06-Jan-2018, 20:19
A few points of clarification... The 5 Gold phantoms in this setup are configured as LF, RF, Ctr Mix, LR, RR as a multichannel stereo. The AVP decodes the source dolby/dts to PCM stereo which is all the Phantoms/Dialog can currently handle.... and while not true 5:1 is very immersive and impactful.
Phantom 5:1 is currently only available as a custom engineered solution using an OPPO magic box plus doodads at an expense of $25K US (estimate from devialet) or a Kludged DYI described in other threads.
The Levinson amplifiers are huge model 33's (300lb each hidden in the backside equipment room, along with the Levinson center channel and rear channel amps, reference preamp, AD/DA convertors etc)... no one in their right mind should do this today, but it was state of the art in the mid '90's and has performed without failure since then... But terrible price/performance in any era.
The Phantoms have been in multiple configurations in the room (lower, more forward, away from walls corners etc) , looking for the sweetest sound and soundstage, what you see in the pix is the current tweak.
One observation is that they are not widely variable sonically within the same tight parameters that the Wilson's require, but I'm still tweaking, so may discover a placement for this room that gets them closer to the Wilson's.... which would be wonderful given the price/performance difference... and I'm hoping the Phantoms will make for an aesthetically more pleasing solution vis a vis other comments (smaller form factors, matte black, less visually imposing) for our new place in TN.
Phantom 5:1 is currently only available as a custom engineered solution using an OPPO magic box plus doodads at an expense of $25K US (estimate from devialet) or a Kludged DYI described in other threads.
The Levinson amplifiers are huge model 33's (300lb each hidden in the backside equipment room, along with the Levinson center channel and rear channel amps, reference preamp, AD/DA convertors etc)... no one in their right mind should do this today, but it was state of the art in the mid '90's and has performed without failure since then... But terrible price/performance in any era.
The Phantoms have been in multiple configurations in the room (lower, more forward, away from walls corners etc) , looking for the sweetest sound and soundstage, what you see in the pix is the current tweak.
One observation is that they are not widely variable sonically within the same tight parameters that the Wilson's require, but I'm still tweaking, so may discover a placement for this room that gets them closer to the Wilson's.... which would be wonderful given the price/performance difference... and I'm hoping the Phantoms will make for an aesthetically more pleasing solution vis a vis other comments (smaller form factors, matte black, less visually imposing) for our new place in TN.
Levinson 33 amps, Wilson Grand Slamm S3's, Levinson 32 ref pre and ad/da, Basis Ovation and Rega 40 with JSpall custom tone arms, Lyra, Ortofon & Grado cartridges, Marantz AV 8801, PSAudio phono pre, Devialet Dialog w 5 Gold Phantoms, Wilson powered subwoofer, Watch center, Wilson surrounds, Kaleidescape Movie server, Crestron AV controller and switch, 120 MBS docsis3 modem, 20 MBS xdsl modem, Peplink balance 20 router, Ruckus 802.11ac Wave 2 WAPS plus multi Pakedge WAPs, 48 port POE gigabit switch, NetGear 8TB NAS, Amazon Fire,ROKU and Apple TV gen 4, 12 core Mac Pro, Macbook Air Retina, 65" and 50" Runco TV's. Blue sound node 2, OPPO BDP105D, DSpeaker AntiMode 2.0, Octava HDMI/Optical switch, cabling Nordost for analog, Cardas and wireworld for digital/optical.
