ANTELOPE AUDIO ZEN GO SYNERGY CORE 4X8 USB-C AUDIO INTERFACE

[ktingc]

I wonder why this new interface does not get much attention. It's spec and functions look good. DAC dynamic range 127db.

Zen Go Synergy Core | USB-C Bus-Powered Interface | Antelope Audio

 

[Moonhead]

Sound on Sound rate antelope as some of the best DAC they have tested, which model I can’t recall. That one could be very interesting as well.

Here you go, mate
https://www.google.dk/amp/s/www.soundonsound.com/reviews/antelope-audio-zen-tour-synergy-core?amp

 

[dfuller]

I have a bone to pick with Antelope. They make fantastic performing gear, but the quality (and customer support) are wack. I personally have had to repair an Orion32+ that had the power supply fail because they used hyper-cheap caps. Using Ltec caps in a $2000+ professional unit without any sort of forced air cooling is just beyond bad to me. Antelope wouldn't help the owner at all.

 

[EJ3]

Although I have no personal experience with them, it is not the first time I have heard about what starts out as great equipment by them quickly becoming not great due to cheap parts.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I think a bigger reason is 2-3 years ago they had a period of horrid software problems. Then the units had to phone home each time you fired them up. Each update would brick your unit temporarily about half the time. It became such an issue Sweetwater dropped the entire Antelope line over it. They were worse than useless at helping you get it unbricked. Users had to figure it out and for a time Antelope had a head in the sand attitude over it. If you were a music pro obviously this was intolerable. As an amateur I was highly inconvenienced and unhappy. I very nearly put mine up for sale willing to take whatever it brought which wouldn't have been much at the time.

Also at that time they had dropped support for a whole bunch of their relatively recent products when they offered new models. So some people had a multi-thousand dollar unit that was only a year or two out from its introduction which suddenly was not going to get future software updates. Also some of those units were promised future emulations which never happened. They ended up charging for them.

They promised they were expanding their own software division, and were going to do much better in the future. Since that time they have. But it isn't the first time this company has done such things. In the last couple years my Zen Tour (predecessor to the unit above) has been flawless. You also no longer have to phone home each time you fire it up. I like the gear, it works very well. The Zen Core is supposed to be equal in performance for less money. The emulations are excellent. It might well be unbeatable for the price.

As a hobbyist and not a terribly serious one in regards to recording, I'll put up with all that. Were I pro making my living I'd not touch anything the company makes with a ten foot pole.

If they've really turned the corner however, might be a good unit to get.

 

[ktingc]

That explained why I read so many Antelop users said "Fool me once, shame on you..."

 

[FaFaFa]

I have a bone to pick with Antelope. They make fantastic performing gear, but the quality (and customer support) are wack. I personally have had to repair an Orion32+ that had the power supply fail because they used hyper-cheap caps. Using Ltec caps in a $2000+ professional unit without any sort of forced air cooling is just beyond bad to me. Antelope wouldn't help the owner at all.

Sound on Sound rate antelope as some of the best DAC they have tested, which model I can’t recall. That one could be very interesting as well.

Here you go, mate
https://www.google.dk/amp/s/www.soundonsound.com/reviews/antelope-audio-zen-tour-synergy-core?amp

Hi, I have the zodiac of the same brand, it also sounds great, very natural and never tiring!
Fa

 

[FaFaFa]

I have a bone to pick with Antelope. They make fantastic performing gear, but the quality (and customer support) are wack. I personally have had to repair an Orion32+ that had the power supply fail because they used hyper-cheap caps. Using Ltec caps in a $2000+ professional unit without any sort of forced air cooling is just beyond bad





to me. Antelope wouldn't help the owner at all.

I absolutely agree. I have a zodiac and it sounds great but when I had serious problems, with damage, they completely passed the buck. There wasn't even room for a little negotiation. Zero. Nada. Nisba.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed because they could have made a small gesture. Of course they didn't made me pay the return postage but compared to the damage it was a laughable expense. I will never buy a product from this company again, even if it is the best in the world.
Everyone has their own opinions, this was unfortunately my experience.

 

[KellenVancouver]

Haven't had to deal with their customer service so no comment there, but can say I am very pleased so far with Zen Go (likewise Axino mic). Their software suite has worked without a hitch as well (Windows 10 system running Studio One 5).

 

[HEADSTONE]

Its Dec 2021....so I am posting from this as a brand new device, with the current firmware etc...Ive also read the old posts and was concerned and can only post my own experience.

1) user first impression
It loaded up extremely easy with my pc, the Launcher was smooth and the unit was playing my audio files quickly, in minutes.
Soon I was plugging in a guitar and it was recording to the DAW. Then added and tested briefly the RealTime PlugINs...eq, compressors, reverbs.
Then I started pulling up my audio files...44.1, 48,88,192,96 etc...and trying out my Sennheiser HD280 64ohm, TAKSTAR 671 120ohm, Beyer880Pro 250ohm headphones.

2) blowing the ears out and other Volume related thoughts...
The 250ohm required sliding the Mixer to 0db and the Headphone amp "large knob" to max also and it was a safe pleasent volume, clarity and very enjoyable. The 120ohm Takstar671 then allowed more gain and I backed off the volume on the "big volume" knob, smooth and excellent sounding, imo. Then the closed back SennheiserHD280 I use for tracking music and preventing bleed into the microphones....at 64ohm was really loud and theres much more gain than anyone should be using for extended periods of time unless they want ringing-ear hangover.

3) how does this stuff work?
Im not familiar with the clocks, sample rates and converter designs , filters etc....but I am comparing to my old interface that fed a max 24/96k via a rcacoax SPDIF to a GraceDesign headphone amp that was louder and could take 600 ohm headphones, and had more gain for even my 250ohms that I wouldnt go past 50% center with volume knobs.

One thing I miss for gear-head reasons only is my previous setup, when I played a Mozart file at 44.1khz the Grace Design LED for 44.1 lit up....if I played a 96khz music file the Grace Design detected that and would switch the LED to light up 96K green LED.....
The ZEN GO doesnt do this automatically as Im trying to figure out why not?
I can feed the ZEN GO with the same old interface SPDIF and the ZENGO display will change rates on the display, but only if I do it myself in the audio setup .....in other words it doesnt read the music file pcm? and light up the various sample rates automatically? I would really like the display to show the audio file PCM/sample rate according to the file automatically like my old Grace Design headamp did.? Ill keep searching...

4) subjective sound bliss
Now comparing to the "sound" preference the ZEN GO sounds much better to me than my old interface of 2009,with 2006 GDDAC headphone amp,,,the ZEN GO just has a very nice sound. Classy I could say.
It reminds me of decades ago comparing a cheap consumer stereo amp to a NAD or ADCOM etc..Marantz upper end....theres a polished, pleasing quality to the ZEN GO. Im not technical enough to know why one converter system sounds better than another, and how a $14 24/192 headphone amp might not sound as good as a $1000 24/192khz headphone amp...but I can hear the difference. Is a $50,000 amp going to getb that same improvement? I dont know, maybe not with my ears.
But the ZEN GO I grabbed was $439 new, no taxes etc..and its a great sounding monitoring system.....and the home recording, stuff is secondary for me.

5) Love the layout and system design...and sound ... 5 stars on Layout
The layout is just 5 stars thats what really sold me too, the knob control smoothness and excellent hardware mutes, and controls of my DYNAUDIO montirs and 2qty Headphone outs with separate its a great control station for several things with a lot of I/O. The ZEN TOUR would have more. The ZEN GO is an interface I chose over numerous others I test drove ....for me it got my money fot all the above. Only thing left is time and reliability, but its been several weeks now and zero problems.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Its Dec 2021....so I am posting from this as a brand new device, with the current firmware etc...Ive also read the old posts and was concerned and can only post my own experience.

1) user first impression
It loaded up extremely easy with my pc, the Launcher was smooth and the unit was playing my audio files quickly, in minutes.
Soon I was plugging in a guitar and it was recording to the DAW. Then added and tested briefly the RealTime PlugINs...eq, compressors, reverbs.
Then I started pulling up my audio files...44.1, 48,88,192,96 etc...and trying out my Sennheiser HD280 64ohm, TAKSTAR 671 120ohm, Beyer880Pro 250ohm headphones.

2) blowing the ears out and other Volume related thoughts...
The 250ohm required sliding the Mixer to 0db and the Headphone amp "large knob" to max also and it was a safe pleasent volume, clarity and very enjoyable. The 120ohm Takstar671 then allowed more gain and I backed off the volume on the "big volume" knob, smooth and excellent sounding, imo. Then the closed back SennheiserHD280 I use for tracking music and preventing bleed into the microphones....at 64ohm was really loud and theres much more gain than anyone should be using for extended periods of time unless they want ringing-ear hangover.

3) how does this stuff work?
Im not familiar with the clocks, sample rates and converter designs , filters etc....but I am comparing to my old interface that fed a max 24/96k via a rcacoax SPDIF to a GraceDesign headphone amp that was louder and could take 600 ohm headphones, and had more gain for even my 250ohms that I wouldnt go past 50% center with volume knobs.

One thing I miss for gear-head reasons only is my previous setup, when I played a Mozart file at 44.1khz the Grace Design LED for 44.1 lit up....if I played a 96khz music file the Grace Design detected that and would switch the LED to light up 96K green LED.....
The ZEN GO doesnt do this automatically as Im trying to figure out why not?
I can feed the ZEN GO with the same old interface SPDIF and the ZENGO display will change rates on the display, but only if I do it myself in the audio setup .....in other words it doesnt read the music file pcm? and light up the various sample rates automatically? I would really like the display to show the audio file PCM/sample rate according to the file automatically like my old Grace Design headamp did.? Ill keep searching...

4) subjective sound bliss
Now comparing to the "sound" preference the ZEN GO sounds much better to me than my old interface of 2009,with 2006 GDDAC headphone amp,,,the ZEN GO just has a very nice sound. Classy I could say.
It reminds me of decades ago comparing a cheap consumer stereo amp to a NAD or ADCOM etc..Marantz upper end....theres a polished, pleasing quality to the ZEN GO. Im not technical enough to know why one converter system sounds better than another, and how a $14 24/192 headphone amp might not sound as good as a $1000 24/192khz headphone amp...but I can hear the difference. Is a $50,000 amp going to getb that same improvement? I dont know, maybe not with my ears.
But the ZEN GO I grabbed was $439 new, no taxes etc..and its a great sounding monitoring system.....and the home recording, stuff is secondary for me.

5) Love the layout and system design...and sound ... 5 stars on Layout
The layout is just 5 stars thats what really sold me too, the knob control smoothness and excellent hardware mutes, and controls of my DYNAUDIO montirs and 2qty Headphone outs with separate its a great control station for several things with a lot of I/O. The ZEN TOUR would have more. The ZEN GO is an interface I chose over numerous others I test drove ....for me it got my money fot all the above. Only thing left is time and reliability, but its been several weeks now and zero problems.

Glad to hear of a good Antelope audio experience. I still have a Zen Tour. The layout of the unit is one of its biggest positives.

 

[AnalogSteph]

One thing I miss for gear-head reasons only is my previous setup, when I played a Mozart file at 44.1khz the Grace Design LED for 44.1 lit up....if I played a 96khz music file the Grace Design detected that and would switch the LED to light up 96K green LED.....
The ZEN GO doesnt do this automatically as Im trying to figure out why not?
I can feed the ZEN GO with the same old interface SPDIF and the ZENGO display will change rates on the display, but only if I do it myself in the audio setup .....in other words it doesnt read the music file pcm? and light up the various sample rates automatically? I would really like the display to show the audio file PCM/sample rate according to the file automatically like my old Grace Design headamp did.? Ill keep searching...

But you are already feeding the sound driver via ASIO output, right? There have been cases where automatic sample rate switching was only supported with certain APIs... ASIO should normally work, ideally WASAPI exclusive mode as well.

 

[BeerBear]

According to this review, the audio performance isn't amazing.

The good thing is that it has onboard DSP, although it's clumsily implemented. For instance, there seems to be no simple way to apply a certain EQ to the speakers and a different EQ to the headphones, for all sounds.
Instead, you'd have to apply DSP to all the virtual outputs (from the inputs and computer playback) which then get routed to the outs. And speakers + headphone 1 are one combined out, so you need to use the headphone 2 out to get a separate DSP.
That's from glancing at the manual, but let me know if it's wrong.

 

[HEADSTONE]

But you are already feeding the sound driver via ASIO output, right? There have been cases where automatic sample rate switching was only supported with certain APIs... ASIO should normally work, ideally WASAPI exclusive mode as well.

Ive been playing with that some, a little. Using FOOBAR and the USB to the ZEN GO.
I also put a DAC in front and used the SPDIF IN on the ZENGO that did automatically change upward but wouldnt go back down to 44.1 for example.
There was a Cambridge Magic200M that a reviewer also said the little LED would switch to whatever the file sample rate was being played, so that one must be like the Grace Design DAC/HA I was used too.
I'll keep trying.... its just a techy thing I thought was cool, to have a SampleRate confirmation led is all. I also like to know whats happening and how stuff works too. So if it doesnt change, can I assume the file is being upconverted? I sent a question to ZENGO Antelope too. They said the same, to try the check-box on exclusive...

 

[HEADSTONE]

But you are already feeding the sound driver via ASIO output, right? There have been cases where automatic sample rate switching was only supported with certain APIs... ASIO should normally work, ideally WASAPI exclusive mode as well.

Thanks, I dont know why... but REAPER DAW works fine and when I play back different AUDIO /Project Settings (bit/sample rates) the Zen Go display changes to whatever the audio file is playing in REAPER. (doesnt do it with PCM in Foobar?)

 

[HEADSTONE]

According to this review, the audio performance isn't amazing.

The good thing is that it has onboard DSP, although it's clumsily implemented. For instance, there seems to be no simple way to apply a certain EQ to the speakers and a different EQ to the headphones, for all sounds.
Instead, you'd have to apply DSP to all the virtual outputs (from the inputs and computer playback) which then get routed to the outs. And speakers + headphone 1 are one combined out, so you need to use the headphone 2 out to get a separate DSP.
That's from glancing at the manual, but let me know if it's wrong.

I watched that review a couple times. He already noted the firmware eliminated one issue with the display brightness 2.2 and its at 2.5 today. My unit is a few firmware updates from that video so not sure how much has changed or why.

The layout for plugins is imo, the direct competitor for Apollo Twin, with Dual preamps and the RealTime PlugIns.
The ZEN GO has really nice plugins and can load 8qty per channel and come free with over 32 plugins, last I read. (I got a few extra 15 or more during holiday sale...52). Very well laid out and obvious Apollo Twin has similar. I use a Windows system with REAPER DAW for what thats worth. Im not 100% what you are asking?, but I can apply FX/Dynamic plugs on the Computer IN L/R...eq , comp etc.. and that would go to the outputs. But it goes to all outputs (except SPDIF IN is not applying the FX/Dynamics to Outs).
The Monitor Speakers , HP 1 and HP 2 are all individual volume or mute, but the extra RCA outputs are same as the Monitor Speakers. If that answers anything? I cn mute my DynAudio monitor speakers and leave HD1 on and mute HD2, or any config of the three separate outputs. Its a nice controller, best Ive owned for layout and ease.

Sound is subjective but of a few interfaces I test drove this Antelope sounded best to my ears and closer to my Grace Design headphone amp. The others were fine too but not my choice. First and foremost its a really nice headphone amp/DAC and takes my 250ohm well, with 120 and 64ohm even louder. Maybe the firmware added some gain? I dont know.

That video was really excellent and in depth. The MIC Preamps "worst case test" ,full blast gain, with a SM7b is really worst case!
I actually use the KSM44 so none of that noise floor or headroom data of that test, with the Mic Preamp full max gain, pertains to my setup. Having a booster would remove that issue or using a LDC mic. I agree the SM7b is the tough mic to drive and a great "worst case" mic to use for a test... but any condenser mic would remove all that concern as he says, or get a booster for the SM7b.

Ive gotten some friendly emails from Antelope and understand my system better. A lot of my issues were "me"...I dont really understand PCM vs WAV vs 32 vs 24 and getting REAPER DAW to work over Foobar or VLC and all the formats...so Im totally novice but the Antelope unit display reads from REAPER perfectly, if I play 96k the display changes to 96k and if the file is 192k the display automatically changes to 192k....or 44.1k etc... cool!

 

[korayem]

According to this review, the audio performance isn't amazing.

The good thing is that it has onboard DSP, although it's clumsily implemented. For instance, there seems to be no simple way to apply a certain EQ to the speakers and a different EQ to the headphones, for all sounds.
Instead, you'd have to apply DSP to all the virtual outputs (from the inputs and computer playback) which then get routed to the outs. And speakers + headphone 1 are one combined out, so you need to use the headphone 2 out to get a separate DSP.
That's from glancing at the manual, but let me know if it's wrong.

Actually you can route anything to anywhere

Just drop an EQ on monitor/HP1 output and another EQ on HP2 and done

Checkout their videos on routing etc.. And read the manual. It was overwhelmingly at first but once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy to do anything you can imagine

 

[BeerBear]

I did look at the manual and also some videos...
It seems very easy to add FX to inputs, but I couldn't find a mention of just dropping FX on an output. Can you post a screenshot of how that looks like?

Another question: can the monitor/HP1 and HP2 outputs play the same stream at the same time, but with each having its own volume control?

 

[korayem]

I did look at the manual and also some videos...
It seems very easy to add FX to inputs, but I couldn't find a mention of just dropping FX on an output. Can you post a screenshot of how that looks like?

Another question: can the monitor/HP1 and HP2 outputs play the same stream at the same time, but with each having its own volume control?

Here are some screenshots:

• Screen 1 you can switch mixer settings between monitor/HP1 and HP1
• Screen 2 is HP1 running ClearQ EQ
• Screen 3 is HP2 running VEQ-4 Orange EQ

Hope this helps

 

[BeerBear]

Thanks. But it still looks like the FX is being applied to the inputs (in this case "virtual inputs" Computer Play), rather than to the output as a whole.
So: with your setup, you'd hear a non-EQd signal from the microphone/preamp. You could copy-paste the EQ to the mic input, but then the mic would be recorded with an EQ, which is not what I want. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

And it looks like the two output pairs are separated in the driver. So to switch between monitor/HP1 and HP2 you need to go into settings and change outputs (from 1/2 to 3/4, for example), rather than just lower the volume of one of them.