Sounds like you have this pretty much sorted out. Can't disagree with your choices, I would make the same. Happy listening!

Dave

I’m trading in my DS for a CORE. As these are now an old model (only came out last year, and now superseded) Antipodes had a few of the CORE’s still available to do a trade-up, with the CORE going to cost me $2k (excluding additional cost for 2Tb SSD), whereas if I went for a CX it was going to cost me $4.3k for a trade-up. I realise the new CX will be better than the CORE, what with the new internal PSU, and dual Ethernet ports, but an extra $2.3k is just too rich for me.

My set-up is a bit simple with a Devialet 1000Pro (2 x 250Pro’s) going to be feed by the Antipodes CORE (Roon being ran on the CORE to control my music), and all power going via a GigaWatt PC-3 SE EVO Conditioner (has the better LS-1 powercord). What I’m thinking of doing is taking the money saved by getting the CORE model, and putting the money saved into an Entreq ground box and cables (have read good things about the Entreq). Currently looking at getting a Tellus 2 (cheap version of a Poseidon), with the benefit of one large box with 3 outlets, but the outside outlets being two separate Silver Minimus, and the middle outlet being a Silver Minimus with built-in Atlantis Minumus. I’m then going with 2 x Eartha Silver RCA cables for connecting to an RCA on each of my Devialet’s, and these 2 cables will connect to the middle outlet of the Tellus 2, and will also add an Everest Binding post to give it an extra boost (what with the 2 RCA cables going to the same middle outlet on the Tellus 2). Also getting 2 x Infinity Silver Spade-to-Spade cables and these will connect individually to either outside outlet of the Tellus 2, and then connecting to the –ve speaker binding post of my Devialet’s.

Hope my thinking with only getting an Antipodes CORE (not CX), and putting the saved money into the Entreq Tellus 2 & 4 x Silver Cables (with a single Everest) is a sensible thing to do (only have so much money to spend; don’t we all).

Cheers
John

Sorry it took so long. I will add that the differences are too close to call here with my set-up: Certon Integrita C4, (4) Acoustic Revive Lan Isolators, (2) SBoosters powering the Netgear switch and Netgear WiFi extender, and various Ethernet cables from Cardas, Wire World, or Sablon Audio. I would advise doing what you can to make sure you have excellent power for the NAS (consider an SBooster if at all possible) and keeping any and all noise to the lowest possible level (both mechanical and electrical). I also have everything seeing AC from a Tweek Geek Dark Matter Stealth. Also everything is grounded to either a Telos (active) or Entreq (passive, such as the grounding posts on the Stealths). So did you go with the newer Antipodes? I also have here the new Auralic Aries G2... way good. Dave Clark

Dave

Thanks for getting back to me.

Thought you would say that. Would have loved to hear what you thought with your Part 2 review, but fully understand why not doing it if new EX & CX Models released now.

Do appreciate you giving me feedback that not much difference between local drive or external NAS. I've got a 2Tb EVO 850 SSD for Antipodes to put my music on the CORE, with the other files being stored on my NAS (DS916+). Reassuring that there won't be much difference (if any) between the 2 locations.

Agree with you in the view about hi-res music not meaning its better. To me it all comes down the mastering, and if done correctly then 16/44 is excellent listening.

I've Roon lifetime membership, and have a library of 130k+ songs, hence why I'm going with the CORE and it's extra CPU horsepower. Realise the extra grunt won't do anything if listening to Tidal, etc., but having the horsepower when I need it for running ROON will be useful.

Thanks again for your review.

Cheers
John

No Part 2 due to the new units and that there is not much else to report other than for sure either sound a wee bit better going from their own drives as opposed to my external NAS - though differences as so slim I could be fooling myself. For me the issues lies in having only one 1tb drive inside either Antipodes units and having 3tb of music to pull from and the fact that one would still need to back up all their files regardless. A single drive is not going to do that and pulling music back and worth defeats the purpose of having quick and easy access to ones music. Not really wanting to pull files onto the internal drive to listen to and then deleting them later to add other files to listen to - too much work for this aging guy. I have used the Core and Aries (the new G2 version) where the Roon sees the Aries G2 as an end-point with no issues. DClark

I'm possibly getting a new CORE hopefully in the next couple of weeks and was really looking forward to the 2nd review talking about NAS & onboard drive music palyback.

Can you do the Part 2 review - Pretty Please 🙂