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Hi Folks,
Just bought a Phantom Silver for the missus as she was fed up of complicated gear (my D120!) and wanted something simple to play good music.
So she is pretty impressed (banking brownie points big time) but Spark is depleting them rather fast, here's why.....
1. When using Spark on iOS, if you switch off the screen when Spark is active it kills the music. Is this correct as running it on iPhone and iPad batteries is going to flatten it in no time.
2. You can't switch between Apps when a song is playing.....this is a giant problem, means your iPhone or iPad can't do anything else, its a $600 Spark machine....
3. Is there a way to have more than one playlist, we have kids and need different music for different occasions, selecting everything each time is a problem.
4. I dont understand the point of showing tracks in the playlist that are added by other devices that can only be accessed by the device that put them there, just clogs up the interface.
Spark for Mac
1. My Mac is on a wired network and the Phantom is on the Wireless network but sharing the same router. Why can't I send tracks from my mac to Phantom, it just says no data available?
2. My iPhone recognises my wired mac on Spark but Spark on the worded mac doesn't see the iPhone, why is that?
3. When I select an album from my wired back using my iPhone it puts it into the playlist but when I try and play it says no data available.
3. Any chance the developers could recognise iTunes playlists and import them, then it would rock.
So in short Spark is letting the side down, hope someone can tell me I am wrong and are using it incorrectly.
Cheers fellow listeners
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Most users here use Spark with two Phantoms and Dialog. Dialog in this case acts as streaming server and multiple IOS or Android devices can be used as controller. Like that you have no issues with turning on/off mobile devices. The music keeps playing. On OSX or Windows computers Spark needs to run that local files keep streaming. Also the IOS device needs to run Spark when you stream local files from the IPad or IPhone. So for comfort reasons I recommend to buy in addition to even one Phantom a Dialog as streaming server. Only like this you can turn on/off Spark on mobile controller without stopping the actual streaming. IOS is not very transparent when programs run in background in multitasking mode or are stopped by the OS. And of course as long as the IPhone is streaming wirelessly there is more power consuption and less battery life. Through the optical input of the Phantom you can also use any other streaming system, e.g. AppleTV or Sonos or Sqeezebox.
Regarding playlists this is really a miss at the moment. The only way to have playlists is currently through subscription of e.g. Qobuz in Spark. Then you can create your playlists in Qobuz and select them in Spark. Another weakness is that you cannot create the playlists in Spark, but have to make them in the IOS Qobuz app or the webapp on OSX or Windows. Tidal and Deezer offer the same. But local files cannot (yet) be orgaized with playlists.
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Thanks for the replies, although I also don't understand how a Dialogue can stream local files when iOS is switched off or not running Spark. From what I understand you could only use Spark to kick off a streaming service (such as Tidal etc) and then close Spark as Dialogue would be streaming directly from the Internet. However this doesn't address local file playing issue.
On a second note I think the Toslink idea is the best solution used with Airplay etc, the only problem is that it is more boxes and wires around the Phantom which loses more brownie points in the wife factor department.
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If your media is on your Mac, you need the Spark app to be running on your Mac.
You can still select the media from your iPhone/iPad but make sure you select your Mac as the source.
Current: Phantom Silvers, Oppo 105D (Toslink), Raspberry Pi + Digi+, ROON
Pre-Phantom: PenAudio Rebel2, Nuforce MCH-2C5, Oppo 105D (Analog)
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29-Jul-2015, 07:07
(This post was last modified: 29-Jul-2015, 07:08 by streamy.)
Sorry, when I produced some confusion with my earlier post. With a Dialog and the current Spark version you need Spark to run on the device you want to access local files. Only when you make your selection from streaming services Dialog will continue playing your selection even when all Spark applications (on several of your devices) are closed after you have initiated your selection. Dialog will jump over selected local files when Spark is not active on these devices that store the local files. Also Dialog jumps over selected streaming files now and then when the streaming service is not sufficiently responsive. I hope Devialet realizes that Dialog should buffer more data to be able to compensate for low responsiveness of networks and to give us gap-free play of albums or even crossfade when we choose it as option. I have Spark running on a MacMini and access files on the local drive, an external drive and my NAS. Unfortunaltely with the current Spark version all files from the multiple location get flattened into one big list only accessible through the search function or lengthy scrolling. A folder structure as provided by upnp streamers already for more than 10 years (I started with the Philips Streamium system in 2003) is standard. Once Dialog will have upnp as promised I hope Devialet will not go a different way by not offering us folders, playlists, genres etc. view options to select the files for play.
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Do you know if you can integrate SPARK on a windows desktop with a local DLNA server like JRMC to access internet Radio streams or scheduled playlists? Currently My JRMC playlist is scheduled to wake me up!
Spotify -> JRMC-> PS Audio Perfectwave MkII-> Event Opal -> 
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29-Jul-2015, 18:32
(This post was last modified: 29-Jul-2015, 18:34 by Dvlt PhD.
Edit Reason: spelling error
)
ralphoi,
I'm curious... do you plan to use your MKII, with the Phantoms, if you get them? I see that MKII has no toslink out...
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I wouldn't use the perfectwave mkii with the phantom. That would be double dacs stacked! Since the phantom has a dac already. Although I think the mkii dac is much better than the phantoms' but I'm trying to figure out the best config without the mkii in the chain
SeqSent from my iPhone using TapatalkqqqyAsasqqas
Spotify -> JRMC-> PS Audio Perfectwave MkII-> Event Opal ->
