Dean's Stereo Phantom Reactor 900 Rig

[supaDean]

Beautiful setup! Mine is similar, however im using 2 Phantom Premiers connected to a 2014 Mac Mini. Im also running Audirvana and love the setup so far! I bought a second iPad that I use as a dedicated Audirvana Remote (Guided Access enabled) and thats working fantastic as well (in addition to the beautiful but castrated Devialet remote).

Are you running the Phantoms via uPnP or optical cable? I like being able to control the volume from the Audirvana Remote when using them via uPnP so I dont rely on the Devialet remote. At the same time however, I love the responsiveness when plugging them into the Mac via optical cable, everything regarding to playback is instant (pause, play, scrubbing inside the track). However in optical mode I rely on my Devialet Remote which can sometimes get annoying if its not nearby as I dont like using the Devialet app for volume control (I have turned off software volume control inside Audirvana as to not have 2 different volume adjustment inputs).

Lots of questions, just interested in your opinion as youre using a setup similar to mine!

Hello. Happy to answer your questions. 

I'm currently using an optical output for a couple of reasons: stability and I feel 24/96 is more than adequate. Before I took the MacPro out of service as a work computer, it already had 11gb of RAM, which is more than enough for it to perform music server duties. I then customized it via a bunch of software configurations and outfitted it with SSD drives to hold my digital library. This eliminates additional cables and another server box. It runs headless (no video card, keyboard or monitor). I run it via a mobile device (iPad Mini or iPhone) as well as via VPN on my main computer. I use the Devialet App to handle volume as I find it works very well. 

Audirvana is key to me for EQ and room correction. As you may know Tidal is integrated into Audirvana for lossless streaming. Running Tidal via Audirvana takes advantage of this. Qubuz is currently not available in Canada (where I'm based), but Deezer is. I've recently written to Deezer asking if they might permit Audirvana to integrate their service as well. They responded the same day and advised they are looking into it. Both Deezer and Audirvana are French companies (as is Devialet). Apparently Deezer, to date, has only been integrating with hardware, but not software. I mentioned they would avail themselves to a larger customer base if they integrated with Audirvana, so we'll see what happens.

I was considering the larger Phantoms, but felt they would be overkill for my listening space. I bet with their being a three-way speaker the midrange and high end is probably a bit sweeter than the Reactors, but for for the price and my intimate listening space, the Reactors perform beautifully.

Could you tell me more about your server uPnP setup (or what you feel would be the ideal uPnP setup). I did some research, tried out a few things, but ended up not pursuing it for my current setup. If I ever go the Mac Mini route down the road it would be something I'd consider.

On a side note, I back up my digital library in two additional locations. In the event the drives in my MacPro fail, I have backups readily available. Cheers.