On ‎11‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 5:52 PM, Mike13 said:

I heard these play ‘Limit to your love’ by James Blake today. It’s a good test to see if your speakers can even play it properly. These things smashed it. Looked ready to take off, but zero distortion. 

Try Beyoncé's "Latitude", some serious bass in that (shitty) song!

Try Beyoncé's "Latitude", some serious bass in that (shitty) song!

A bass test is not enough reason to ever play Beyoncé. Ever.

Added before and after photos, more details of components removed, in original post.

Are they using internal D class amp ?

  .... or some conventional SS ?

2 minutes ago, eman said:

Are they using internal D class amp ?

  .... or some conventional SS ?

Devialet is full of TLAs (Three Lettered Acronyms) and they call their amplification ADH.  Best to read it for yourself and determine how much it is marketing. To some extent, I got turned off by the TLAs and would not have proceeded had I not had encouragement.  From my listening perspective, the technology works well.

Looks like the D class is in there for 'compactness and clarity' which I suspected because that's what it's good at.

Implementation is the issue and they seem to have done well with it.

 

My understanding is that ADH is a clever configuration that uses a class a preamp section to modulate voltage which then feeds into a class d power section that provides current. So you get the efficiency of class d and the benefit of the class a section is it provides the necessary filtering to the class d part which is required for any switch mode amplifier. Because there is no need for an analogue low pass filter to the class d section, the ouput impedance is incredibly low which in layman's terms means a high damping factor and next to no affect on the ouput due to variations in the speaker impedance. There are other clever dsp controls as well that monitor power output and system temperature and which allow you to alter things such as Max power output. 

Edited March 13, 20197 yr by scumbag

38 minutes ago, eman said:

Looks like the D class is in there for 'compactness and clarity' which I suspected because that's what it's good at.

Implementation is the issue and they seem to have done well with it.

 

I owned a devialet 120 a good while ago. It looked like shiny black chrome bathroom scales. Loved the fit and finish on the devialet stuff. 

Ironically the majority of the heat that it produced was from the class a section. In fact, in early days the devialet engineers had a class a section that disconnected from the class d part. they used it to drive an efficient set of speakers in demo's! 

Edited March 13, 20197 yr by scumbag

55 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

Devialet is full of TLAs (Three Lettered Acronyms) and they call their amplification ADH.  Best to read it for yourself and determine how much it is marketing. To some extent, I got turned off by the TLAs and would not have proceeded had I not had encouragement.  From my listening perspective, the technology works well.

I think this is a very good point. At the end of the day it will ALWAYS come down to the listening. Technology is at a point now where its all about implementation and design. There is far too much talk about products that can't be good because they have "this" or "that" in their DNA. Devialet, Kii Audio, Dutch & Dutch, Meridian, Lyngdorf etc etc - all wonderful products that a lot of traditionalists ignore simply because of the "tech".

Congrats @Snoopy8, happy that you're happy!

Edited March 13, 20197 yr by Hydrology

Added before and after photos, more details of components removed, in original post.

What the role of the AVR in the new setup? Is analogue output sent to an A to D before going to the dialogue?

5 minutes ago, zydeco said:

What the role of the AVR in the new setup? Is analogue output sent to an A to D before going to the dialogue?

With the Devialet Le 200 it takes an analogue signal converts to digital and then analogue so it may be a Devialet thing. 

1 hour ago, zydeco said:

What the role of the AVR in the new setup? Is analogue output sent to an A to D before going to the dialogue?

Well spotted!  I was using my active speakers for both 2 channel and HT (movies, multi channel) using AVR.  With the new setup, I am temporarily using MA Apex A10s for the HT (was not in photo).  I am investigating alternatives to take the AVR L&R pre-outs, go thru A to D and feed the Dialogue via optical.  There are some challenges, e.g. volume is set to 34 or 35 whenever the Phantoms are started, so need to calibrate the AVR accordingly.  Will post when I get this setup in a few weeks time.

 

* The other question I have yet to answer is do I want the 2 channel to be tied to the HT setup? If untied, I have the freedom to find the best position in room for 2 channel, subject to WAF of course!

Edited March 13, 20197 yr by Snoopy8
Added *

2 hours ago, Hydrology said:

I think this is a very good point. At the end of the day it will ALWAYS come down to the listening. Technology is at a point now where its all about implementation and design. There is far too much talk about products that can't be good because they have "this" or "that" in their DNA. Devialet, Kii Audio, Dutch & Dutch, Meridian, Lyngdorf etc etc - all wonderful products that a lot of traditionalists ignore simply because of the "tech".

Congrats @Snoopy8, happy that you're happy!

 I know little of the technical side so I follow my ears.

These sorts of things will be on the list for later.

Absolutely loved the Devialet speaker room at the 2017 Hi Fi show, congrats Snoopster. Daz

Here is another option in simplicity. I heard these at the Sydney HiFi show last year and thought they were great. Albeit a lot more expensive than the storm troopers.

 

On 11/03/2019 at 8:22 PM, Mike13 said:

‘Limit to your love’ by James Blake today. It’s a good test to see if your speakers can even play it properly.

Nice song, thanks.

@Snoopy8, following your footsteps, got the Phantom golds from classifieds.. using it in my study and enjoying it. Especially the bass in low volumes. Love it..!

28 minutes ago, NKMA said:

@Snoopy8, following your footsteps, got the Phantom golds from classifieds.. using it in my study and enjoying it. Especially the bass in low volumes. Love it..!

That makes at least 4 of us! ? 

 

Don't know how big your study is, but the Golds must thump!  

 

Any before and after pictures?

37 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

That makes at least 4 of us! ? 

 

Don't know how big your study is, but the Golds must thump!  

 

Any before and after pictures?

Study is about 4x3.6 and i mostly listen in low volumes at 30-35 in the spark app..

@frednork has an interesting option for using Roon DSP with the Phantoms.  Note that the Phantoms are Roon Tested which means a Roon end point is required. The one box solution below  is one possibility

 

frednork, I assume that Roon server and end point in same box will impact audio quality?  Been reading that the Roon end point is critical for quality and typically has a linear power supply, and often does not have an optical output.  I suspect it will be better wth a 2 box solution?

-------

I have been investigating various room correction hardware options including using dual subs.  Will post about the various options soon.

On 20/03/2019 at 12:40 PM, Snoopy8 said:

@frednork has an interesting option for using Roon DSP with the Phantoms.  Note that the Phantoms are Roon Tested which means a Roon end point is required. The one box solution below  is one possibility

 

frednork, I assume that Roon server and end point in same box will impact audio quality?  Been reading that the Roon end point is critical for quality and typically has a linear power supply, and often does not have an optical output.  I suspect it will be better wth a 2 box solution?

-------

I have been investigating various room correction hardware options including using dual subs.  Will post about the various options soon.

Yes, as usual the more boxes the better applies according to common understanding. I guess that this solution is scalable and offcourse you can hang off as many extra doodads and de crapifiers as you want.

 

The theory goes that very busy cpus and drives will inject more noise and jitter into the system so a lot of people isolate power supplies for the motherboard , drive , and usb/optical card. 

 

I havent seen many people discuss the purification of an optical connection, its mostly usb which you are very familiar with.

 

Its not difficult to add an extra box and the processing demands for a "renderer" box is very low so atoms or even arm processors may work better here so high current power supplies and big boxes may not be required . 

 

Hardware is one part, software and operating system may give different results also. Windows, linux, snakeoil. dietpi etc. 

 

I expect it is possible to achieve good levels of fidelity even with one box and then its just how much more money do you want to throw at it.

 

Also happy to demo a 2 box solution as my renderer has an optical out.

Can I ask what the dac is like from the Phantom gold owners? Are you using the inbuilt or external dac? 

6 minutes ago, noddyc43 said:

Can I ask what the dac is like from the Phantom gold owners? Are you using the inbuilt or external dac? 

The DAC is excellent in the Gold and it is not possible to use an external DAC.  It is an all-in-one streamer, DAC, amplifier, speaker and sub.

Thanks snoopy do you drive your pair with the hub or split the optical between the two speakers?

Just look a bit closer to the pic in your first post snoopy and see that you have the hub connected!