Devialet Reviews

[Hifi_swlon]

I am thinking like this too. €3500 to upgrade my 250 or around €5800 for a pair of Phantom Gold and a Dialog. I need new speakers anyway so this may be the way to do it.

I thought they sounded decent when I demo'd them and would probably have considered selling my Expert and going Phantom, if:

a) Devialet hadn't upset me to the point I lost faith in the brand around that time
b) Spark wasn't dire and/or they embraced the use of external players (RoonReady anyone)
c) They had some alternate finishes
D) there weren't reports of stability issues.

I've been trying to find a way to use Phantoms without Dialog/Spark. I think Dialog lacks flexibility and for Spark... Your four points are just right.
Vincent Brient has said he would try to change code in the FPGA to enable L and R on separate toslink outputs on his reclocker. I'd have to buy it (or place a firm order), but Vincent would not charge me if he could not make it work. The Phantoms could then stay in 'Solo' mode and I'd use optical inputs with wifi, ethernet and PLC disabled. What I do not know is if the  remote can control volume of two Phantoms in solo mode.  The 69bit volume control of the Totaldac is of course good enough so I'm not without a volume control if the Devialet remote does not work. The Totaldac solution is definitely high-end, but rather pricey so I am still looking. USB from a microRendu and something to produce L+R optical is the goal

Interesting idea. Maybe something like a miniDSP box would be able to do that slightly less expensively?

Or a bit more expensive but perhaps one of the 'hot topic flavour of the month' boxes like a Rednet 3? It has something like 8 toslink outputs although not sure what controls they have for LR breakout - it's pro gear though so I'm sure they'd be able to give you a quick answer.