My choices when listening (at least for the next few days until I decide what to keep...):
Those are some old 18 bit Meridian DSP5000’s being fed unprocessed raw Tidal MQA files direct digital from a Bluesound streamer. The Meridians can’t unfold MQA at all, yet still have some of the benefits of MQA (notably de-blurring, not to mention feeding them 24 bits to be downconverted to 18). The Phantoms are being fed Tidal HiFi via Spark to keep as level a playing field as possible.
I think the Meridians may actually hold off the Phantom challenge... Phantoms have them beat down low, but perhaps too much so - a gripe of mine that I can not EQ the Phantoms easily. And the Golds can definitely play louder (although both are rated at the same max dB). The mids/voices/highs of the Meridians are more natural and open to my ear (MQA?). The Meridians have higher WAF than the Phantoms as well... “They’re interesting. They’d be better in black”. A nice satin/matte black, I agree. And would be more cinema appropriate as well...
As for Gold v Elevate? At about half the cost, the Elevates have 97% of the Gold’s performance (typical audiophile diminishing returns). As I have written elsewhere, they require significantly higher volume settings for the same perceived loudness (Gold @50 = Elevate @60) so if you have a large listening space, you’ll likely want to go Gold (or Silver). Golds only difference (other than higher top volume) is of course the tweeter. It is not unlike any titanium vs soft tweeter debate. I happen to like the slightly more forward airy presentation of the Gold, but this is a typical metal vs soft dome tweeter thing. If you don’t need the higher output, I think one could be quite happy with Elevates. Golds will recreate live concert levels. Elevates will not. I tried pushing Elevates past 70 (which I’ve read elsewhere is their 0dB point) and they did not seem to get much louder - merely began to compress. I imagine it’s a protection circuit thing. It was still quite loud. But if you’re a crescendo junky with a large space, you’ll likely wanna move up.
It’s a dreary day and poor image - sorry (wouldn’t take my higher resolution iPhone shot - file too large - so had to use the low res IPad camera), so I don’t know if you can see, but the Dialogue is being fed by an Airport Express that is wirelessly Ethernet bridging to my router. Such that all four Phantoms and the Dialogue (and Airport Express) are all plugged into the same power strip. Illustrates another reservation that I have with the Phantoms - connectivity issues...
Still, an impressive all in one package and technological break thru - similar in principle to the Meridian in it’s day. However - particularly since they are neither upgradeable nor even serviceable - I think I may wait for them to iron out the limitations in the Dialogue, improve connectivity, add multichannel, MQA, and come out with the Black Phantom for cinema. Satin or Matte PLEASE - otherwise you’ll wind up with giant 8 balls.
Those are some old 18 bit Meridian DSP5000’s being fed unprocessed raw Tidal MQA files direct digital from a Bluesound streamer. The Meridians can’t unfold MQA at all, yet still have some of the benefits of MQA (notably de-blurring, not to mention feeding them 24 bits to be downconverted to 18). The Phantoms are being fed Tidal HiFi via Spark to keep as level a playing field as possible.
I think the Meridians may actually hold off the Phantom challenge... Phantoms have them beat down low, but perhaps too much so - a gripe of mine that I can not EQ the Phantoms easily. And the Golds can definitely play louder (although both are rated at the same max dB). The mids/voices/highs of the Meridians are more natural and open to my ear (MQA?). The Meridians have higher WAF than the Phantoms as well... “They’re interesting. They’d be better in black”. A nice satin/matte black, I agree. And would be more cinema appropriate as well...
As for Gold v Elevate? At about half the cost, the Elevates have 97% of the Gold’s performance (typical audiophile diminishing returns). As I have written elsewhere, they require significantly higher volume settings for the same perceived loudness (Gold @50 = Elevate @60) so if you have a large listening space, you’ll likely want to go Gold (or Silver). Golds only difference (other than higher top volume) is of course the tweeter. It is not unlike any titanium vs soft tweeter debate. I happen to like the slightly more forward airy presentation of the Gold, but this is a typical metal vs soft dome tweeter thing. If you don’t need the higher output, I think one could be quite happy with Elevates. Golds will recreate live concert levels. Elevates will not. I tried pushing Elevates past 70 (which I’ve read elsewhere is their 0dB point) and they did not seem to get much louder - merely began to compress. I imagine it’s a protection circuit thing. It was still quite loud. But if you’re a crescendo junky with a large space, you’ll likely wanna move up.
It’s a dreary day and poor image - sorry (wouldn’t take my higher resolution iPhone shot - file too large - so had to use the low res IPad camera), so I don’t know if you can see, but the Dialogue is being fed by an Airport Express that is wirelessly Ethernet bridging to my router. Such that all four Phantoms and the Dialogue (and Airport Express) are all plugged into the same power strip. Illustrates another reservation that I have with the Phantoms - connectivity issues...
Still, an impressive all in one package and technological break thru - similar in principle to the Meridian in it’s day. However - particularly since they are neither upgradeable nor even serviceable - I think I may wait for them to iron out the limitations in the Dialogue, improve connectivity, add multichannel, MQA, and come out with the Black Phantom for cinema. Satin or Matte PLEASE - otherwise you’ll wind up with giant 8 balls.
