Our Story
REVEALING THE BEAUTY IN MUSIC - SINCE 2004
We began as a niche high-end cable manufacturer and switched our focus to music server-streamers in 2009.
We are the mavericks of digital music, doing things our way, for the love of music. Driven by revealing all of the subtleties in music that captivate us,
we design music servers that allow music to sound utterly present and natural, and to flow organically with ease.
Listening to music is one of the most constant and profound sources of fulfillment for ourselves and our customers. No measurement of a music system can ever be more
relevant or important than the emotional pull of the music. And it starts at the source.
Our ethos is simple. We see technology as just the tool, and the sound quality as just the enabler. Emotion is the purpose of the sound, and the only reason for the technology.
“For us, it’s far bigger than producing pleasing sounds, and far more important than creating a 'sound-spectacular'. We’re here to deliver nothing less than emotional fulfillment
every time our customers listen to music at home."
MARK JENKINS - CEO & Founder
Our Technology
The ones and zeroes in a digital audio file only represent the amplitude dimension of the sound. The time dimension is equally important and must be generated by the playback
system. This requires low-noise and high-bandwidth signal generation and precise clocking circuits. In practice, this requires multiple stages, going beyond what any DAC can achieve.
The quality of the DAC is important, and the quality of the music server is equally important, to deliver a musically engaging source for your high-end audio system.
You won't find us talking much about flash new technologies, whether or not we employ them, because our design choices are driven by what expresses the music. We want to be valued
for how our products express music, not by the technology we use. We apply our design breakthroughs to all of our models, which is why all of our models are currently
designated as G4. They vary primarily in terms of the computing resources, the number of signal processing stages and parts quality.
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Dual-Computer Designs. The OLADRA and K50 models use two custom computers, one optimised
for server app requirements, and one optimised for player app requirements, and this delivers deeper musical insight than our single-computer models can achieve.
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Multiple Processing Stages. Instead of the typical approach of using a computer and a single-stage processing board, our designs use multiple processing stages.
This is because the effectiveness of a reclocking stage is dependent on how clean the incoming signal is. Therefore we use one or more stages to minimise the noise component,
particularly below the bitrate, and ultra-fast circuits to square out the wave, prior to the precision-clocking stage. Our approach to noise and bandwidth is unique and crucial,
because the effectiveness of any clocking circuit is not defined by the clock's specifications, but by the total processing circuit.
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Technology choices. We make no assumptions about technologies based on their newness, specifications or performance at common computing tasks. We don't
march to that drum. We select and tune CPUs, mainboard chipsets and input/output interfaces to optimise the music's ability to evoke emotion. Simply adopting latest computer
technology results in mechanical sound that robs the music of its organic realism and life.
It is easy to evaluate products by their specifications. It is more subjective to evaluate products by how they sound, and you have to evaluate sound characteristics to achieve a balanced
overall system sound. But both of those are also traps because you are engaging the wrong part of your brain, and you can easily find yourself not listening to your music as much as you
used to. It is harder to do, but it is critical to evaluate by the way something makes you feel, because it is the sparking of your emotions that keeps you engaged and rewarded
by music.
For more detail about our approach see our articles.
ARTICLES
Our Application Suite
Antipodes enables a wide range of best-of-breed playback applications, rather than locking you into a single and limited way of doing things. We make it easy for you to choose the
playback solution you want for your main music system, and to run additional server applications if you need them to support playing over your network, and even over the internet
to your phone and car stereo while you are on the move.
| Playback Solutions |
Stream Over Network |
Stream Over Internet |
| Squeeze |
Squeeze |
Plex |
| Roon |
Roon |
Roon Arc |
| HQPlayer |
HQPlayer |
|
| Roon + Squeeze |
MinimServer |
|
| Roon + HQPlayer |
MiniDLNA |
|
| MinimServer + MPD |
PLEX |
|
| MiniDLNA + MPD |
Shairport |
|
| Squeeze + MPD |
|
|
Streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, Internet Radio, etc can be used within many of the playback solutions.
The intuitive MyAntipodes app puts you in control. Select how to play music in your main system, and how to stream to end-points on your network, from a common music library,
with just a few clicks.
Find out more about how we make a vast array of possibilities easy to setup on our user guide page. If you are new to Antipodes, our video guides will show you how the MyAntipodes
app brings it all together simply.
GUIDES
Our Team
Antipodes Audio currently has a core of 7 people. We also work closely with three internationally-recognised specialist technology developers/manufacturers,
who have each formed part of our product development and manufacture for nearly two decades. All products are assembled and tested by Antipodes in
New Zealand.
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Mark Jenkins is Chief Executive, sets business direction, and leads product development.
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Sonia Jenkins is Deputy Chief Executive, assists with business direction and managing the team.
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Mark Cole is Director of Business Development, managing our sales and marketing channels world-wide.
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Greg Bauer is Chief Technical Officer, leading all hardware developments.
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Prince Pablo is Chief Information Officer, leading all software developments.
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Jessica Jenkins is Marketing Director, leading all marketing activities.
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Callum Hannay is Manufacturing Manager, assuring product quality and rapid fulfilment.
CONTACT US
Our Location
We are located in Otaki, on the magnificent Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Our 6000 sq. ft. facility integrates all of our functions in one place, including our warehouse, product assembly, development, support, offices and showrooms.
Together with a focus on using recycled materials and minimising emissions, our modern premises are an environmentally optimised building with double glazing, a 5.1kW
solar photovoltaic array, a 3.8kW 18m high wind turbine, low energy LED lighting throughout, and a solar thermal hot water panel augmented by heat pump water heating.
Excess power creation is transferred to the national grid.
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