Hi all
Am about to change my current sonos centric living room home theater to a devialet system. I am trying to understand the trade off between Devialets “phantom theater”, which is built around a jbl sdp-58 + dante ethernet based connectivity (w dante to optical at the last step) vs just using the pre-outs from any Dolby avr processor to feed into an analog to optical converter and connecting those directly to the devialets (after putting the phantoms into direct optical mode)
Going w the jbl and Dante I’m sure will be great (mostly because the jbl will have Dirac room correction) but that whole setup seems incredibly complex w all the conversions and PoE switches etc. not to mention the expense.
For my relatively simple home setup with no super long distances for cables, I feel like optical is the best bet.
Any feedback appreciated for a first time Devialet adopter!
Thanks!
(27-Feb-2023, 17:31)Nputcha Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all
Am about to change my current sonos centric living room home theater to a devialet system. I am trying to understand the trade off between Devialets “phantom theater”, which is built around a jbl sdp-58 + dante ethernet based connectivity (w dante to optical at the last step) vs just using the pre-outs from any Dolby avr processor to feed into an analog to optical converter and connecting those directly to the devialets (after putting the phantoms into direct optical mode)
Going w the jbl and Dante I’m sure will be great (mostly because the jbl will have Dirac room correction) but that whole setup seems incredibly complex w all the conversions and PoE switches etc. not to mention the expense.
For my relatively simple home setup with no super long distances for cables, I feel like optical is the best bet.
Any feedback appreciated for a first time Devialet adopter!
Thanks!
Hi Nputcha,
This may work if you're going to build a system using purely Phantom 1 but if you plan to use Phantom 2 in the system you will likely come across latency issues because Phantom 2 doesn't have a direct-optical mode and there's a minimum latency of 60ms (see
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Reactors-for-deejaying). I think there's another thread somewhere of someone trying with Phantom 2 and adding a delay to try and match the Phantom 2s but ended up switching to Phantom 2 custom units, unfortunately I haven't been able to find the thread yet. It looks like someone has created a home theatre setup without Dante and Phantom 2 here -
Phantom II Custom 5.0 surround system experience and suggestions (devialetchat.com)
(27-Feb-2023, 21:52)andylyonette Wrote: [ -> ] (27-Feb-2023, 17:31)Nputcha Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all
Am about to change my current sonos centric living room home theater to a devialet system. I am trying to understand the trade off between Devialets “phantom theater”, which is built around a jbl sdp-58 + dante ethernet based connectivity (w dante to optical at the last step) vs just using the pre-outs from any Dolby avr processor to feed into an analog to optical converter and connecting those directly to the devialets (after putting the phantoms into direct optical mode)
Going w the jbl and Dante I’m sure will be great (mostly because the jbl will have Dirac room correction) but that whole setup seems incredibly complex w all the conversions and PoE switches etc. not to mention the expense.
For my relatively simple home setup with no super long distances for cables, I feel like optical is the best bet.
Any feedback appreciated for a first time Devialet adopter!
Thanks!
Hi Nputcha,
This may work if you're going to build a system using purely Phantom 1 but if you plan to use Phantom 2 in the system you will likely come across latency issues because Phantom 2 doesn't have a direct-optical mode and there's a minimum latency of 60ms (see https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Reactors-for-deejaying). I think there's another thread somewhere of someone trying with Phantom 2 and adding a delay to try and match the Phantom 2s but ended up switching to Phantom 2 custom units, unfortunately I haven't been able to find the thread yet. It looks like someone has created a home theatre setup without Dante and Phantom 2 here - Phantom II Custom 5.0 surround system experience and suggestions (devialetchat.com)
Thank you for the reply!!
Yeah it seems like going the phantom 2 custom route for the rears will be my best bet, particularly based on the second link you posted. Thanks so much!
I can imagine how enjoyable a Phantom home theatre surround sound setup sounds. I’m using a stereo Phantom 1 setup for music and TV/movie playback, and find it enjoyable on its own.
So I got the relevant pieces to the puzzle setup, but there’s good news and bad news. My setup is an Apple TV feeding a marantz receiver, analog output converted to digital optical and fed to phantom i in front and phantom ii in back.
Good news:
1) Latency
No issues with latency as Apple TV does a very good job with lip sync. I was able to use regular phantom ii and phantom i without direct optical mode
2) Sound is exactly as good as you think it is. Very satisfying to get surround sound with this quality of speaker in such a form friendly way for my living room (I’ll post a picture if I can sort out how)
Bad / Possibly Fatal News
1) High noise floor
I wasn’t able to get a quality analog to digital box on short notice so I got some random thing on Amazon. It is very noisy and I suspect also curtailing my signal quality non insignificantly.
2) Constant hiss / inability to properly maintain volume control
This is related to point 1 and my biggest issue.. My original plan was to set all the phantoms to ~70% volume (same level they are set to for direct optical I think) and then adjust my avr volume however I liked. Issue is, with such a high noise floor leaving these things cranked to 70% means an audible hiss at all times.
Any thoughts on how to fix this? In an ideal world I could
1) find a better analog to digital converter (open to suggestions!!)
2) find some way to get the phantoms to go into auto standby mode or switch off of the physical inputs. I imagine this situation is not that different from when you have a preamp connected to a power amp (in fact it’s basically identical). Any power amp has input sensing and turns off when there’s no input at all. So the question is How can I setup a similar outcome for my phantoms?
It’s possible this has all been for naught and I just need to give up. I am within the return period for the devialet, though I spent $1000 on the marantz receiver that I cannot return, so I’ll take a loss there. But I’d really like to make this work!!! Getting Dante setup with the jbl receiver doubles total system cost, I suppose I could do that too but man I sure would like to avoid that route.
@
Nputcha
Sorry for your troubles. You should get some high quality ADCs, the cheap ones are terrible. The RME ADI-2 FS AD/DA is a good choice with a low noise floor, but they're quite expensive, and you'll need three of them. The Phantom's will not go into standby mode if the background noise is too high, get rid of the background noise and I believe your problems are sorted.
Ahh interesting. So they will go to standby! That’s actually quite comforting. I’ll get myself some nicer a/d then. Thanks!
(02-Mar-2023, 17:36)ragwo Wrote: [ -> ]@Nputcha
Sorry for your troubles. You should get some high quality ADCs, the cheap ones are terrible. The RME ADI-2 FS AD/DA is a good choice with a low noise floor, but they're quite expensive, and you'll need three of them. The Phantom's will not go into standby mode if the background noise is too high, get rid of the background noise and I believe your problems are sorted.
Good news is I was able to find 2 used adi units on eBay for about $500 each, though I have to find my own power supplies. Hopefully they work 🤷🏽♂️ I’m pot committed now so one way or another I have to make this setup work. Thanks for the advice!!
Fwiw also seems like pre-out from marantz (and other all in one AVRs) is in fact extremely low, and when I turn up gain it clips. So seems like that’s a big part of my problem. The ADIs seem to have ability to adjust preout level and then the digital out level too, so hopefully I can use that to get everything sorted
Hi There! And congrats on your phantom HT journey. My first phantom HT was using an anthem D2V processor and using ADCs. While the setup worked, I found (and you're experiencing) a constant hiss from the speakers. The other challenge was the amount of outlets I needed to power everything... too many wires for the family's taste. I switched and went the Dante route. I have 2 setups using SDP-55 (older version of the SDP-58) and am extremely happy with the outcome. My system is completely quiet even with the phantoms set to +3 db. I already had a POE switch and ethernet ports at the phantoms' locations. Even with the technical glitches that come with the JBL, I found the investment to be worthwhile. The all digital pathway allowed the phantoms to stay sound large, while I felt the ADCs made the them sound smaller.
Here's my thread on the topic
https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Phantom-...-and-Dante