[andrewd01]

The good news is that CX/EX are not being orphaned from a software standpoint.
I incorrectly thought this was the case if the hardware was not upgraded.

I will let you guys do the burning in on the Oladra upgraded hardware for a couple of years and then I will look to buy on the used market, after the next best thing is announced .

 

[richardloh]

Not so long ago I would have gone for that, however most of my equipment seems to have green lighting now

I had my Bel Canton Fm1 tuner, Denafrips Hermes ddc, Denafrips Terminator+, Gilmore Headamp as well as local cable set up box diy modded with blue leds ... hence glad Antipodes' upgrade offered the same like Gilmore for their upgraded psu unit as I will not diy such an expensive piece of equipment to mess them up.

60 yrs young and enuff of green leds in my lifetime

Cheers.

 

[kennyb123]

The IOS control apps I have used are Rigelian and MaximumMPD. Cantata on the mac.

I installed Rigelian and then had to pay for it since it was useless without doing that. They do give a 2 month free trial, so I could have always backed out. This didn't seem to work for me with how things are configured on my K30. I was really impressed though with how it worked with my Poly/Mojo. It might be a keeper. Thanks for the recommendation.

Glider for iOS is doing the job for me with my K30, so I'll stick with it for the time being.

Next up is trying Cantana on Mac. The one big gap with using HQPlayer Embedded was a good control app for the Mac.

 

[Progisus]

I installed Rigelian and then had to pay for it since it was useless without doing that. They do give a 2 month free trial, so I could have always backed out. This didn't seem to work for me with how things are configured on my K30. I was really impressed though with how it worked with my Poly/Mojo. It might be a keeper. Thanks for the recommendation.

Glider for iOS is doing the job for me with my K30, so I'll stick with it for the time being.

Next up is trying Cantana on Mac. The one big gap with using HQPlayer Embedded was a good control app for the Mac.

Rigelian should work the same on your K30 once the mpd version is updated. On your poly/mojo I assume you were playing from an sd card. No server required and signal goes direct from sd card to player for even more transparency. I’ve been using Roon on my Poly/Mojo. Time to give MPD a go. No streaming though.

 

[atya35mm]

Hi all, new to this thread and keen to get some advice on best way forward to upgrade the way I stream music.

I currently have USB out direct from Roon Nucleus into my DAC. Now after bit of research, this is not ideal and I gather any endpoint at whichever price point would be better than going direct between Nucleus and DAC.

So I stumbled onto Antipodes after reading about Auralic G1, Innuos Zen servers etc. If going down the antipodes path, would something like EX or one of the music servers like S40 work as a Roon endpoint to go direct to DAC? Thanks for all your help in advance.

 

[kennyb123]

So I stumbled onto Antipodes after reading about Auralic G1, Innuos Zen servers etc. If going down the antipodes path, would something like EX or one of the music servers like S40 work as a Roon endpoint to go direct to DAC?

Yes - and I think you‘d get a very nice bump in sound quality too. I’ve previously owned Auralic and Innuos servers, but now own Antipodes. I think they all make fine products. Auralic provides only two software choices, I think - Roon and their Lightning DS. Roon was a second class citizen back when I owned the original Aries, but not sure if that was true. Innuos Zen has an excellent built-in power supply, so it’s a really good choice. But I actually think an S40 will be a better match with your DAVE - especially were you to add the S60 power supply. Speed, dynamics and low noise will be its strengths. Possibly tonal weight too.

I really like the software options that Antipodes offers. You will get to choose from several player apps. Roon can sound a lot better when using Squeeze as the player. Plus as you can see in the last few pages of this thread, many of us are favoring some of the alternatives to Roon for sound quality. It’s super easy to switch between them so I use Roon only when in the mood to let Roon Radio drive and pick the music for me. I then switch to another option when I know what I want to listen to.

Lastly, I think Antipodes has the best upgrade situation. Good luck finding if an Innuos Zen Mk2 can be upgraded to Mk3. I owned a Zenith Mk2 and was added to a list in August 2019 to be notified once the Mk3 upgrade was offered. I never heard from them.

 

[atya35mm]

Yes - and I think you‘d get a very nice bump in sound quality too. I’ve previously owned Auralic and Innuos servers, but now own Antipodes. I think they all make fine products. Auralic provides only two software choices, I think - Roon and their Lightning DS. Roon was a second class citizen back when I owned the original Aries, but not sure if that was true. Innuos Zen has an excellent built-in power supply, so it’s a really good choice. But I actually think an S40 will be a better match with your DAVE - especially were you to add the S60 power supply. Speed, dynamics and low noise will be its strengths. Possibly tonal weight too.

I really like the software options that Antipodes offers. You will get to choose from several player apps. Roon can sound a lot better when using Squeeze as the player. Plus as you can see in the last few pages of this thread, many of us are favoring some of the alternatives to Roon for sound quality. It’s super easy to switch between them so I use Roon only when in the mood to let Roon Radio drive and pick the music for me. I then switch to another option when I know what I want to listen to.

Lastly, I think Antipodes has the best upgrade situation. Good luck finding if an Innuos Zen Mk2 can be upgraded to Mk3. I owned a Zenith Mk2 and was added to a list in August 2019 to be notified once the Mk3 upgrade was offered. I never heard from them.

Thanks Kenny! That's really helpful and provides a clearer path for me. Thinking I might still keep the Nucleus as Roon core, would the S30 be suitable as well with upgraded power supply? I'm guessing difference between S30/S40 is performance, and I probably won't be doing much DSP or any kind of processing, letting the M-scaler handling that. Re Squeeze, yes I did hear couple of members in other threads as well saying Roon quality might not be the best etc so something for me to look into as well.

 

[kennyb123]

would the S30 be suitable as well with upgraded power supply? I'm guessing difference between S30/S40 is performance, and I probably won't be doing much DSP or any kind of processing, letting the M-scaler handling that.

I had mentioned waiting to hear about the Mk3 upgrade from Innuos. I grew impatient so just purchased a Mk3 and then sold the Mk2. I mentioned this because the main difference between the two is the power supply. It was a significant upgrade so that makes me think the power supply plays a big part in a server’s sound quality. So I’d be inclined to go with S30 + S60 over S40 alone. But best to confirm with Antipodes.

Where the S40 would have the edge might be if you wanted to ditch the Nucleus. Low noise matters a lot on the server side too - as do power supplies. Since you aren’t doing DSP, the S30 might be powerful enough to run Roon core. A little extra horsepower there might help though especially if you have a large music library.

I have found Mark Cole of Antipodes to be an awesome resource. That’s another advantage one gets with Antipodes over the other two brands you mentioned. Mark is helpful both before and after the sale, so definitely run it by him.

Have you heard of PGGB yet? This does offline upsampling using a similar philosophy to MScaler. Hearing this was a big reason I moved to Antipodes as it gave me a few different playback options. I think you might be stunned by the improvement PGGB brings providing you run your server directly into your DAVE. More here: https://www.remastero.com/

I actually sold my MScaler to help fund the purchase of my K30. The lift from doing that was worth every penny and then some. When streaming I will use HQPlayer to scale. While it alone doesn’t bring as great a lift as MScaler, the lift from a better music server left me not missing MScaler at all. Just some food for thought.

 

[atya35mm]

I had mentioned waiting to hear about the Mk3 upgrade from Innuos. I grew impatient so just purchased a Mk3 and then sold the Mk2. I mentioned this because the main difference between the two is the power supply. It was a significant upgrade so that makes me think the power supply plays a big part in a server’s sound quality. So I’d be inclined to go with S30 + S60 over S40 alone. But best to confirm with Antipodes.

Where the S40 would have the edge might be if you wanted to ditch the Nucleus. Low noise matters a lot on the server side too - as do power supplies. Since you aren’t doing DSP, the S30 might be powerful enough to run Roon core. A little extra horsepower there might help though especially if you have a large music library.

I have found Mark Cole of Antipodes to be an awesome resource. That’s another advantage one gets with Antipodes over the other two brands you mentioned. Mark is helpful both before and after the sale, so definitely run it by him.

Have you heard of PGGB yet? This does offline upsampling using a similar philosophy to MScaler. Hearing this was a big reason I moved to Antipodes as it gave me a few different playback options. I think you might be stunned by the improvement PGGB brings providing you run your server directly into your DAVE. More here: https://www.remastero.com/

I actually sold my MScaler to help fund the purchase of my K30. The lift from doing that was worth every penny and then some. When streaming I will use HQPlayer to scale. While it alone doesn’t bring as great a lift as MScaler, the lift from a better music server left me not missing MScaler at all. Just some food for thought.

Thanks Kenny! Lots of food for thought, but S30 + S60 looks like a doable option.

 

[andrewd01]

Hi all, new to this thread and keen to get some advice on best way forward to upgrade the way I stream music.

I currently have USB out direct from Roon Nucleus into my DAC. Now after bit of research, this is not ideal and I gather any endpoint at whichever price point would be better than going direct between Nucleus and DAC.

So I stumbled onto Antipodes after reading about Auralic G1, Innuos Zen servers etc. If going down the antipodes path, would something like EX or one of the music servers like S40 work as a Roon endpoint to go direct to DAC? Thanks for all your help in advance.

If you want to add a Roon endpoint to use with your Nucleus as a core it is better to use one of the lower powered machines especially designed to be optimal for running player software. This would be the S30 or an EX. Later on you could replace the Nucleus with the matching Antipodes server that is optimised to run the Roon core (S40 or CX).

The CX and EX had a very short lifecycle. They were only released in 2018 and have now been superseded by the S and K series. This means they are a bargain to buy on the used market. I paid approximately half the full retail price for my pair from an authorised dealer with warranty.

I had an Innuous Zen mkiii before antipodes. It sounded fantastic with more laid back genres like jazz, but after I got the antipodes I realised that the innuos was smoothing out the music, at the expense of realism.

 

[cczero17]

Is PGGB $500 a year or a one off payment?

 

[Progisus]

Is PGGB $500 a year or a one off payment?

One off with a year or possibly more updates.

 

[cczero17]

So what happens a couple of years down the line, you don't get any new updates?

 

[kennyb123]

So what happens a couple of years down the line, you don't get any new updates?

You go on happily processing your music and getting the same great sound quality improvement. But honestly I think PGGB more than pays for itself in the first month.

 

[Clive101]

Hello All,

Help Needed !

I have been trying PGGB with the K50 Roon HQP and via MPD with the Bubble App, Antipodes DNLA (library), K50player (renderer) .

Although PGGB MPD does have the edge over Roon HQP neither of options stacked up against the Mscaler with any software playback.

NOTE: PGGB uses USB (Chord Music USB cable) and Mscaler uses BNC (Wave Storm Cables x 3) which may be the difference ?

I did not try USB PGGB vs USB Dave Mscaler, I know the sound of USB Dave Mscaler and clearly prefer the SQ than USB PGGB.
Anyway, I compared my preferred SQ, BNC vs the best I could do with PGGB. I know you can dual BNC with PGGB but the difference was so much perhaps not worth considering.

With PGGB the sound was flat no Bass, lack of detail, narrow sound stage I could go on but basically could not listen, something is wrong.

PGGB was set to Natural-Moderate-Moderate while upscaling. I checked all the settings when paying, all correct and Dave was reporting 705 or 768 depending on the track via USB.

Note: Squeeze, downscales the files so gave up on that quickly.

The difference is NO small margin but gave it a while for brain adjust, played last night and again this morning with still the same result.
I am certain the settings on the PGGB will not be strong enough to change the sound.

Since several of you are having good results I am surprised I am having such poor SQ.

Can anyone send me some files for me to try?

PM me and will send a link where you can upload them to.

Thanks