The Antelope Zodiac / Zodiac + / Zodiac Gold DAC Thread - Page 15

Very nice looking!

First brief impressions (I cheated and have been listening, couldn't resist).  In short, it is sounding fantastic!  Even the headphone outs on the unit itself sound great (which I wasn't really expecting)!  It is like ... crystal clear, every last detail is magnified with ease....it is just there and you don't have to strain to hear any detail.  The space and air is quite excellent, makes my LCD-2s sound more spacious all around (3D, 360 degrees).  The imaging is also spot on....more to come later.  I was told by someone who has 400 hours play time on his that it gets even better at 100 hrs and again 200 hrs burn in.  Looking forward to it!  Stay tuned.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio 

First brief impressions (I cheated and have been listening, couldn't resist).  In short, it is sounding fantastic!  Even the headphone outs on the unit itself sound great (which I wasn't really expecting)!  It is like ... crystal clear, every last detail is magnified with ease....it is just there and you don't have to strain to hear any detail.  The space and air is quite excellent, makes my LCD-2s sound more spacious all around (3D, 360 degrees).  The imaging is also spot on....more to come later.  I was told by someone who has 400 hours play time on his that it gets even better at 100 hrs and again 200 hrs burn in.  Looking forward to it!  Stay tuned.  

 

It's just me kind of saying this loosely but I find I'm always a little skeptical when I see digital equipment and talk about 100-400 hours of burn-in and such. But that's just me. Maybe there's something to it.

Anyways, what I want to see here is if this nice piece falls into territory that some professional gear can, which this is: Pick the adjective of your choice: Dry, brittle, cold, sterile,clinical,analytical...if you're sound engineer that's what you want to get things down to the last iota. It may not be what you want if you're going to use it at your home for music.

Awesome imaging. Awesome spacing. Awesome resolution. Awesome everything except maybe one of those above adjectives come into play.

Obviously all of this also depends on subjective tastes, hearing, and other equipment in the food chain.

In my case, I think I have it down to either this or the Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 and I'm trying to figure if the extra $1000 here really does something for me or not.

Thanks, I guess I don't have to open mine up now!

Sort of unimpressive. Interesting that he has already noticed corners cut. Its all about the sound though so I will have to wait for the review.

I didn't really notice any comment about cut corners except for the power supply... SMPS are pretty common in pro gear, even with high end pro gear, despite that "audiophile wisdom" frowns on them.

Well I can tell you that, mine is still sounding amazing.  I am going to put another 100 hours on it before I do an in depth analysis....right now I probably have about 100 on it.  I already sold my Audio-gd Ref5 dac .... Love the Antelope.  

Quote:

Well I can tell you that, mine is still sounding amazing.  I am going to put another 100 hours on it before I do an in depth analysis....right now I probably have about 100 on it.  I already sold my Audio-gd Ref5 dac " class="bbcode_smiley" src="http://files.head-fi.org/images/smilies//biggrin.gif" title="" /> .... Love the Antelope. 

Holy crap, it is better than a audio gd product. Hope to hear some impressions from you and glad to hear it sounds good from someone that has listened to it.

/drool

Can't wait for the release of the base model. Late 2010 c'mon!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingStyles 

 

Holy crap, it is better than a audio gd product. Hope to hear some impressions from you and glad to hear it sounds good from someone that has listened to it.

Yeah I have been listening to it a lot.  Today I actually listened to it pretty much the entire day working on logo and web design for my business.  I did not have any listener fatigue.  
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Permagrin 

/drool

 

Can't wait for the release of the base model. Late 2010 c'mon!

I was under the impression that the Gold version was coming out before the low end?  Not sure though, I may ask Marcel about it.  I wish I knew how to make custom power supplies, that is my only gripe with the Zodiac+ model.  Apparently the Gold has the high end power supply.  I would think that the 2500.00 dac should also have the nice power supply, but hopefully they will be selling some stand alone power supplies later on....

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigzStudio 

 

I was under the impression that the Gold version was coming out before the low end?  Not sure though, I may ask Marcel about it.  I wish I knew how to make custom power supplies, that is my only gripe with the Zodiac+ model.  Apparently the Gold has the high end power supply.  I would think that the 2500.00 dac should also have the nice power supply, but hopefully they will be selling some stand alone power supplies later on....

 

I was just going by what it said on the Sweetwater site:

"Antelope is planning to release the Zodiac in late 2010, choosing to first launch the Zodiac+."

I sent an email to Antelope inquiring.

Received a reply:

Hi Chris,

Ah bummer, yeah I personally feel the Gold version is a pretty high price to target your everyday audiophiles, even the Zodiac+ isn't too cheap.  I would have gone a different route and launched the base model Zodiac before all the others and established it as one that beats the current competition (Assuming it isn't all that stripped down from the +).  But this price structure shows their belief as a business that they have a success on their hands.  Not to mention you get a lot of versatility with this dac, the headphone outs are very nice!  The Zodiac+ by itself could be a headphone rig all in one, so you could factor that in to the price.  But in general I am sure glad they decided to make a DAC, because I am listening to it now and loving it.  

Bummer about the release date,  I might pick up the base model for a separate speaker setup in 2011.  I am still waiting for the 200 hour mark as suggested by some to be the final break-in point to do reviewing, I should be there next week.  
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Permagrin 

Received a reply:

 

Hi Chris,

 

I don't yet have any eta on the base model Zodiac, though it should start shipping sometime in Q1 of 2011.

 

Regards,

 

Marcel

 

A little update here, I am at about 120 hours or so....it is by far the best DAC I have heard to date.  I really am trying to find any fault I can to be balanced about my impressions but really there aren't any that I have found yet.  With high quality recordings this thing just astounds me, way to go Antelope!  

Hopefully 6moons puts at least 150 hours on it before reviewing, maybe I got used to sound...or maybe it broke in, who knows.  But at 120 hours or so on mine, I am thoroughly loving the music.