Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum DSD DAC: Combining Evolutionary and
Revolutionary Innovations for a Perfected Listening Experience
Unique Upsampling Features on Zodiac Platinum Deliver Unprecedented Detail, Enabling
Listeners to get 'Closer' to Original Studio Recordings
Las Vegas, January 8, 2014 — Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, leading digital
audio manufacturer Antelope Audio [CES: Venetian, suite 29-227] unveiled its highly
anticipated Zodiac Platinum DSD DAC/headphone amplifier. With its revolutionary DSD
upsampling capabilities and unique 10 MHz
clocking input, the Zodiac Platinum helps
listeners realize unprecedented detail and
transparency, enabling them to get closer than
ever before to original studio recordings.
With its 256X upsampling mode, the Zodiac
Platinum is able to upsample DSD64 and
DSD128 files to DSD256, thereby unleashing the
true potential of DSD. This feature, combined with the new 10 MHz external clocking input, is
currently not available in any other DAC on the market and enables listeners to realize greater
detail, imaging and transparency in recordings.
Revolutionary Upsampling Innovations
The Zodiac Platinum's unique DSD upsampling features enables it to reconstruct more natural
sounding waveforms than other standard upsampling methods allow. The key to this is
Antelope Audio's proprietary 64-bit algorithm, and the precision with which this algorithm is
carried out in the electronics. Through relentless research and application, Antelope was able to
overcome inherent limitations facing most
DACs: the quality of the filtering on the chip
and excessive heat dissipation.
Antelope Audio CEO and Founder Igor
Levin explains: "When manufacturing a
chip like a DAC, you are working with a
limited amount of space and have to be
concerned with issues of heat and power
dissipation. If you are going to use more
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bits — something that improves the sound quality — you are going to dissipate more heat. The
Zodiac Platinum uses a dedicated FPGA (Field-programmable gate array) to facilitate its
upsampling computations, minimizing efficiency, space and heat dissipation issues."
The accuracy with which the upsampling is being carried out is unprecedented. "On typical
DAC chips interpolator is typically computed with 20 – 28 bits," says Levin. "In the Zodiac
Platinum we are computing it with 64 bits. This is a much more accurate calculation and
makes all the difference when you are computing the missing points associated with a
waveform curve afterwords, which is done by the analog part of the D/A converter. We are
using a whole FPGA to do these computations, whereas on a traditional DAC chip you have
just a few square millimeters of space to do this and it is simply not possible."
Evolutionary Clocking Capabilities
In addition to having a strong presence in the
consumer audiophile market, Antelope Audio is
highly regarded in the professional audio
community as the world’s leading manufacturer
of digital clocking devices, as well as AD/DA
converters. The Zodiac Platinum ships with
Antelope's renowned 64-bit, Acoustically
Focused Clocking and an ultra-low jitter, ovencontrolled crystal oscillator, ensuring a highly
detailed and unmatched listening experience.
In addition to its groundbreaking upsampling innovations and native clocking capabilities, the
Zodiac Platinum also integrates a 10MHz input for Antelope's 10M Rubidium atomic clock,
providing the most accurate, stable clocking reference available on the market. "After listening
to feedback from our audiophile consumers, it was clear that they wanted superior clocking
capabilities as are found on our professional audio products. So, we integrated the 10M input, in
addition to all the other the revolutionary DSD upsampling innovations we delivered on the
Zodiac Platinum," said Levin.
The Zodiac Platinum, which ships with Antelope's brand new Voltikus power supply, is priced at
US $5,500 and is already available globally. For more information and product specifications,
please visit the Antelope Audio website.
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Photo captions:
1) Antelope founder/CEO Igor Levin discusses the design of the Zodiac Platinum (video)
2) The Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum alongside the Voltikus power supply
3) Rear of the Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum
About Antelope Audio
Antelope Audio leverages more than 20 years' experience in professional digital audio to create the most analoglike sounding audiophile D/A converters and preamps. Antelope was among the first companies offering 24-bit,
384 kHz and real DSD128 streaming via custom-built USB chip and the first implementing 256X upsampling
mode where DSD64 and DSD128 are upsampled to DSD256. The company is the first offering a 10 MHz atomic
clock in a consumer audiophile AD/DA preamp, providing extremely accurate audio representation and detailed
soundstage of both analog and digital recordings.
Antelope Audio's customers include many Grammy award-winning sound engineers and producers and some of
the most renowned recording, mastering and film post-production facilities around the globe.
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Contact information:
Jeff Touzeau
Public Relations
Hummingbird Media, Inc.
(914) 602-2913
jeff@hummingbirdmedia.com
Georgi Lazarov
Marketing Communications Manager
Antelope Audio
Phone: +44 20 8133 8113
Skype: antelope_pr
E-mail: pr (AT) antelopeaudio (DOT) com
Twitter: @AntelopeAudio
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AntelopeAudio
www.AntelopeAudio.com