Antipodes Kala 21: the ultimate music streaming solution

Recently I watched a Netflix thriller, Cassandra, about a family who buy a house in the country that, it turns out, is controlled by an inadvertently reactivated supercomputer in a prototype smart home from 1970. The physical manifestation is a bizarre female robot and a TV in every room with Cassandra’s beaming but malevolent face. Down in the bowels of the house taking up a whole room is the computer itself, which no one knows anything about or even seeks to understand. Computer technicians are marked by their absence, despite a whole lot of evil shit going down.

Modern life is a lot like that. In fact, in her recent Witchdoctor opinion piece Tech’s Delusion Of Simplicity, Anna Butterfield looked pointedly at that subject; these days, even so-called computer experts often don’t understand the building blocks of computer technology.

Confusion Around Serving & Streaming

But why am I blathering on about this thorny subject in what purports to be a review of the Antipodes K21 music server? Patience, dear reader. The thing is, if you approached random earthlings on the street and asked them what a music server is, there would be widespread incomprehension. And if they had heard of the internationally spectacularly successful Antipodes products, most likely they would know of its acclaim on foreign soils and that it was some kind of music contraption, but that’s about it.

Here’s the clincher: I’ve been writing about hi-fi since 2005 when I joined the sadly now-defunct TONE magazine as its editor, going on to found the nascent website Witchdoctor in 2010, since when I’ve reviewed hundreds of hi-fi items… and yet I still didn’t quite get what Antipodes servers do that other hi-fi gadgetry doesn’t.

Call it a profound fear of computer technology, something that was rife in hi-fi circles back in 2005. It took years for the hi-fi industry to catch on to computer technology and incorporate it properly into their products. The only signs of the incumbent 21st-century world of serving and streaming back then were products like Sonos, with its multi-room systems, and Squeezebox, a hi-res streamer that was a decade or more before its time. But of course, hi-res streaming services like Qobuz and TIDAL didn’t exist back then, so playback was determined by the music you had saved to a hard drive, usually “burnt” from compact discs.

Twenty years later, and streaming and serving choices are numerous, but the landscape is no less confusing. Let’s assume you’re into audio and have a functioning hi-fi system and want to stream music on it. You can spend as little as $500 on a quite decent music streamer and as much as… well, the sky’s the limit. But what are the intrinsic differences between them? And why would the music fan opt to pay a hefty sum for a music server/streamer from Antipodes when it’s possible to get on board the music streaming train for so little?

When I announced on a popular social media site that I had in my possession (for audition/review) a piece of kit from Antipodes, the reaction from several of my “friends” was kind of hostile. I’ve come to expect that on social media, and especially from those sceptical of premium products, but this reaction did lead me back to the idea that perhaps people, in general, don’t quite understand what makes Antipodes gear so respected and adored.

I’ve been listening exclusively through an Antipodes K21 for the past three months or so, and I’m sold, but that’s because seeing/hearing is believing (more about that later), rather than understanding what makes it so good. The consumer, after all, doesn’t need to know every technical detail, the proof is in the pudding and all that.

All About Antipodes

For the consumer, Antipodes keeps it simple with only five products. The Oladra, company bumpf claims, “is designed to be the world’s best music server-streamer”. Then there’s the Kala series, four models, at the top of which is the K50, and at the bottom, the server/streamer in question today, the K21. What makes the K50 so much better? Well, it’s got two dedicated computers, the K21 only one; and unlike the K50, it’s not built to manage music libraries over 8TB. I can’t imagine needing more than 8TB of music in addition to what’s available through Qobuz, but there you go…

The Oladra, and the K50, are both said to sport significant audio improvements on the K21, but I wasn’t in a position to compare. What I can say with confidence is that I’ve never heard streamed music sound anywhere near this good before, and I’ve heard a good number of streamers over the past few years.

Some maintain that there can be no significant differences between gear when it’s all down to numbers. These are the same people, no doubt, who reckon that the cheapest cable will produce the best results and that those who believe they’re getting fantastic sound from cables costing thousands are delusional. My answer to this, as ever, is “hearing is believing.” In my experience, these Doubting Thomases never show up to blind tests.

Then again, it’s not just down to numbers. There are several different ways to get streaming music piped into an amp and out through a pair of speakers, including sending it from a desktop PC, but the brilliance of Antipodes gear shows that their philosophy has legs. While we’re now caught in an era where our phones are effectively fairly powerful computers that can handle many different tasks, it’s a mistake to think that a phone or PC will yield the best sonic result. A server/streamer is built as a hi-fi component, in the case of the K21 connected via USB, and it’s the combination of tech and design smarts that make for Antipodes’ superiority. That said, I wish I understood more clearly what it is that makes the K21 sound so astoundingly great. Perhaps it’s not just one thing but a combination thereof.

According to the K21 blurb, “the output signal is isolated, regenerated and reclocked using a state-of-the-art USB circuit”, and then there’s the “precision-machined solid plate of premium alloy for a perfect fit and finish and outstanding vibration control.” But the blurb says more about what it can’t do in relation to its more expensive product pals than what it can do. For instance, unlike the top-of-range server/streamers, it doesn’t have two isolated computers, which apparently makes those models sound considerably better. It also can’t accommodate more than 8TBs of downloaded music, and it’s not possible to use it for DSP or with HQPlayer.

Still, the blurb goes on, “the KALA 21 excels in dynamics, natural timbre, saturated tonal density and immersive musical expression.”

And so say all of us!

Set-up

Perhaps one of the core benefits of having an Antipodes server/streamer is the excellent customer service. Unlike Telco companies or corporates, they’re there to help and get things sorted. Being a complete ignoramus, I gave them permission to get inside my iMac (remotely, that is) to load the requisite software. Users can do it themselves through the Antipodes portal, but it was quite beyond me. Amazingly, they had me up and running in about 15 minutes and listening to Qobuz through Roon. Although the K21 was new out of the box it sounded incredible from the word ‘go’, and continued to improve the more I listened. There was no tweaking required, and as usual, I just controlled music through the Roon app.

Overall experience

Before we get into the music, a few words about my overall experience with the K21. Since set-up, there have been several major power cuts to my house and I’ve turned the power off many times to take out and install different source components. The K21 hasn’t missed a beat. Now, in my experience, anything remotely computer-oriented is given to throwing a wobbly now and then, and every streamer I’ve used has glitched out semi-regularly. By contrast, my Antipodes experience was flawless. When there were cuts to transmission, afterwards the K21 powered up and we were back to business in no time at all.

The other notable factor is that you’d hardly know it was there. As black boxes go, it’s a fairly handsome dude, but it doesn’t sport a design that draws attention to itself; it just does its job. And importantly, it does its job without grinding away like typical PC music servers. I’m a big fan of having a low-noise floor in my hi-fi room. There’s enough noise distraction from random mowers and birds and cicadas during the daytime already, but I really don’t want noisy computer fans and other irritating irruptions, especially at night when the world goes silent. I want to hear the full dynamic of the music and there’s no noise at all from the K21. This is a huge consideration for me, although some might not place such importance on a low-noise floor. Also, despite it being a hot summer and residing in a room without aircon, the server/streamer always feels cool to the touch.

Listening

This is where I’m supposed to grab a small selection of albums or songs and explain how they sounded on the K21. The problem is that I’ve listened to so much music using this entry-level Antipodes, and I’m constantly surprised at how great it sounds; so much so that it’s hard to choose just a few tracks.

Overall, I would guess that music on the Antipodes sounds about 30 per cent better than it does on my PC server/streamer, which was put together by a clever computer technician who happens to be into hi-fi for an admittedly very affordable price. Music on my no-brand server/streamer sounds perfectly fine, especially now that I’m bypassing the budget Topping DAC I was using and availing myself of the rather nice DAC in my recently purchased JAVA Single Shot integrated amp (1^st iteration) instead. But streaming with my PC server never sounds as good as my lovely Yamaha S-2000 SACD player, even when the Qobuz files are 96 or 192 kHz. With the K21, however,  the sound effortlessly improves on my ancient Yammy much of the time (except on those occasions when Qobuz have used crummy audio files).

The JAVA Single Shot has already caused a mini-revolution in my music room over the past six months because it’s so damned detailed that (and please excuse the cliché) I’m spending a lot of my listening time hearing things on familiar recordings that I’ve never noticed before. The Antipodes takes full advantage of the JAVA’s detailed presentation and instead of simply offering yet more detail, it improves the sonic sparkle, the overall musicality, the transparency, and the depth of soundstage.

It also shows what my Martin Logan Summits are capable of. One thing the Summits don’t need is yet more detail, as they’re already rather forensic speakers. But with the right signals, they bloom in just the right way. If there’s some bowel-quaking bass, they’re up for it. If the presentation of a particular track is holographic, you start wondering if you’re having some kind of psychedelic flashback from when you were young and stupid and partying too hard.

Liquid is the word I’d use more than any to describe the K21 signature sound, but that doesn’t mean they’re only good for husky-voiced menopausal jazz singers or madly stereoscopic electronic music. When there’s heft, it’s all there. If the music is nasty, it’s not toned down, it’s just reproduced in what feels like an accurate fashion.

I should also mention that for a chunk of the time I had the K21 in my possession I was listening to it via a Merason DAC 1 Mk II supplied by Emotion Audio, a dedicated audiophile dispensary on the Kapiti Coast that Antipodes has recently added to its operations. The extra texture supplied by the Merason was so subtle at first that I wondered if it was doing anything to improve the sound, but when I switched back to the DAC in my JAVA the difference was clear: the Merason definitely added a sweetness that disappeared when I took it out of the loop. Towards the end of my time with the K21 I also switched out my generic USB cable with a beautiful Final Touch Audio USB cable supplied by Ian Brown of Critical Sound Information. I wasn’t expecting anything but there was a difference, and the overall improvement was possibly even more palpable than that of the Merason. (Of course, this is highly subjective and I wasn’t in a position to compare multiple cables or DACs because it risks buggering my old, creaking back every time I get in behind my stereo amongst the cables and cobwebs).

Gidge’s rather brief ‘Dusk’ (AB10) displays just how luminous the K21 can make electronic music sound. This track has some sparkling drumming and lots of ambience, tone and echo, which all help to bring it alive on the sonic stage. There’s real texture, where some streamers/DACs tend to freeze-dry the same components.

Francine Thirteen’s ‘Queen Mary’ is equally stunning, with its killer sub-bass, chanting layered vocals and snapping percussion sounding almost like the slap of a slave driver’s whip.

Abadir, Nahash’s ‘Marchadair’ is a quite mad Middle-Eastern influenced piece with furious percussion and horns and synths in the top end that might prove testing on some systems, but which are relatively transparent, without losing their intended impact, via the JAVA and the Antipodes.

Yello’s ‘La Habanera’ can sound a bit thin and harsh in that distinctively ‘80s way on the wrong system, but the 2005 remaster played through the K21 is utterly delicious, those fake sampled horns truly hilarious, the layers of percussion and sound FX startlingly dynamic, making the whole confection as intentionally fun and provocative as it was supposed to be.

Heilung’s ‘Traust’ can’t compete with the group live but is astoundingly effective, with its witchy, mysterious bells, deep throat singing, gut-churning bass and eventually, singing that’s not a thousand miles removed from the spectral beauty of Dead Can Dance. Gorgeous and mysterious!

One of the most surprising audio treats I heard through the K21 was David Crosby’s classic 1971 album If I Could Only Remember My Name… ‘Cowboy Movie’ is an epic piece capturing the frustration of the band’s near-implosion due to CSN&Y’s fighting over the same woman, with great electric guitar interplay between Neil Young and Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Honestly, this 54-year-old masterpiece sounded so present and alive through the Antipodes that it could have been recorded yesterday.

And lastly, for a bit of proper audiophile nonsense, Markusphilippe’s rendition of ‘Hey Joe’ with just saxophone and acoustic bass predictably but effectively brings out the woody resonance of the bass and the breathy texture of the sax, making for a very effective sonic picture.

Enough, already!

Summary

If you’ve got an average-to-middling sound system then you probably won’t hear the “extra texture” Antipodes products bring out in truly excellent gear, although there are still some advantages for those who are early in their hi-fi journey, like the genuinely great customer service and trouble-free operation and the perfect integration into your system/hi-fi componentry.

The very real audio benefits of Antipodes ownership become apparent when paired with components that can make the best of the superior sound. Although my gear is relatively modest, music streamed through the K21 sounded substantially better than other streamers I’ve auditioned, and I was constantly coaxed back to the sweet spot to take in its astounding imagery. (And to think that it’s merely the entry-level Antipodes product!)

For those who have fairly deep pockets, Antipodes gear is a no-brainer. It makes sense to have a server-streamer physically embedded on your audio rack. It’s beautifully and sensibly designed to operate seamlessly and noiselessly and works glitch-free. And if you do strike a problem, the Antipodes customer service is legendary for being right there to help.

For those who spend a fairly substantial portion of their music time streaming hi-res music from services like Qobuz and TIDAL and who want the ability to add an SSD module of up to 8TB of their own sound files (in my case, rendered navigable by Roon), the K21 is a godsend. There will no doubt be consumers who will avoid ancient contraptions like turntables and CDs and for those individuals who only need to add an amp and speakers to the K21, things start to look more affordable.

If I could award the Antipodes K21 two Gold badges I would, but sadly, one Gold badge is the highest accolade Witchdoctor has. I’ve never been more impressed with an audio product, and highly recommend that those looking for a genuine solution to their music streaming dilemmas audition an Antipodes product as soon as possible.

PS, Here’s a very interesting comparison between the Antipodes K22 and a Goldnote streamer for those willing to listen to an egghead yammer on:

Antipodes.audio