This thing is beautifully designed with some very impressive specs, not to mention it comes with both Thunberbolt and USB support. And on top of this, it also comes bundled with FREE plugins! Not just a handful of plugins... everytime a new plugin is developed, it is free to all owners!

When I think of how much money I've spent over the years on UAD plugins and how long it took to finally get support on Windows for mobile users, this is something that would definitely sway me to jump ship.

 

sweet, I've been on the fence deciding on antelope or lynx...

 

Looks nice, but I just wish it was RME who were making this.

I don't trust Aardvark/Antelope.

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2016

Yeah, did some digging around and found this:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/938070-antelope-audio-support.html

Its an old post but when you have people criticizing their customer support that way, it definitely throws up some cautionary signals.

 

Outsourced drivers, software and manufacturing, slow (if ever) to fix bugs and ostensibly obsoleting fairly new products, etc. Of course you can also check the history of Aardvark where they suddenly left all their customers in the lurch.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1077996-antelope-audio-orion-studio-review.html

They seem to be quite good at making clocks though so it's a bit of a shame really, as they clearly have the theory to make good products, maybe they are just lacking a bit of German efficiency?

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2016

But the eqs etc. are not plugins, right? It seems they can only be used inside the mixer of the device, so not quite a UAD competitor.

 

Damn ... sounds like what happened to Mackie. Unfortunately, I know what that feels like :/

Guess this could be a case of "the grass isnt always greener". Bummer, that interface looks the business too.

 

It seems the customers who are happy are very happy, and the customers who are unhappy are very unhappy .. in other words it's a total crap-shoot.

I'd be inclined to have more faith in companies like Lynx, RME, Audient, and to a certain extent SPL (although still newcomers to digital), but I do find it frustrating that no company (so far) makes the perfect interface

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2016

[FONT='Lucida Sans Unicode', arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]i am sure the plugins sound great to because antelope is a mastering hardware company Nice[/FONT]

 

i am sure the plugins sound great to because antelope is a mastering hardware company Things are getting more and more Powerful

 

I'm maybe one of them users who are not really happy about Antelope way of doing business. I bought an Zen Studio that is not that old at all for those who know Antelope Zen Studio portable Soundcard, that was their flagship last year and was the start up idea of what they came up today with Zen Tour etc.. and guess what? The very sad part about my unhappiness is the fact that the Zen STudio is NOT an old soundcard at all (for me an old sound would be if it has been at least 3 years past) but the Zen not even a year and already, counting all the number of new Soundcard line that Antelope has come up since end of last year till now, they have updates the Software Control Panel look, included new FX from Guitars Amps to Eq etc... and guess what? The Zen Studio hasn't had any of these update: no update for their new Control Panel Software GUI that even Hardware they released 3 months after the Zen Studio was released got these new GUI software and not even a mention from Antelope when asked the question about "if Zen Studio user will be receiving any update soon", I swear, the question has been simply ignored.

So here you have it: no answer nor any news for any update for the Zen studio to take advantage of their news add-ons. And the worst is that Zen Studio do have the same technology and can receive these update. Because the only new add-on DSP thast the Zen Studio had received is their DSP REVERB. So it means if Zen Studio got the Reverb DSP, it can easily receive all the new plugins line they have created for their latest Soundcards as well as the GUI.

So, does Antelope develop great HW? Answer is YES. Does it sound GOOD? YES
Is the Support Good = Yes I had a great support
Is the Company care and listen for "OLD" users who bought their stuff? to me i;'d say = NO because I'm a living proof and it's not that I didn't ask or request to see these feature in my Zen STudio that again ain't an old Soundcard. But for Antelope maybe OLD means , after 3 months, you're out. Sell your Old soundcard and go buy our NEW flagship.
It sad because I love their product but now it got me thinking more than twice and I'm considering to sell my ZEN STUDIO and never look back.

Peace

 

The Zen Tour thread on Gearslutz is turning into a car crash ... their rep claims that he
has to ignore his kids on many occasions in order to help seemingly ungrateful customers Said customers are none too happy.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/new...-clock-zen-tour-goliath-audio-interfaces.html

 

Last edited: May 3, 2016

Yeah, the opinion seems to be fuck the new products, make the old ones work first

 

Metric Halo are about to upgrade their line, and they will now work on Windows via USB.

MH still support their 15-year old interfaces and they are upgradable too.

Lynx, RME anf MH are pretty dependable and offer good support IMO.

 

Last edited: May 3, 2016

Yeah, they are 'about to' update them for a couple of years now. Meanwhile I think I'll sell my ULN-2.

 

Agree i still have 2 Aardvark Q10s from years ago that are useless dust collectors haha.....

 

The delay is making sure the upgrade works with 15-year old legacy interfaces, which is quite the opposite to some other manufacturers. I also believe it was announced as a "roadmap" with no delivery timescale, as some customers wanted to know where MH products were heading. Reading other forums the release may be imminent. Personally I like this approach, as opposed to constantly obsoleting fairly new products through insanely short product life-cycles.

So what are you in the market for?

 

Last edited: May 3, 2016

Antelope stuff looks nice ATM. I might be tempted at some point but I don't have a real reason to jump. Meanwhile I have some nice converters that keep me happy. The ULN will be sold for sure.

 

The new interface looks more than nice, but I find the comments from the owners of one-year old Antelope devices to be quite worrying. That Gearslutz thread is pretty eyeopening.

It's seems to me that Lynx are top of the hardware/software tree, while the others have weaknesses in some areas. I'm not entirely sure though, and to be honest interface hunting is really a nightmare.

 

Last edited: May 4, 2016