[sxr71]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorcilantro /img/forum/go_quote.gif True, but Antelope makes some quality clocks. I think they could have easily charged twice what they are for their DACs.

That's their forte clearly. I'd love to extract the clock and feed it to another DAC. Maybe we should get modding.

 

[doctorcilantro]

Just get a BLA clock, they go head to head with antelope for cheaper according to what's online, never compared the 2 myself.

 

[mark_h]

This is a high end dac!

Purite Audio

 

[leemindjan]

Beautiful stuff, mate. How it sounds when paired with Edition 8?

 

[Clybourne]

How about this? Here's a pic of my personal rig.
(Amarra software, Ultrasone E8, Z+)

Marcel

 

[Clybourne]

Hope you get to hear one soon.

Marcel

Quote:

Originally Posted by leemindjan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Beautiful stuff, mate. How it sounds when paired with Edition 8?

 

[Icenine2]

Cly-that Ant is bigger than I'd imagined. The 8's and that have to be killer. Are you in audio nirvana?

K

 

[Clybourne]

Well, considering that I have 10M atomic and Trinity clock connected to the Zodiac, yes it's quite heavenly sounding. It isn't tiny, it does have some heft and won't slide off the table easily, especially once you put on the rubber feet.

I've been sitting in the studio with my german rep the past two days just listening to music.

And, yes wow the E8's. Really sweet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icenine2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Cly-that Ant is bigger than I'd imagined. The 8's and that have to be killer. Are you in audio nirvana? K

 

[Pepsi]

Hmm, very beautiful exterior indeed. Anyone know if these sync well with the Sennheiser HD800?

 

[ScuderiaHeadFi]

Sigh... all this wanting, not enough having! Mark_h, you're right that that Stahl~Tek Vekian certainly is the true (ultra-) high-end, at $20K. It sometimes seems impossible to truly comprehend that manufacturers like Antelope (at least with the base Zodiac) or Lavry are ultimately *only* producing equipment in the realm of mid-fi. Not that it makes our mid-fi systems fall any farther short of the spirit of the concept of "audiophile"--we're just the ones who are too poor to fling money by the truckload the way we otherwise would.

Has anyone asked yet if the preamp section on the Zodiac is active? Or maybe has a buffered volume like Pass Labs INT-150? As enticing as this whole product is, I still feel like I would want an active preamp for a little bit of that extra oomph for social listening/parties... not like I'm in the market, but just for the sake of pretending. I'd have to consider whether or not this package is superior to a good DAC plus a good active preamp combo (I'm mostly thinking Lavry DAC plus RSA Apache--the Apache's balanced headphone outs remain tempting after *all* these years and seen neither on the Zodiac nor even the great Weiss DACs...)

 

[Headphony]

These Antelope DAC's look very interesting. I'm very keen to see reviews, impressions, and comparisons to other DAC's. Also, are there audible differences between the Zodiac and Zodiac+? Can't find anything by Googling.

 

[Icenine2]

These look great. But......where are reviews? People have these. I like the whole one box concept to hook up with the computer. My concern is if these are what they look to be why they aren't being reviewed. Also I'd like to know if this works as well as a Ayre QB-9 with a headphone amp. Because of all the clocking Voodoo have the jitter issues been resolved w/the USB input? The + version is $2700 US for the Antelope.

K

 

[Clybourne]

As far as how they sound with the HD-800's, I heard them at Jude's, but I'm not an HD-800 expert. Jude said the Zodiac+ sounded "excellent", which he posted earlier. You'll have to await his full review, once we send him a final shipping unit.

The headphone preamp is active, but how it stacks up against stand-alone headphone pre's is a question of taste. The built-in pre-amp is intended to be as transparent as possible. Sometimes some warm distortion, as we all know, is desirable. This should work out to be a proper all-in-one unit that will play nice with more expansive systems, thanks to the XLR outs and de-jittered digital outs.

These have not started to ship yet and the only people who have them are a couple beta testers. I distribute the line in the US, but am not technically employed directly by the company, so I still believe I'm at least partially unbiased. I loved the products and took on the line, not the other way around.

The Zodiac and Zodiac+ should sound the same, depending on how they're used, because the features do differ. The + is more flexible. The regular silver Zodiac also won't ship until much later in the year. The Gold will actually ship next after +.

The reason there are no reviews yet is because we've not sent any out yet for review, but certainly plan on it. We're finishing up one more feature to allow for USB updates of the firmware, as we plan to add more features in future updates to the USB control panel.

As for comparing to a 20K dac, it's important to realize that if you combine the Zodiac+, with 10M and Trinity clocks, this D/A system comes to $12,500, so not exactly mid-fi, imho.

Marcel

 

[SoupRKnowva]

no offense, but if i were buying the 10m and trinity clocks, i probably wouldnt buy the zodiac at all, i would just use the clock into a better dac and use a nicer amp

 

[Clybourne]

That's fine and well. We put de-jittered outs on the Zodiac for people who have other DAC's they might prefer. But, how could you know that another DAC is actually better, if you haven't compared them? Just curious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva /img/forum/go_quote.gif no offense, but if i were buying the 10m and trinity clocks, i probably wouldnt buy the zodiac at all, i would just use the clock into a better dac and use a nicer amp