karmakuma

Long story short: If you have the possibility to listen to Devialet Phantom Golds (ignore the silvers or white ones, they are made for a different type of music listener), you owe it to yourself to try them out!Long story:Me and my girlfriend are, or better were, in the exact same situation as you. One year old toddler and circumstances along this had us give up on our classic separates+large speaker setup (Linn Akurate, Hypex NCore, Quadral Aurum Titan VII Speakers) and move to something more kids friendly...So my girlfriend and I started listening to smaller systems, mainly active and all integrated speakers. In your case rather non relevant ones such as Sonos, Bluesound, MacIntosh, Naim. Just to get a feeling where the really small ones stand (wasn't our cup of tea at all). ...Over to Studio-grade speakers/systems such as Focal, Adam and Genelec (8531).In the end we bought something completely different. A stereo pair of Devialet Phantom Golds with an accompaning remote and the needed dialog box, including the gecko wall mounting brackets to make the setup kid-friendly. The loudspeakers are now mounted on the wall in about 1m10cm height "shouting" straight into our rather large livingroom which also doubles as playground for our toddler. Our smallest family member does not seem to care a bit - he looks at the speakers from time to time but is not interested in them as a "touchy-touchy-feely-feely" object at all, in stark contrast to our setup from before...Sound quality wise as well as integration into our style of music listening (including browsing and chosing music) and appartment layout we could not have done any better, is the belief of both of us!I dare calling my girlfriend and myself audiophiles tho I would highly resist attributing us golden ears. Tbh, the Genelecs were intriquing from an audiophile/fiddler point of view (DSP/DRC et al), but sound wise the Phantoms stand their ground. I would not say either is better or worse than the other, just different for differing use cases. While the Genelecs seemed a tad more detailed with the feeling of having a bit more insight in the medium to high treble, the Phantoms just sounded more musical, flowing, and emotionally engaging. With the Genelecs the guy showing us the setup had to actively correct them via DSP/DRC to not have us feel nervous after a while of listening. From our perspective, clearly a loudspeaker made for the studio where hearing every detail and each recordings quality seems more important than musical engagement. To add to it, the Phantoms sounded more "there" top to bottom when listening at low to medium levels. The genelecs seemed to lack a little in the low to mid bass section when not turned up to at least 85-90db. With the Phantoms, this was not the case. Also not now at home. No matter how low or loud we listen to music. It just seems to always play the same, with us getting "more of the same" the louder we listen. Sure, when playing plenty loud they deliver a boatload of bass when called for that you can even feel physically (edm, drum...), but it does not seem to be out of place or overloaded at any time.If you still fell you wolud miss out on DSP/DRC with a Devialet Phantom seutp, you could use Roon v1.3 which now has an integrated DSP engine or use any other DSP/DRC enabled source into the Phantom setup, as long as it sends data over optical/TosLink (DSPeaker Anti-Mode, Dirac-enabled Computer...)Have fun listening (to whichever Loudspeaker you chose to listen to) ;-)Cheers

a pair of devialet phantom gold, together with dialog and remote. replaced my 25k+ system (linn akurate dsm streamer/preamp, hypex nc400 quad mono amps, quadral titan speakers). seriusly impressed!

thanks to both for your replies, tho they both miss missed my intended subject. maybe it was not written understandable or simply "tldr". the point behind is not usb versus other inputs using a converter, but usefullness uf a high quality usb card/cleaner for use with an asynchronous, completely 5v decoupled dac - like the nad m51 (when physically cutting the 5v line), or other dacs if existing - when fed by a computer. any ideas/knowledge around?

I hope this has not been discussed before - search did not bring up useful information.... I need your help - I'm starting to get into deep and terribly unknown water. I am planning on changing/upgrading my computer to something new(er), maybe back to something sophisticated/built by me instead of my current Off-The-Shelf Mac Mini. I am running a NAD M51 via USB from the mentioned Computer. A week or two ago I taped the 5v pin on my USB cable and confirmed to myself that the NAD M51 is properly running without the 5v line being connected to a computer. Neither for start/handshake nor playing. That is good! As per Data sheet the NAD M51 is asynchronous, just as a reminder/info. Now, This got me thinking - I know, mostly that's dangerous ;-) I can perfectly relate to the technical aspects that besides proper 5v power to a USB receiver and grounding issues there is also ripple and signal quality on the data lines to be concerned about. And, for systems depending on the senders clock accuracy, the USB Clock. These aspects have been put into place by several products. Example SotM USB Card: -Possibility of proper 5v power -Good (assumption - type/brand unknown) USB clock -Filters on PCI-E connection -Filters and good regulation for used components Since the NAD M51 obviously does not need 5v from the USB bus, and, since it is running in asynchronous mode, does a "specialty" USB card like SotM or PPA even improve something? If I interpreted all the schemas and design documents correctly, then I think not. Same question goes for devices like iFi iUSB Power and similar. Concerning the USB cards this also extends to linear PSU or battery PSU as further optimization. Conclusion / long story short: In respect to my setup - Computer connected to NAD M51 via USB whose 5v line has been completely blocked - do any of the well known sophisticated USB cards/addons and devices deliver better/cleaner signal or other improvements compared to simple on-board USB connections? And if so, could I ask you to explain why? Thanks in advance - let's rumble ;-)

IIRC the DAC 3.5 does not play dsd. So I would suppose either Aries via AES/EBU to DAC 3.5 direct or using the RefLink via USB and then AES/EBU to the DAC 3.5. From my past testing (not with the DAC 3.5 tho) in most cases AES sounded superior to Coax. You could test different ways and then report back on which sounded best to you. ;-) All you would need are a USB, an AES and a Coax cable and you'd have at least four different ways to connect the Aries to your DAC (Coax / AES each with and without the RefLink in between)... I think this would be a really nice report on the Aries' own AES/Coax implementation quality vs. a real good DDC like your RefLink!

i know, i should probabely go see a doctor =)

have you been able to compare the aries to your yellowtec ddc setup? anyhoo; many thanks for your input! yes, i will be keeping the nad m51 for a long time i think (except upgradeitis gets me again one day) since i am using it as a centerpiece in my 2channel audio/video seup - amp direct - and am really loving it! and yes, i was strongly considering the nad m50 as it would tick most of my boxes except for airplay (which gets used for convenience in our listening habits). but it is a few years old by now and my guess is, that aries will get considerably more "meat to the bone" feature wise over time than the nad m50. the nad also comes with a cd player/ripper which i dont need and alas not like to pay for. therefore the two competing ideas i am having are a homebrew streamer with a proper ddc and lpsu setup. or, the aries. both connected via aes/ebu to my nad m51. aaargh. decisions, decisions. by now i dont even know if i am overdoing things and worry too much about it. in the end, from what i got to hear during my audiolitis times, digital transports do sound different and sometimes one even better than others, but not to a degree like preamps or speakers.... ....but still, some can turn a system over that very thin line from sounding great to even better, and others back to just good.

did you listen to the aes output? to put another perspective into this. what about the question of "just ignoring the maybe slight differences" between a proper ddc and the aries aes out? is this at all something to bother? building a homebrew system as described above is quite a hassle and there's always the question of parts symbiosis.... the aries would be a "done" thing. but i am still curious about the aes output quality. no real info yet...

or, to keep it simple (tho a bit less focused for me), the aries' usb output quality against its aes/ebu output....

anybody here able to compare or comment on the aries aes/ebu output vs. a ddc like or5, bel canto or similar fed via usb from a computer/appliane into the same dac? still interested in aries to use with my nad m51 dac, but read here (and heared back from my dealer) that the two do not seem to play along atm. so. stuck in deciding between aries with aes out against a "homebrew" solution like cubiebox/volumio with a good ddc (maybe yellowtec puc2), both fed by a proper lpsu and quality cabling. price wise both solutions seem to play along in the same field... any help is greatly appreciated...

could someone check if spotify is alredy integrated? and, if it is integrated via their connect functionality?

glad to see this but a little disapointed that this thread did not make it to 50 pages before first arrivals

1st post, so hello to everyone! Anyone know if Spotify will be integrated into the Aries "environment"? And if so, in what timeframe... Some of the release/announce information sheets as well as internet posts mention Spotify... This would really tick the last box for me. Especially if it was Spotify "connect"...: Locally/Network hosted (HiRez) audio, WiMP (me), Spotify (the wife), internet radio (casual listening and finding new stuff), Airplay (casual listening and epic "audiochaos sessions"* with friends/guests) *like (quote): Let me play another one! Nonono you just put a song on. Its Jerrys turn anyways. And I have a track ready as well! But, maaaan, it was his turn, like, 1 minute ago. (click) Alalalala long, alalalala long long li long long long. (Chorus) C'moooooooon! =)