New versions of Spark 1.3.1 and firmware 1.4.1.12

[seb]

Update from 1.4.0.5 went smooth. All settings were kept. Playing now from TIDAL without problems. I keep my fingers crossed that it stays like this. As others I had some problems before, mainly phase shifting or loosing one of my two Phantom for some seconds. The full reset procedure described in one of the other posts did reduce the problems significantly though. I would definitely recommend to do this should you run into troubles. My Phantoms are linked wirelessly and the Dialog is connected without AC filter.

Using an AC filter - a power bar for clean power and surge protection....this seems to generate problems so people are setting up their systems without surge protection?    Is no surge protection needed?   Has anyone set up a Phantom stereo system for TV audio, with AC filter/surge protection for the whole system and no glitches - dropouts or strange sotware performance?  Did you go wired or wireless to achieve stability?   Did you use an Apple Airport Express or Extreeme, or what for a router?   What clean power/surge protect system? Thank you.

All my components are set up with surge protection, but only surge protection. All are Ethernet connected to the network. No problems at all.

I do not use an AC filter right now for the reasons mentioned. I guess a "simple" surge protector would work well as it would not modify the AC signal (filter or "clean" it), but just break in case of over voltage. Answering your question regarding the setup. 

Dialog / Phantoms are connected directly to the wall (no AC filters)
Dialog is connected wirelessly to the Phantoms.
Dialog, Wifi Router (ASUS RT-68U) and Mac mini (running Spark with access to my music library on HD) are connected via Ethernet
Dialog Optical In for all the other devices (using a 4x2 HDMI Matrix Switch with Optical Out - TiVo, BlueRay, Apple TV, Mac Mini Server)

The network setup is much more complicated. I had a very stable network with an older Time Capsule and Airport Express (used even one with optical out to a single Phantom before I got Dialog and a second Phantom). As I now have more than 20 Wifi devices, some of them taking advantage of the "ac" WiFi standard, I switched to a multilevel setup using an ASUS RT-68U upstairs (bridged mode, connected via MoCa 1.1 / Coax Cable from downstairs  - Tip: comes for free with T-Mobile in the US for making WiFi calls; same model but other name: TM-AC1900) and an ASUS AC-87R (downstairs). Both routers are rock-solid and powerful enough to manage and prioritize a number of devices and type of data (believe me I tested several routers which failed at this challenge). 

I usually control via Spark (from networked devices) using TIDAL and my Mac mini music library. So Dialog is pulling the signal via Ethernet instead of Optical In.