A $15k music streamer reviewed on stereophile

[Kachda]

It’s got better bits than your average streamer. “Bits, it seems, aren't bits, or not only. A digital datastream is also an analog signal. Noise and other signal errors endemic to multi-function computers not designed primarily for music playback can affect how music sounds.”

Read the article for more audiophile jargon. I guess stereophile really has a thing for expensive streamers. They are the new “cables” of the industry.

Antipodes Audio K50 music server

On the face of it, playing and streaming digital music files is a straightforward process. You direct data from various sourcessome local, some "in the cloud"perhaps via a reclocker/signal conditioner to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). "And the music comes out here."

www.stereophile.com

 

[voodooless]

"It takes a K50 about 2 months to burn in properly," he told me. "It sounds too thin and sharp for the first 200 hours. If you turn it off for any length of time, it will take about 3 days to get back to optimum performance."

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Lol.
Funny enough for make happy the vinyl/TT guys

 

[LTig]

It’s got better bits than your average streamer. “Bits, it seems, aren't bits, or not only. A digital datastream is also an analog signal. Noise and other signal errors endemic to multi-function computers not designed primarily for music playback can affect how music sounds.”

Read the article for more audiophile jargon. I guess stereophile really has a thing for expensive streamers. They are the new “cables” of the industry.

Antipodes Audio K50 music server

On the face of it, playing and streaming digital music files is a straightforward process. You direct data from various sourcessome local, some "in the cloud"perhaps via a reclocker/signal conditioner to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). "And the music comes out here."

www.stereophile.com

I read only those reviews with measurements. Most others are a waste of time.

 

[antcollinet]

Well reading that, my brain has just turned itself to mush, dribbled out of my ears, and slithered off to pour itself down the drain in despair.

 

[Ron Texas]

Made in New Zealand, that's the ticket.

 

[Honken]

This is impressive for all the wrong reasons.

 

[tw99]

I liked that fact that audiophilia is moving with the enlightened times, and in this case it's his husband who says "it's never sounded better" Albeit from the same room, rather than the kitchen where audiophile wives seem to live.

 

[pjug]

Made in New Zealand, that's the ticket.

Hmmm... I wonder if the Kiwi dude who sold a surfboard for $1.5M has gotten into the audio game.

 

[Zensō]

A fool and his money, as they say. Apparently there are enough around to bring this product to market.

 

[Madjalapeno]

Lol.
Funny enough for make happy the vinyl/TT guys
View attachment 156372

They get so excited boasting how much money they've wasted.

 

[ahofer]

“Almost like a turntable” makes me laugh. I remember a salesman at Lyric Hi-FI telling me, in 1987, that the new Esoteric transport/DAC (like $2500 combined, in 1987) was ‘almost as good as a turntable’.

What isn’t clear is whether turntables keep moving ahead of digital as they both make “huge leaps forward” with the next kilobuck statement component.

 

[_thelaughingman]

"It takes a K50 about 2 months to burn in properly," he told me. "It sounds too thin and sharp for the first 200 hours. If you turn it off for any length of time, it will take about 3 days to get back to optimum performance."

What kind of stupidity is this bollocks. Are these people insane? How does a piece of electronics and circuitry lose performance. It doesn’t have any sort of memory or setting to retain or lose performance.

 

[Χ Ξ Σ]

https://www.l7audiolab.com/f/antipodes-k50-music-server/
Wolf posted some measurements.
On another note, the USB board in the Antipodes K50 looks very similar to the one used in the Singxer SU-1, or so I am told...

 

[PatentLawyer]

As a general matter, I really enjoy Stereophile. But these things frustrate the hell out of me--there is no good reason why a functioning streamer should impact sound quality. None. If Stereophile wants to prove that wrong, and actually contribute something to the pool of knowledge, it should command a controlled blind test for this review. A purely subjective review of a product that signal theory says should have no impact on sound quality is just not acceptable.

 

[antcollinet]

"It takes a K50 about 2 months to burn in properly," he told me. "It sounds too thin and sharp for the first 200 hours. If you turn it off for any length of time, it will take about 3 days to get back to optimum performance."

What kind of stupidity is this bollocks. are these people insane? How does a piece of electronics and circuitry lose performance. It doesn’t have any sort of memory or setting to retain or lose performance.

Especially when all it is doing is getting hold of digital files and pushing them off to an external DAC. It doesn't do *anything* in the analogue domain.

The stupid: It burns.


What really hacks me off is I can build a streamer out of a Raspberry Pi for less than £100 - and it will do just as good a job sound wise as this ridiculously priced piece of willy waving.

 

[mhardy6647]

This is impressive for all the wrong reasons.

"impressive" is a vector quantity

 

[_thelaughingman]

Especially when all it is doing is getting hold of digital files and pushing them off to an external DAC. It doesn't do *anything* in the analogue domain.

The stupid: It burns.


What really hacks me off is I can build a streamer out of a Raspberry Pi for less than £100 - and it will do just as good a job sound wise as this ridiculously priced piece of willy waving.

It's always those little wanks with wee little willy's trying to show off with their money to stoke their wee little egos.

 

[radix]

Made in New Zealand, that's the ticket.

Wait, if it's made in New Zealand, wouldn't the Coriolis force have spun all the cable electrons in the wrong direction phase alignment causing an inverse circular polarization? No wonder it takes them 200 hours to get things sorted out again. I bet if they reviewed it in the southern hemisphere with similar planetary alignments, the burn in time would be much less.

 

[mhardy6647]

Wait, if it's made in New Zealand, wouldn't the Coriolis force have spun all the cable electrons in the wrong direction phase alignment causing an inverse circular polarization? No wonder it takes them 200 hours to get things sorted out again. I bet if they reviewed it in the southern hemisphere with similar planetary alignments, the burn in time would be much less.