I’m relatively new to the whole Devialet circus (got Phantom Golds, Trees & Dialog end of last year), but I am _very_ familiar with Roon. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to pipe in Roon to the Phantoms over the last few weeks – sadly concluding there is none.
Local/Qobuz via Spark sounds fine – this was my benchmark. Over the last few months (while still using Roon) I have been migrating my collection to Qobuz, keeping a small amount of local music that is not available on Q.
I found S/PDIF to be rather shrill on top and undefined in the bass region – not a nice listening experience. Tried a few endpoints (from Pi/Digi+ to Metrum Baby Ambre) to the same results. Airplay is of course limited and sounds a bit wooly. I tried SmallGreenComputers’ UPNP Bridge (a pimped up Pi that offers itself as a Squeezebox to Roon, while relaying the signal to a UPNP renderer of choice), but it does not play nice with the Dialog (tracks play until 2/3, then skip).
So sadly, Roon is a no-go really – except for background and Roon Radio.
I don’t like Spark – at all. It sounds great, is visually nice but feels clumsy and half-baked. Qobuz integration is minimal (does not show Highres, no metadata, etc.). Various lists rendering miniature images (Favorite Artists for instance) feel slow – and there’s no way to overrule Qobuz’s weird way of alphabetization.
Not all is lost though – I have become very impressed by BubbleUPNP (the app). It integrates with Qobuz very well (including lists and metadata), sounds great, and has tie-ins for lyrics and radio. Most importantly, it plays to the Dialog well over UPNP.
I liked it so much that I bought a simless LG V30 phone as remote control (even though I live in an iOS world). It is working great (like Spark, but smarter and faster), while also playing to my other (Chromecast) zones and being a nice local headphone endpoint (the V30 has a rather nice DAC on board). Put in a 400GB micro SD for the Qobuz app to put its local files on.
I’m happy for now, but RoonReadiness would be well eh... great.
Local/Qobuz via Spark sounds fine – this was my benchmark. Over the last few months (while still using Roon) I have been migrating my collection to Qobuz, keeping a small amount of local music that is not available on Q.
I found S/PDIF to be rather shrill on top and undefined in the bass region – not a nice listening experience. Tried a few endpoints (from Pi/Digi+ to Metrum Baby Ambre) to the same results. Airplay is of course limited and sounds a bit wooly. I tried SmallGreenComputers’ UPNP Bridge (a pimped up Pi that offers itself as a Squeezebox to Roon, while relaying the signal to a UPNP renderer of choice), but it does not play nice with the Dialog (tracks play until 2/3, then skip).
So sadly, Roon is a no-go really – except for background and Roon Radio.
I don’t like Spark – at all. It sounds great, is visually nice but feels clumsy and half-baked. Qobuz integration is minimal (does not show Highres, no metadata, etc.). Various lists rendering miniature images (Favorite Artists for instance) feel slow – and there’s no way to overrule Qobuz’s weird way of alphabetization.
Not all is lost though – I have become very impressed by BubbleUPNP (the app). It integrates with Qobuz very well (including lists and metadata), sounds great, and has tie-ins for lyrics and radio. Most importantly, it plays to the Dialog well over UPNP.
I liked it so much that I bought a simless LG V30 phone as remote control (even though I live in an iOS world). It is working great (like Spark, but smarter and faster), while also playing to my other (Chromecast) zones and being a nice local headphone endpoint (the V30 has a rather nice DAC on board). Put in a 400GB micro SD for the Qobuz app to put its local files on.
I’m happy for now, but RoonReadiness would be well eh... great.
