Anything on the Antelope's yet?

Looks like the Zodiac and Zodiac+ are getting close to launch but Gold not. Pricing for the first 2 models have been released. The Zodiac+ at 1,995 Euro is quite interesting - given the feature set. Very little information on the headphone amps though.

F. Lo

Site doesn't work fully ("Reviews" opens a blank page), absolutely no specs and some really stupid marketing language like "AFC" (Acoustically Focused Clocking), what a load of crap.

EDIT: Sorry, don't mean to criticize the product as I have not heard it or had a chance to look at the design. Completely knee-jerk reaction to reading "marketing language" about how great some thing is without any specs to back it up. Reaction made even stronger when a lot of the "features" make absolutely no logical sense and border on complete falsity.

your comments are acoustically focused as well!

I can't say I like the blank page opening up either, but as soon as I get a couple units from our European offices in April, I'll get them sent around for some reviews, so that page will get populated.

AFC is much-respected in the pro audio world and describes our use of jitter-management. It'll make more sense over time I feel for the audiophile community once people hear the focused sound of our DAC.

What other features didn't make sense to you?

Regards,

Marcel James
Antelope Audio

Glad to see some feedback from the manufacturer. I think the reaction comes from a segment of the population here at head-fi who will react badly to a lack of specific technical information regarding the unique selling points of a product, presented only with marketing / 'audiophile' terms (and not completely without cause). As you can probably see see from reading these forums, there are many here who are used to really reading into the technical minutia of various products and then trying to understand how that affects sound quality / compatibility and functionality - and of course if the product is likely to float their boat.

Since the product does not appear to be released / reviewed yet, I think the cutting of some slack here and extending of some courtesy to the manufacturer would be nice We're a jaded bunch, don't take it to heart.

Perhaps I'm sounding incredibly foolish, but jitter management is not something that can be aimed specifically at sound. In that regard, it's simply jitter management and has nothing to do with sound, it's simply a buffer with a new master clock (as almost any modern DAC now has).

The lack of specs is simple - there is no mention of DAC chip, OS vs NOS, output stage design (I/V, filter/buffer, discrete vs opamp, Class-A vs Class-AB, etc), power supply design (single transformer with different regulators, fully separate supplies each for digital/analog, dual-mono throughout, etc). There simply isn't anything on that page that tells you what it is that you're paying for.

As for confusing marketing language - aside from AFC which I've touched on above, some claims really would need to be backed with evidence.

For example:
The clock is housed in a shielded container where the temperature is kept constant, therefore bringing significant benefits to the detail, dynamics and stereo placement of the audio. I have no doubt that a lot of components are affected by heat and have thermal drift. On the other hand, making a claim about how that directly relates to sound should be backed up with evidence or at least a controlled study.

"...a data transfer rate of 480Mbits flawless audio is achieved with native drivers" - sorry, that's just not true. First of all, the device cannot possibly be transferring data that fast as it cannot possibly need to (unless of course you support something like 32 channels of 24/96 audio at same time). Of course there is also the fact that USB 2.0 has a maximum burst speed of 480mbps, generally only as a "spike" lasting no more than a couple of seconds; USB 2.0 operates at 200-280 mbps sustained, depending on a lot of factors including ICH (motherboard 'southbridge'), load on specific usb hub (external and internal as USB ports are on hubs on the motherboard) and even usb cable specs (hopefully we use cables that really are rated for USB High Speed). Not that this part really matters, you don't need nearly 480mbps for 2-channel 24/96 audio, closer to 1/100th of that).

"Ultra Linear, Dual Stage Headphone Amps deliver smooth sound at both high and low levels. Custom designed for accurate monitoring with a wide range of headphone impedances." This is a headphone forum, we certainly like to know more about this amp than that.

I hope I do not sound rude at all, that is not my intention. I simply am interested in knowing what it is I'm really looking at before considering the purchase.

Thanks

Fallen Angel,

Thanks for being more specific. I'll be in Germany next week for Musik Messe and I'll discuss your questions with our designer/inventor, Igor Levin. We've established our clocking products in the pro audio world with many top mixing/mastering engineers and much of the movie scoring community, as well. But, the audiophile world is new to us, so please keep the communication/feedback coming and we'll get better at this moving forward.

It's a very cool product that looks and sounds amazing. I'm more the end-user guy than the manufacturer, as I'm located in CA and our products are developed and built in Europe. From my experience as a beta tester, the good news is, several people are going to find this is the perfect product for their needs. But, as you mentioned, some guys will want a deeper understanding of what's going on inside the box to help them make up their minds. We've tended to let our gear do the talking, but I can certainly understand the interest in components, etc. We know all that info will come out in time, we've just not been in a rush before even shipping any units to tell the rest of the industry exactly what we're using just yet, as I'm sure many of you can understand.

Please stay tuned, it's gonna get fun.

Marcel

Very much looking forward to the updates, thanks! As a builder, prototyper, tweaker and sometimes even designer of audio gear, I'm always very interested in what's on the inside to make up my mind on buying stuff.

Clybourne, welcome to Head-Fi! I hope you have discussed your affiliation with Head-Fi's administration. They will give you a "Member of the Trade" designation.

I would like to see a Firewire 800 input on the Zodiac, that combined with the balanced outputs will make this a hot seller. A nice headphone amp that can drive flagship AKG, Sennheiser, Beyer, Grado's et al will make it an instant classic on this site. I look forward to the reviews!

The device is externally powered, so voltage/current differences aren't an issue and as it is only meant for 2-channel playback, there is certainly no lack in transfer speed. What would be an advantage to using Firewire over USB?

Good luck with asking for an all encompassing amp for high-impedance/low efficiency and low-impedance/high efficiency headphones though.

I agree with Fallen Angel -- the sexy website is long on BS and short on actual description, let alone specs. I can't even tell what the product does? My guess is a headphone amp + DAC + "clock oven"...am I right?