Antipodes Owners - Systems - Whats Best at Your House
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Antipodes Oladra from S30.
CH Precision C1, soon to be upgraded to C1.2.
Audionet Stern preamp.
Audia Flight Strumento 8.
Magico Q3.
Double switches Renolabs.
CH Precision C1, soon to be upgraded to C1.2.
Audionet Stern preamp.
Audia Flight Strumento 8.
Magico Q3.
Double switches Renolabs.
So, I trusted Mark Cole and ordered the K41 to go with my K21. Out of the box, cold, my system simply sounds better. I'm so happy that after listening to several songs I emailed Mark to thank him. Mark posted on this thread that there is a "massive" difference between my S40/S60 combination and K41. Instead of saying massive or night and day, this is the best testimony that I can provide. My plan is to compare a DCS Rossini DAC to my Chord Dave. I recently compared my Dave to the Bartok, but preferred the Dave. If I don't hear a big enough of a difference between the Rossini and Dave, I'm already considering going to the Oladra. This is a crazy hobby!
Switch the K50 from silver to black - fits the setup optical much better, for my upinion... 
Full setup:
atb, Tom
Full setup:
atb, Tom
In my humble opinion, changing from my S40/S60 combination to the K41 has as much impact as adding subwoofers.
Soulution, Magico, DeBaer, Antipodes - Munich 2022
See you in 2023
See you in 2023
I couldn’t agree more. It’s baffling in some respects. I think too many don’t to hear how good their DAC really is because they have ignored the server.
I haven't made the jump to the newest Antipodes servers yet (EX/CX currently, but looking forward to doing so based on the feedback here and elsewhere), but for those of you with the top Antipodes servers, I would strongly suggest you experiment with top external clocks, network switches, network cables, and obviously better DACs behind the server. I suspect that as good as your servers sound now, you will get even more out of them with improvements before and after. It all adds up and it's exciting.
This is all very true. It’s been my experience though that the server matters far more. I think one has the potential to gain a lot more by applying dollars to the source, but “everything matters” in this hobby so doing all these other things matter very much too.
Based on my experience I agree with you...in my system I hear more differences between the Antipodes S40 and K41, than I did between the Chord Dave DAC and DCS Bartok.
I think in general the mainstream audio magazines have done us a disservice by not emphasizing the optimum approach for assembling a system. I wasted money along the way because I mistakenly believed the DAC mattered more than the server.
Well, I can't understand what "matters more " means in a system. Everything matters in a system, a poor choice in any component of the system can make it sound poor.
Everything matters but the source sets the agenda for everything that follows. Poor choices are another matter. What I’m taking about is how the zero sum game can best be achieved when one has budget constraints.
For example, I would take a $10,000 K30 driving a $1500 Gustard x26pro over a $5000 Innuos Zenith Mk3 driving $6725 Chord TT2. None of those components represent a poor choice individually but if one has only $12,000 to spend, appropriating far more to the server strikes me as being the much better way to go.
(I am speaking from experience here as I moved to the former combo from the latter and it was one of the best moves I’ve made).
To your point, now that I've heard the K41 and K21 together, I'm considering the Oladra as my next purchase, as opposed to spending more money on a DAC. I love the K41/K21 combination so much, I'm curious to hear the Oladra.
I very much agree w/ your way of thinking here--especially at the relative price levels you're suggesting. But I might make the additional comment that overspending on the server relative to the DAC could be a miss at higher price points. You might make the same argument with the opposite (overspending on a DAC w/o the server), but that wasn't exactly the case for me.
For standalone DAC-to-DAC improvements, the jump in SQ can be similar in my experience to the jump in servers, especially when going from something like a PS Audio Directstream (a very solid DAC) to a Rossini w/ clock (in my particular case). That was an improvement that almost shocked me. Running Qobuz directly through the Rossini (bypassing Roon and my CX/EX) still sounds very, very good--not as good as through the servers--but a ton better than the CX/EX combo with a more meager DAC like the Directstream, a Concert Fidelity, the Chord, and a Formula, among many less expensive from there.
I haven't yet heard the Oladra (or a K series) and will assume from this thread and others that it's also a shocking improvement over my EX/CX combo (which was a shocking improvement itself over previous purpose-built servers I had).
And if I pull out the Mutec and SOTM switches, all my combos of above items drop a performance level...somehow the "filtering" / "isolation" / "timing" (or whatever those devices are providing) is additive to the server / DAC improvements (assuming you are streaming and keeping it network attached).
Good stuff!
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