Please, share your Phantom stereo setup (including source)

[angenet]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a Gold Phantom duo, but I'm afraid of getting not the wisest source for my digital library, since I'm not experienced.

Please, try to avoid posting Tidal, etc as a source. That's like going to the movies, and calling that setup yours, for the length of the movie.


I'm wondering if something like a Mac Mini, controlled by an ipad, is a wise setup that's possible and a lot of people would recommend.

My external HDD's are configured as NTFS, I think, so maybe Macs only accept FAT32? Then maybe something like a NUC, instead?

I don't know. Please, post also your connections for highest resolution possible for the Phantoms.


Thanks!

Hello

Some options below:

1- for tv and images sources... optical connection directly to the source to one of the phantom or to dialog...

2 - for music

If you’ve got your digital library on a network drive...
If it’s a Nas... you can connect the phantom to the network drive directly..

If you can buy the Auralic Aries mini  and add the HDd and use it as transportation and music server...

If you get Roon membership (roonlab.com).. you can use the cheap raspberry pi 3b and hifiberry sound card as a Roon end point to transport the music to your Phantoms.

Still with Roon.. use the Mac mini as Roon core and music server...

Lot if options available to enjoy your music..

Will be happy to help if necessary 

Good luck

[snbeall]

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.