Antipodes DX Gen3 vs Innuos Zenith MkII SE

[simorag]

Hello, has anybody had the chance to compare head-to-head these two high-end music servers?

 

Innuos seems to have much more coverage (and with very good user feedback) here at CA and over the internet, while I was not able to find a single review specifically addressing the DX Gen 3.

A few (good) reviews are available for the Gen 2, e.g. here: http://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review/digital-reviews/network-player-reviews/antipodes-dx-music-server/

 

 

[Evo-No-Revo]

A comparison would be nice but that is probably not easy to come up with.  I would just like to hear anyone's opinion that has heard the Antipodes DX Gen 3. 

One of the sales guys at Audio Vision San Fransisco says that the DX Gen 3 betters the DX Gen 2 by quite a wide margin.  I think the custom Asus MOBO is a big part of the SQ increase.   Odd there are no reviews online to speak of....

I do like the strategy that Antipodes is implementing by not creating the noise in the first place instead of filtering out the noise later. 

[Ben2300]

 I am curious Does the gen3 is actually shipping yet? I’m interested in it too.

[limniscate]

7 hours ago, Ben2300 said:

 I am curious Does the gen3 is actually shipping yet? I’m interested in it too.

I believe that there is at least one person on Audiogon who has one.  Roy is supposed to be getting one soon.

[Evo-No-Revo]

Yes, they are shipping.  Audio Vision San Fransisco has one in stock now.

[Kritpoon]

I have the DX Gen 3 for about 2 months now. My chain is Source -> Mutec Mc-3+USB (with REF10 Clock) -> Yggy. Comparing the DX GEN3 with what I had before (ultraRendu+LPS-1 feeding my Synology NAS), the DX GEN 3 is a few classes over the ultraRendu. Before the DX, I found the uR to sound really good (coming from MACBOOK Pro as a source). But when I replaces UR with the DX3, I found that uR has a few flaws. Comparing with the DX3, the DX3 mid range is liquidity smooth, the sound is meaty, the background noise is darker, the highs are extended without any so called digital glare. The stage depth is superb, and micro details are easily heard. The bass is tighter with better extension. Just so summarize, the DX3 is really really good with the overall presentation to Analog sound. With good file source, if I close my eyes and listen, it seems that the sound is coming from the Vinyl source. Hope this helps.

[matthias]

The upcoming Antipodes CX seems to outperform the DX/3:

 

http://www.antipodesaudio.com/antipodes-cx.html

 

https://d11fdyfhxcs9cr.cloudfront.net/templates/32726/myimages/antipodes_pricing_2018_v2.pdf

 

Matt

[rickca]

Have a look at Antipodes FAQ What sounds best?   It's interesting that they say

 

With poor quality servers, playing over the network to an Ethernet DAC can make sense, but with an excellent server playback via USB sounds clearly better. With Antipodes music servers we recommend you use USB rather than put the signal over your network. 

 

Has any information been released about what CPU or motherboard is used in the 'high power' CX?  Antipodes says you need the CX in order to upsample to DSD256 or DSD512. 

[matthias]

4 minutes ago, rickca said:

Has any information been released about what CPU or motherboard is used in the 'high power' CX?  Antipodes says you need the CX in order to upsample to DSD256 or DSD512. 

 

They use a special board from ASUS:

 

http://www.antipodesaudio.com/server-upgrades.html

 

Matt

[matthias]

@simorag

I would compare the new Antipodes CX to the Zenith SE.

I would not be surprised if the CX is superior.

 

Matt

[simorag]

Yes, it seems that the CX is going to be outclassing the DX.

 

Antipodes just postponed the release by a month, to April 19th ... perhaps I'll go to High-End Munich in May this year, to check if I can hear it.

 

I'll not be surprised if we find that also Innuos is showing something new there... the SE has sold out very fast and this should have been very encouraging for Innuos guys :-)

 

[rickca]

35 minutes ago, simorag said:

I'll not be surprised if we find that also Innuos is showing something new there... the SE has sold out very fast and this should have been very encouraging for Innuos guys

Not very encouraging for those of us who bought an SE.    Everybody is always working on that next prototype.  There's also the chance that Innuos may do a streamer ala CX/EX.

 

I'm not sure whether the CX will sound better than the SE.  It will be interesting if Antipodes has made some good progress in scaling up their technology to a more powerful CPU.

 

Antipodes seems to roll out new models quite regularly.  It's nice that they have an upgrade path for some of their older units.

[matthias]

42 minutes ago, rickca said:

There's also the chance that Innuos may do a streamer ala CX/EX.

 

I'm not sure whether the CX will sound better than the SE. 

 

IMO, the Antipodes concept is more flexible for customers. The customer can decide whether he/she needs storage.

Maybe the DX and the SE are on par. But the CX is better than the DX.

And the SE is certainly not able to upsample to DSD512.

 

Matt

 

[KingRex]

I found it refreshing the Antipodes literature on the cx-ex says a high quality DAC cannot make up for a poor quality server.  Something for all the laptop users to consider. 

[rickca]

36 minutes ago, KingRex said:

I found it refreshing the Antipodes literature on the cx-ex says a high quality DAC cannot make up for a poor quality server.

I agree and only recently have I begun to appreciate that fact.

37 minutes ago, matthias said:

IMO, the Antipodes concept is more flexible for customers. The customer can decide whether he/she needs storage.

Yes I think Antipodes is doing some smart things with their product line.  I was also impressed to read about their upgrade program.

 

Antipodes is about to relaunch their cable business producing a new generation of wire using their proprietary Optimised Lattice Long Crystal (OLLC) technology.  I can only imagine the prices.

[LTG2010]

It looks like the DX will still be the flagship 1 box solution due to its dual power supply. You'll need the ex/cx combo to outperform it a seperate server and renderer - 2 box solution so the cost is likely to be a lot higher. The upgrade path is a bonus (many companies eg Mytek can learn from this), plus the fact you can fit your own storage. I like it.

 

[matthias]

12 minutes ago, LTG2010 said:

It looks like the DX will still be the flagship 1 box solution due to its dual power supply. You'll need the ex/cx combo to outperform it a seperate server and renderer - 2 box solution so the cost is likely to be a lot higher. The upgrade path is a bonus (many companies eg Mytek can learn from this), plus the fact you can fit your own storage. I like it.

 

Yes, you are right, in this link DX is better than CX:

http://www.antipodesaudio.com/server-faq.html

But in this link the CX is better than the DX:

https://d11fdyfhxcs9cr.cloudfront.net/templates/32726/myimages/antipodes_pricing_2018_v2.pdf

 

Matt

[LTG2010]

15 minutes ago, matthias said:

But in this link the CX is better than the DX:

https://d11fdyfhxcs9cr.cloudfront.net/templates/32726/myimages/antipodes_pricing_2018_v2.pdf

I didn't realise that prices had been released thats very useful. If you look closer at the pricing in the second link you'll see that the DX is £1200 more due to the extra power supply. The electronics should be similar in all models.

Edit: Just noticed the sound ranking chart now that's very confusing, it doesn't seem correct.

[KingRex]

2 box is interesting if one wants to upsample.  I hear the Chord Dave and Blu do an amazing job.  I bet the Antipodes will also be stunning.  But now your talking 2 x $7,000 units.  whew!!!!!  Not really sure if the CX is also the DAC.  Is that what I am reading.  That would be interesting.  Up sample in the DAC and hand off to my preamp.  Does save on cost there making it more competitive.  Of course I already own my DAC, so there is a loss as I won't get what I paid. 

[rickca]

3 hours ago, KingRex said:

Not really sure if the CX is also the DAC.

Looks like you can use the EX as a DAC or use it with an external USB DAC.

[matthias]

Both CX and EX can be used with external USB- and Ethernet-DACs.

The EX has some (in my understanding) basic DAC in-build.

 

Matt

[matthias]

7 hours ago, LTG2010 said:

 The electronics should be similar in all models.

 

No, the CX has a higher spec CPU board than the other models.

 

Matt

[One and a half]

The type of 'to the analog' method on their website is not revealed for the EX. So who knows what it is, DAC chip or FPGA? For a 'simple' out of the box, 192/24 is offered, so a DAC chip would be it. The design is not finished, otherwise the CX, EX would already be launched and a better description would be offered.

[LTG2010]

4 hours ago, matthias said:

No, the CX has a higher spec CPU board than the other models.

All product share the same V4 platform in my book this means similar electronics- note the difference between 'similar' and 'same'.

It is stated that CX has higher powered V4 and DX medium powered V4, since higher powered processors generate more noise it does not automatically imply they are better for audio, unless you want to upsample.

Antipodes in their description of the DX state it is still their flagship 1 box solution, a 'flagship' cannot also be 'lower spec' than a cheaper product, if a lower priced item were to better it, it would render their 'flagship' useless why would anybody buy it or upgrade to V4 spec if a cheaper solution is available? it could be that it is being fazed out and the descriptions are outdated?

So its all rather unclear at the moment and best wait for the release and reviews or more details from Antipodes to clarify the situation.

[matthias]

From the Antipodes Homepage:

 

" The CX delivers stunning sound quality, exceeding the audio performance of even the excellent DX while also providing high processing power to handle demanding server features with ease. The reason the CX can outperform the DX is that the CX provides much more processor headroom for the server app, and therefore running the server app in the same device interferes less with the renderer app"

 

IMO, in a situation with a very large music library and heavy upsampling to high rate DSD it may be possible that the CX has the edge over the DX regarding sound quality.

 

Matt