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HI All ,
havigThoughts of buying the Cambridge cnx v2 .
It has optical in&out and it seems like a good choice streamer for my 2 golds.
https://youtu.be/N8bSQSFm56E
In my country its about 1200$.

Has anyone using this setup with optical out to phantoms?


Please advise...maybe other contenders in this price range?

Thanks
(01-Jul-2020, 14:21)eladeb Wrote: [ -> ]HI All ,
havigThoughts of buying the Cambridge cnx v2 .
It has optical in&out and it seems like a good choice streamer for my 2 golds.
https://youtu.be/N8bSQSFm56E
In my country its about 1200$.

Has anyone using this setup with optical out to phantoms?


Please advise...maybe other contenders in this price range?

Thanks
Depending on the config you need, but for half price of the Cambridge....Primare NP5...works well for my setup...Roon for my local files and Tidal, AirPlay for my AppleTV and Chromecast for family voice controlled Spotify with Google Home...one Toslink cable to my Phantom Gold, that's it....?
@rsemedo

Thanks! the NP5 looks good. dont have it in my country yet ):
my setup is basic as yours....streamer to phantoms with toslink.
whats about the streaming DAC (WOLFSUN WM8470) inside the CNX v2 does it apply on the phantom?
"enhanced" it?or DAC have no influence on optical output at all?
there is a digital filter : 2gn ATF2 UP-SAMPLING inside the cnx v2.
I use a Cambridge Audio DAC MAGIC PLUS B1 when I bring one of my two Golds in our holiday home. It allows me to use my computer as a source for my music with an optical connexion in place of wifi I used previously. I'm satisfied with this solution that allows me to get the same quality I have at home.
(01-Jul-2020, 15:36)eladeb Wrote: [ -> ]@rsemedo

Thanks! the NP5 looks good. dont have it in my country yet ):
my setup is basic as yours....streamer to phantoms with toslink.
whats about the streaming DAC (WOLFSUN WM8470) inside the CNX v2 does it apply on the phantom?
"enhanced" it?or DAC have no influence on optical output at all?
there is a digital filter : 2gn ATF2 UP-SAMPLING inside the cnx v2.
You can get the Primare NP5 on eBay (that's how I got it to Australia).... ;-)

I looked at the Cambridge before and just thought it would be an overkill solution after spending all that money on the Phantom Gold's...partly for their integrated DAC's, streaming capabilities, etc....and ended up buying the NP5 because of the additional Chromecast and Roon (that is supposed to be native on the Phantom's but I don't want to keep wait and waiting for Devialet)....
10x found it here about 650$ to my country.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Primare-NP5-Med...890.l49292

So basically your saying that the DAC on the cnx v2 not gone spice up my music with more precise sound?
And how does it works when you connect a dac before the phantoms? Is the sound gone pass two DACS?
(04-Jul-2020, 14:10)eladeb Wrote: [ -> ]10x found it here about 650$ to my country.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Primare-NP5-Med...890.l49292

So basically your saying that the DAC on the cnx v2 not gone spice up my music with more precise sound?
And how does it works when you connect a dac before the phantoms? Is the sound gone pass two DACS?
Hey...I'm not a sound expert and I didn't do any listening with the Cambridge together with the Phantom's...but when you're using a Toslink connection, you're pretty much doing a digital passthrough, so I would say that you're not really using two Dac's ...since the Cambridge won't be doing anything to the sound, the D/A conversion is still done by Phantom DAC...
@eladeb - I think @rsemedo is correct.

In fact, note what Darko mentioned in the review. He had connected the CXN to his Hegel amplifier in two ways, first digitally to use the Hegel DAC, then secondly analogue out from the CXN to the analogue inputs of the Hegel. In the first scenario, the Hegel DAC is in use, in the second scenario the Cambridge DAC is in use. He then states in the review that the Cambridge DAC sounds "somewhat warm somewhat rounded and somewhat burnished in the top end".

With the Phantom Gold - you do not have an analogue input, so there is no way of "benefitting" from the CXN's DAC. Or is there? I guess if you really wanted to, you could send the analogue output from the CXN to an analogue to digital converter (ADC), then send the output of this to the Phantom. This might give you a "warmer more rounded sound", if that is what you are after, but it would certainly reduce overall sound quality. As a suggestion, if you are trying to "fine tune" the sound of your Gold's a little, it might be a good idea to explain exactly what you are after in this thread, I am sure you will get good advice from other Phantom owners. You mention you want a "more precise sound", then quite simply the most precise sound you can get is with the Gold's own DAC.

If it is the warmer sound you are after, (is it a warmer sound you are after?) then maybe you could use some sort of software to provide DSP before the Phantom, say Roon with Parametric EQ sent via Airplay, although there are many ways to do this. If you are simply after best sound quality with a Phantom Gold, note that the DAC (ADH) is an integral part of how the Phantom's amplifiers work, you cannot bypass the DAC section, so you cannot do "better" that the DAC you have.

As a general point to those running an Expert or Pro, it occurs to me that you could use the CXN as Darko did in his review. Digital out to the Devialet and analogue out to the Devialet. Then if you stumbled across one of those "hard" recordings that does not go well with the Expert's "clinical" DAC, you could switch to the analogue input to add a bit of CXN DAC warm colouration and roundness. Maybe a crazy idea? Or maybe not? It might actually work quite well, you could switch between "warm" and "clinical" mode at a touch of the remote. Crazy or not, they were selling them for about £800 in the UK, which seems to be very good value to me, but it now looks like the model is discontinued? Maybe a V3 version is coming? Being as I am slightly crazy, I quite fancy trying one!
@Confused
Thanks for the expended answer.
As i understand from your explanation using digital out want give me any enhancement using the dac.
There for any DAC plays only as pass through.

You mentioned the sound i i w looking for...
I have pair of gold wifi with optical using roon and audirvana with sometimes tidal hifi and local storage sometimes bubble upnp.didnt find what i was looking for!warm sound,wide stage etc...in any of the streams above.

But yesterday a friend of mine gave me he's raspberry pi 3b with digi pro + hat with low jitter and galvanic isolation volumio installed.
The sound was dramatically change for the better.
Acts as Roon end point/tidal .
So there are ways to improve the sound quality with those 3rd party hires tech parts.
I think im suffering from a bad room correction planning.

Thats my next thing to check..

10x
(07-Jul-2020, 18:09)eladeb Wrote: [ -> ]I have pair of gold wifi with optical using roon and audirvana with sometimes tidal hifi and local storage sometimes bubble upnp.didnt find what i was looking for!warm sound,wide stage etc...in any of the streams above.
For me, the best sound for the Phantoms came from using MinimServer on Intel NUC, BubbleUPnP App and Ethernet cabling with an EtherRegen switch. It beat wifi, optical and Roon via Airplay, optical.


(07-Jul-2020, 18:09)eladeb Wrote: [ -> ]I think im suffering from a bad room correction planning.
I used convolution running on Minimserver.  Probably the easiest is to use MiniDSP SHD Studio running Dirac Live.
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