So...my new Antipodes Oladra arrived last night and it will be replacing the K50. I spent this morning with an intense listening session focused on my five test tracks with the new Weiss 501 4ch DAC on the K50 and then on the Oladra. The Weiss is the best DAC I have here at the moment, and I am looking forward to the return of my Playback MPD-6.
I setup the Oladra just like my K50, running Roon Core on the Server and Squeeze Lite on the Player all being controlled by Roon on my phone. I am connected to the Weiss via AES. As a side note, the packaging on the Oladra is MUCH better than that of the K50. You have two boxes in the outer carton with a 3 inch foam layer surrounding an inner box. This is much more durable than the K50, K41, K30 etc... packaging.
Even though this is fresh out of the box, my immediate impression is that everything is cleaner and clearer while remaining organic and musical. It is not getting colder or crisper. Just better, more natural separation. I use the same five test tracks for all digital evaluations. For consistency, all of these are streamed off of Tidal:
In a Sentimental Mood - Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
Be Still My Beating Heart - Sting
Liberty - Anette Askvik
Duende - Bozzio Levin Stevens
Mozart String Quartet No.17 in B Flat Major - Alan Berg Quartet
Each track was noticeably cleaner and clearer than on the K50. This shows up most in the air around cymbals and clarity of the drum rolls in In a Sentimental Mood. The 44..1 track sounded as good as a 24/192 track streamed from Qobuz. Truly surprising how much detail is improved.
On Be Still My Beating Heart, it showed up mostly in the bells you hear in the background. Those frequently sort of roll together. I was hearing separation and notes I have not heard previously.
The sound effects in Liberty were cleaner and clearer and if seemed like the horn was clearer and more realistic.
Duende which is an impossibly complex track to reproduce was clearer in virtually every part and somehow the scale of the bigger moments of that song toward the end seemed bigger.
Berg is Berg. Brilliantly recorded. Well sized with incredible separation. In some ways this track seemed to benefit the least from the Oladra. in some ways, this is simpler than the others
It is going to be interesting to test this unit with other DACs through time, especially as it burns in. But straight out of the box, this unit seems pretty special compared to what was already a pretty awesome server with the K50. Not sure how it will stand up to the Pink Faun or Taiko, but it is easily a step forward vs. their prior best unit.
I setup the Oladra just like my K50, running Roon Core on the Server and Squeeze Lite on the Player all being controlled by Roon on my phone. I am connected to the Weiss via AES. As a side note, the packaging on the Oladra is MUCH better than that of the K50. You have two boxes in the outer carton with a 3 inch foam layer surrounding an inner box. This is much more durable than the K50, K41, K30 etc... packaging.
Even though this is fresh out of the box, my immediate impression is that everything is cleaner and clearer while remaining organic and musical. It is not getting colder or crisper. Just better, more natural separation. I use the same five test tracks for all digital evaluations. For consistency, all of these are streamed off of Tidal:
In a Sentimental Mood - Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
Be Still My Beating Heart - Sting
Liberty - Anette Askvik
Duende - Bozzio Levin Stevens
Mozart String Quartet No.17 in B Flat Major - Alan Berg Quartet
Each track was noticeably cleaner and clearer than on the K50. This shows up most in the air around cymbals and clarity of the drum rolls in In a Sentimental Mood. The 44..1 track sounded as good as a 24/192 track streamed from Qobuz. Truly surprising how much detail is improved.
On Be Still My Beating Heart, it showed up mostly in the bells you hear in the background. Those frequently sort of roll together. I was hearing separation and notes I have not heard previously.
The sound effects in Liberty were cleaner and clearer and if seemed like the horn was clearer and more realistic.
Duende which is an impossibly complex track to reproduce was clearer in virtually every part and somehow the scale of the bigger moments of that song toward the end seemed bigger.
Berg is Berg. Brilliantly recorded. Well sized with incredible separation. In some ways this track seemed to benefit the least from the Oladra. in some ways, this is simpler than the others
It is going to be interesting to test this unit with other DACs through time, especially as it burns in. But straight out of the box, this unit seems pretty special compared to what was already a pretty awesome server with the K50. Not sure how it will stand up to the Pink Faun or Taiko, but it is easily a step forward vs. their prior best unit.
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