Hi, I'll keep this short.
I have an opportunity to test/buy an Antipodes cx/ex streaming combo. I have seen loads of positive reviews, but I cannot wrap my head round why this differs from a normal computer setup (where is the value to reflect cost? If it is much better than a normal computer, then, what makes it so?)
I, for example, bought a cheap fanless i7 8gig and 128gig nvme from cash converters (£100). I placed unraid on it and started a roon server docker and have the roon player on my macmini (less than £200). The Antipodes costs thousands, I cannot understand why the cx/ex might be thousands of pounds better in quality. The cx and ex have mobos, processors, ram and storage (they are computers!). What the hell can they do to them to make them audiophile quality? I doubt they've swapped out caps etc, maybe a bespoke isolated psu, beyond that, buggered if i know (nobody can tell me). Looking at the Antipodes website, it refers to AMS, which i suspect is it's bespoke server OS. Are we then being asked to pay thousand for software wrapped in a shinny box? What if they go out of business or distribute a sub par AMS update? Unraid cost £50 and roon server (roon core) is running with ease with all bells and whistles on, less than 2% cpu usage and less than 40% ram, sounds great. I stream from tidal.
Colour me confused.
I have an opportunity to test/buy an Antipodes cx/ex streaming combo. I have seen loads of positive reviews, but I cannot wrap my head round why this differs from a normal computer setup (where is the value to reflect cost? If it is much better than a normal computer, then, what makes it so?)
I, for example, bought a cheap fanless i7 8gig and 128gig nvme from cash converters (£100). I placed unraid on it and started a roon server docker and have the roon player on my macmini (less than £200). The Antipodes costs thousands, I cannot understand why the cx/ex might be thousands of pounds better in quality. The cx and ex have mobos, processors, ram and storage (they are computers!). What the hell can they do to them to make them audiophile quality? I doubt they've swapped out caps etc, maybe a bespoke isolated psu, beyond that, buggered if i know (nobody can tell me). Looking at the Antipodes website, it refers to AMS, which i suspect is it's bespoke server OS. Are we then being asked to pay thousand for software wrapped in a shinny box? What if they go out of business or distribute a sub par AMS update? Unraid cost £50 and roon server (roon core) is running with ease with all bells and whistles on, less than 2% cpu usage and less than 40% ram, sounds great. I stream from tidal.
Colour me confused.