem to sync via WiFi. So try to avoid WiFi congestion and keep the devices close together. The more direct the line between the source and the Phantom, the better. What does that mean? Let me give you an example. I stream my music either from TIDAL->(via Ethernet) Dialog-> (via WiFi) Phantom or from Mac mini -> (via Ethernet) Dialog -> (via WiFi) Phantom. If you stream from a mobile device / tablet / desktop via Wifi it may be a bit too much for your network. In theory it should, but your milage may vary.

The other factor that is influencing the whole setup is the power line communication. As Dialog & Phantom take advantage of this it is important that that line of communication could be established. Power controlling devices are therefore not a good idea. Plug the cable directly in the wall outlet or put a simple fused power strip in between. 

Hope it helps. It did for me   .

* There are technical reasons for it, it is truly important to be patient and not to miss any step of the sequence!

[andreas]

I found these problems are all related to contact with the Dialog. If your Phantoms sits too far from it or if you have heavy/thick things obstructing the signal... I had one of my 3 Phantoms sitting on a table top in my kitchen and every time I would open my fridge, the door would block the signal and be an obstructing object from the Dialog that is only 7 meters away with a clear view... It seems fragile like this.

[tosehee]

Thanks for the replies.

My dialog and all servers are wired, so wifi is not an issue. Only wifi in the picture is my laptop that i am playing the song from, but dialog and my music servers (iTunes) are connected with wired.

As for the distance and obstacles, they are literally no obstacles between the phantom and dialog in the living room. They are wide open, and I still hear this pauses and glitches.

I may understand the phantom in bedroom upstairs, but this is still falling short of the promise.. What' the point of having 13 phantoms if they all have to be closed to each other or there is no obstacles in between? I don't get it.

As I said, all the hardwares are upgraded (this is more or less forced, no?), so I don't know what the issues are.

My network is quite simple. It's just a home. I have a router downstairs and apple WAP in between. As I said, all of them are wired, so it's not even going through the apple router at all.

Resetting the system helps for a bit then it goes back to having an issue in a few... I don't know how this is usable solution...

[seb]

Thanks for the replies.

My dialog and all servers are wired, so wifi is not an issue. Only wifi in the picture is my laptop that i am playing the song from, but dialog and my music servers (iTunes) are connected with wired.

As for the distance and obstacles, they are literally no obstacles between the phantom and dialog in the living room. They are wide open, and I still hear this pauses and glitches.

I may understand the phantom in bedroom upstairs, but this is still falling short of the promise.. What' the point of having 13 phantoms if they all have to be closed to each other or there is no obstacles in between? I don't get it.

As I said, all the hardwares are upgraded (this is more or less forced, no?), so I don't know what the issues are.

My network is quite simple. It's just a home. I have a router downstairs and apple WAP in between. As I said, all of them are wired, so it's not even going through the apple router at all.

Resetting the system helps for a bit then it goes back to having an issue in a few... I don't know how this is usable solution...

To my understanding the Dialog still communicates and syncs via WiFi in addition (?) to the wired connection, it also uses the AC to connect. It was said that Devialet uses some kind of mesh networking to integrate more Phantoms, in fact it would even become more stable the more machines you would add (at least that is the theory).

I am no expert on this, but I would maybe test a bit and see what happens. Are your WiFi (Apple in Bridge mode?), Dialog and Phantoms physically in the same room? If your router (also WiFi?) is downstairs how is it wired with the rest? All Ethernet or did you use a WiFi Bridge, MoCa or AC connection? How is your router configured (any Firewalls, ports closed etc.).

Networks are a really weird issue. I have about 20 devices connected in my home and they are all managed by one router and a bridge. It took me trial and error to find the right setup and a router that was able to manage these properly. The others I tested would go down (slow, unresponsive) about once a week. Even with this one it happens, but maybe only once a month. One time I needed to do a factory reset of my router and start from scratch as it was causing problems for no apparent reason (this did the job, while the restart with a setup that worked for some time did not). Your laptop or smartphone can be a useful tool for checking your network. There is plenty of software available - although this becomes sometimes quite technical. So my suggestion is trial and error and try to eliminate one potential cause after the other. Of course only if you are willing to invest some time. I can understand that this is frustrating (as it was for me). However I do not regret and it was worth it.

[tosehee]

I have a cable modem connected directly to a zyxel router ($200 or so). From there, it goes through a wall ports where apple is connected in bridge mode.

The server with iTunes are connected wired to the wall to a router, and the dialog and apple tv is both physically wired to the apple router.

They all have same subnet, and as far as i know, there is no network conflicts or congestion that would be an issue.

The dialog + apple tv + 2 phantoms are sitting in the living room with no apparent obstacles. One of the phantom is upstairs in the bedroom, and while this is is more problematic than the other two, the ones in living room has exact same problem.

Do I need to put a physical wires to the phantom to provide a stable sound?

Aside from the sound, one of the reason why I bought this system is for the portability and mobility. If I have to sacrifice the stability and usability, might as well return this and get something that works all the time..

I feel like the speaker is good, but the dialog and connections/communication mechanism are rushed to the market.

I am just not happy with it..

Spark and the music apple is virtually useless. I wonder who uses it other than to setup and control the volume.. The navigation is terrible, and searching through the music is painful.

The spark app crashes quite often, and switching between the room and the source is not intuitive at all..

Again, poor execution on the software, but I feel like that's beaten to death in other reviews.