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Clybourne

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  1. Zodiac Gold shipped three years ago. Updating a product from the bottom up after three years seems reasonable enough. Pretty positive review out of the gate at 6moons, thus far. Regards, Marcel
  2. This sounds impressive. Would love to see pics when you get done!
  3. I'm in the states, so I had no idea about the 240v issues, sorry about that. Hey, I see we're both ATC guys, so that's "something".. I use SCM150A's.. Kind Regards, Marcel
  4. Antelope IS my full-time "real" job, but I have not been in charge of the US Consumer Operations, as I'm head of Sales for the Pro products. Maybe that's the confusion that left you w/o help and I'm sorry that you had this experience. I use the original Voltikus daily and had no clue until a month ago we were updating the psu at all. The failure rate is roughly 1% on the Voltikus, so the redesign can't have anything to do with some wider issue. It's just that we've since designed more power supplies and our team felt they could take it even further. Thanks for your comments, though. I know the guys at the home office do indeed listen and take such things to heart. Best, Marcel
  5. Hi Guys, Thanks for all your questions and interest. Sometimes at Antelope we're so busy with R&D and we get so excited about our innovations that in my view at times we jump the gun a little bit. It's one area we are working to improve upon. When we researched adding DSD to Zodiac Gold we weren't happy with the sonic results of what we refer to as "fake" DSD. Our design team decided, instead, to come up with a brand new Zodiac which incorporates true DSD at 1 bit using new oversampling techniques and algorithms we came up with to truly offer DSD we felt great about. The sonic results are nothing short of stunning. What's even more remarkable to me is the PCM up sampling which can play back lower sample rate files at 384khz and actually hear very nice improvements to even standard cd ripped files! Having been with the company now 8 years, I've seen a lot of breakthroughs and the Platinum is up there with the best I've heard from Antelope. Keep in mind, I'm a mastering engineer and really an end user. I don't work at the headquarters and the biggest difference for me is being the first guy in the US to hear the products. Other than input on features occasionally, I'm not involved with the development. If I weren't working for Antelope, I'd be just as excited about Platinum, for whatever it's worth. What I find to be improved about the Platinum is first of all the sound itself, which has more natural sounding reverbs and even better L/R imaging with a sold center, while retaining the focus of the original Zodiacs. Its' a better version of the A+ (rated by Stereophile) original. I also like the new relays (a lot!). They are dead quiet now, have full 1db increments down to 100 steps. The headphone amp is also controlled by the main relays and switched via a button on the front, making use of the front controls more logical, not to mention the great sound of the headphones now, which is also much better. Listening on headphones you feel completely centered in the middle of the mix. Things on the left are coming from directly from the left side of your head, same with right. They almost sound like they're coming from outside the headphones themselves. The L/R is so discrete, we are considering giving the option of selectable crosstalk. The new LED's are white and very nice on the eye and can be now controlled in intensity via the Control Panel software, which has also been enhanced quite a bit, offering selectable trims for playback levels and analog inputs to the preamp section on both sets of ins and outs. The Voltikus is a new design with a new/thicker cable, which I've not yet heard. The remote control has improved/wider range, but I've not yet used that myself either. I already love our new packaging on the Pro side (Orion, 10M, Eclipse) and I've heard we have great new product boxes for the Platinum, as well. Also, the 10M input is fantastic! It works very well and does add that true 3D of our mastering converters/clocks. Many will consider this feature/option the highlight of the new unit and we'll be sending some 10M's out for some of the major reviews with the Platinum, so that aspect can be discussed too. My goal is to spend more time here to help answer questions and assist you with pre/post sales questions. Thanks again for your interest and patience while we've worked hard to evolve our consumer products to a new level. Best Regards, Marcel James Director of Sales & Marketing Antelope Audio
  6. Hi Ewige, Some others had a similar reaction when they first heard the Gold, but reported significant improvement after 400-500 hours. I have no idea why this warm-up period is causing such a perceived change. Also, are you on a Mac or PC? Regards, Marcel
  7. The analog inputs remain in the analog realm, so no they aren't converted to digital. Our attenuator is all analog, btw.
  8. I expect they will, once they get some orders. But, it's slow out of the gate, but I think that's because people don't know they've started to ship.
  9. That's the Ciamara website, not the Antelope website. Hey, question is. Does anyone in the US want to order any Golds? The longer you all wait, the further we fall behind the international guys who have already pre-paid for close to 50 of them! I guess high end audiophile is alive and well (outside of the US)! :-) Just joking a bit with everyone, but seriously, I've had daily inquiries on the Gold, but no US dealers are on board or planning to stock it at this point. We're sort of scratching our heads and figuring that this looks like a hit outside the US and the Plus and the Silver are more in line with US budgets I guess. Marcel
  10. That is correct. The Zodiac Plus has mini-B and the Gold has standard B.
  11. Lee, What specs say mini-B? Our website says Standard B Type. Thanks, Marcel
  12. Oh no, lol. In fact the first customers are world-wide prepaid customers. No customers in the US have received them yet. The only reason I got them was to test and demo at the AES Show last month here. Don't be so skeptical. :-) We want all regions to be happy. Best Regards, Marcel
  13. I don't work with a dealer, I'm the Director of Sales & Marketing for Antelope for N. America. We've never changed pricing in the US on Zodiac Plus, which is what I think you're referring to. I'm not sure what occurred for the UK, but we do have a recently new International Sales Manager, who may have adjusted things for the UK. Gold is indeed shipping, but only the pre-paid orders first. They are indeed going to hit some doormats this year. I have a couple of the first units here, btw, which I've been testing. The new Voltikus does add some low end heft. It's nice across the spectrum and now competes with DAC's costing twice the price with lesser features in many cases. Best Regards, Marcel
  14. Zodiac Gold is shipping now. We're shipping pre-paid orders first. Voltikus will start shipping in about three weeks. In fact, people can order the Gold Bundle now and we'll split ship them. Voltikus does add the discussed "heft", btw. Regards, Marcel
  15. There is no "price drop". No idea what that person's talking about. Marcel
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