Not sure if you were thinking along the same lines Ben, the response to Franco from Antipodes does seem rather obtuse for a Kiwi
Sure seems like the Oladraās Clock output is something Antipodes is actively avoiding talking about (this explains why none of the reviews has any details of the Clock output, and why thereās absolutely nothing about it on Antipodes website either).
If I was in the market for something like this - streamer with synchronous output - Iād look at the Grimm MU1 instead, they seem much more open about the technical details of their platform.
Completely agreed, Anup, but the directness of a response also depends on the directness of the question
What kind of clock does the Oladra have?
vs.
I have a Vivaldi stack ā does the Oladra make sense for me?
Iād add an Oladra to my system if it improves things. Iām sure Franco is similarly minded. But weāre missing a worked example of how best to do that, or if itās even possible. I often wish more manufacturers (or dealers ā take note, self!) would provide diagrams for how to hook things up. For example, the last few days Iāve been reading about subs. The more I read about connection options, high and low pass filters, the Icon Gradient box etc., the more confused Iāve been. A diagram would help in those cases too. Even if itās just to avoid unclear reviews, conjecture on forums, and repetitive questions to [email protected]
āItās not compatible, the Antipodes Word Clock is a Master, and DAC connected must be run in SLAVE mode. The word clock works on multiples of 44.1 and 48. Honestly most high quality DACās already have a high quality clock, the benefit is for a DAC that is configurable in SLAVE mode.
Nothing wrong with two great clocks in your system.ā
As much as I wanted to love it, it does not seem the right unit for the dCS Vivaldi stack.
Any other alternatives? Aurender N20? Others? Looking to improve the streaming section and replace the Roon Nucleus for hi-res files.
Thatās funny, seems Antipodes still refuses to mention the exact rate and port impedance involved
For anyone whoās interested, the Hiend site in Taiwan has a review of the Oladra that goes into much more technical depth, and mentions the 22.05MHz/24MHz Clock output rates.
Just my opinion, Ethernet directly into your dCS stack is the most accurate-to-source path you can take. A Synchronous streamer can potentially equal that, and you may subjectively prefer how it sounds, but it cannot improve against directly Ethernet fed streams to your dCS (objectively speaking that is )
Yes, the Aurender would be about the only option, if Iām not mistaken, which has a Clock-in port that you can slave to your dCS Clock, as well as standards-based dual-AES output for DXD/DSD128 compatible with dCS.
I live pretty close to Antipodes, and may still try an Oladra into the back of my Rossini Apex (likely AES or SPDIF) to see what happens. Unplugging my Clock will be hard to do, of course. I never shut up about how much I love that thingā¦
Good pics on that review, Anup. And oodles more detail than the Stereophile write-up.
Thanks guys. As a final note, Mark Cole at Antipodes said āNothing wrong with two great clocks in your systemā. Do you agree with this statement at least as far as a full dCS Vivaldi stack is concerned?
It seems to me that two separate clocks (and an additional external clock, which is the Mutec in my system) may only lead to confusion of signal timing and potential issues in the future but I defer to you guys who are the experts.
AES wonāt work in a full Vivaldi stack because the AES output in the Upsampler is connected to the DAC. The only way to connect the Aurender seems to be USB (or potentially SPDIF).
Btw, is there a particular reason why you recommend Aurender W20SE vs N20? Thanks.
Whilst I donāt have a Vivaldi stack, Iāve just bought an Antipodes K41 to replace my current server (SGC sonicTransport i5).
As you may know, the K41 acts only as a server (thereās no player function), so Iāll be hooking it up to my Rossini Apex via the K41ās āDirect Streamā Ethernet output.
The K41 may be worth considering to replace your Nucleus, especially as Antipodes have just upgraded the K range, incorporating some of the Oladraās features.
This is from Mark Cole of Antipodes;
The list isā¦
Installing the OLADRAās triple-cascade power supply technology in the K Series models.
Installing our proprietary high-quality isolation footers on the K Series models.
Upgrading K50, K41 and K30 Server engines with innovations used in the OLADRA.
Thanks Jonathan. The issue with the Antipodes seems to be the clock, which is not compatible with the dCS system. I gather you donāt own (yet) a dCS clock (?)
Unless Iām missing something this sounds like either an overly rushed reply given without thinking too much or a misunderstanding of how clocks in systems work - if you have the source syncād to one (great) clock and the DAC syncād to a different (doesnāt matter how great) clock then that will not work reliably.
You will eventually get dropouts or glitches as the two clocks will run at slightly different speeds to each other.
If the DAC and the source (in this case the Antipodes) cannot be syncād to the same global worldclock / wordclock then the DAC (or Upsampler depending on which device you have the Antipodes connected to) would need to sync itself to the audio input from the Antipodes - so that input would need to be set to āAā (Audio) sync and in this case the DAC (or Upsampler) wouldnāt be using the Vivaldi clock for its input sync.
I initially looked at the Oladra, but quite quickly decided against it because its clock output function is of no use to me, as are its various re-clocked outputs (I am only focused on the Ethernet output).
Actually, I do own a Rossini clock, which I bought at the same time as my (non Apex) Rossiniā¦
It is only possible to use single AES (i.e. up to 192k) to connect the Aurender to the Vivaldi Upsampler (N20 and W20SE).
It is possible to directly connect the Aurender W20SE with dual AES to the Vivaldi DAC (i.e. all hi-res) and skip the Vivaldi Upsampler. There are two dual AES inputs on the Vivaldi DAC.
W20SE is the only Aurender with dual AES outputs.
Btw, connect a silent fanless NAS equipped with SSDs to the Ethernet, and use alternatively the Vivaldi Upsampler or the Aurender as streamer. You do not need both.
Wouldnāt you benefit in connecting the Aurender to the Upsampler (which is in turn connected with the dac) so that all PCM files other than DSD could be upsampled?
Exactly what I was going to say! (not knocking Antipodes in any way - they make excellent music servers, some of which come with very highly regarded streamers, but the price points are different).
A friend of mine suggested to try a dedicated Ethernet line for dCS before purchasing a new streamer.
He suggested to try this unit https://ztedevices.com/en-gl/mc801a/ with a 5g dedicated network. The Vivaldi would be connected to it via the SoTM Ethernet switch. No other devices would share this network.
Are you saying a dedicated network as in totally separate source from the internet or a dedicated leg of the network coming from the same router and split to separate your internal devices from the dcs system.
)
mine as well