Hi Mark, im testing and toying with what to do and whether to buy a K41 or if its worth keeping the oladra. As im not using the player on the oladra (and i dont see any way to do so using my speakers as a roon endpoint?), or any of the physical outputs now i’m wondering what your view is on where the great antipodes sound comes from broken down by component.
Can you tell me how much of the great sound quality from your units comes from the server, how much from the player and how much from the output(s) on the device?
If im only using the server what %age of the benefit of an oladra do i get? Because when i a/b vs another roon server now i hear only small differences.
I just came across a post by Jesus from Sonore where he gives his take on the necessity of running only one player app at a time:
“This so called exclusive mode is for practical purposes what we have been doing for many years. It’s really needed for Windows and OS X where the operating system might want to chime in while playing content locally. On the Rendu we give one output protocol access to the ALSA output at a time and nothing from the operating system will interrupt to chime. This mode of operation applies to all protocols on the Rendu and not just Roon.”
Some consumer devices allow streaming apps to force an input change. They do this by running apps that advertise a particular capability, like AirPlay or Cast, for example. Those apps can then cause a number of actions to occur if a client app initiates a streaming action over these protocols.
If this is functionality you desire, you should be looking for a consumer device that already advertises having this capability built in. Boutique high end music servers are the wrong class of devices to look to.
I believe the manufacturers of consumer devices actually have to pay royalties to provide support for some of these capabilities. This cost is then factored into the selling cost of the device. I believe this is why none of the boutique music servers actually support the official version of Apple AirPlay. To provide this capability, they rely on an open source variant that can only provide a subset of capabilities. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Spotify Connect on Antipodes is accommodated through use of an open source app.
Cost isn’t the only determining factor in why open source apps are chosen. The official app may place demands on the product that are unacceptable. The Antipodes Player should be running only what’s needed and nothing more for best sound quality. Apps that need to run all the time so they can listen for particular protocols shouldn’t be running on the player engine of a high end music server.
thx for the detailed explanation. However i am sick of having to make compromises after having spent as much as i possibly can on the very best equipment and software. antipodes say they support roon and spotify and most people including me would think this means without the need to change settings to switch from one to the other. if boutique servers cant allow users to switch between e.g. roon and spotfiy, without first changing settings somewhere, then i can only conclude that boutique music servers are poor attempts at being the best they can be - because being the best is not only about SQ. im not interested in the reasons why and i dont accept that the very best hardware can’t come with the very best feature set - it’s just that nobody has tackled it yet - like so many things in the audiophile world - because we are generally prepared to put up with sub standard functionality in the quest for the best sound quality. antipodes and others in this boutique/high end game need to catch up. in my case i would gladly sacrifice some audio quality in order to achieve what i need to do to keep all listeners in my house happy. the solution seems clear to me: antipodes should modify their software to allow an additional app to run on the player - with a large health warning that doing so will impact sound quality. so that the customer gets to choose instead of being told sorry you just spent 20 grand and now can’t perform a relatively simple function because all anyone at this end ever cares about is SQ
Your requested feature wouldn’t earn any of the audiophile music server enough additional revenue to justify taking it on. It would more likely lose the company money due to the additional support burden. The more limited their resources the more selective they have to be in terms of what they take on.
Doing homework up in advance of making a purchase is essential - even more so the greater the investment in dollars. This is even more essential when there’s a great need to for a particular feature keep the house happy. The idiom “more money than sense” is meant to be a caution against throwing a lot of money at something as a substitute for making a smart purchase.