While the two Antipodes units are fairly similar, there are differences. And as each unit is built into half-width (24cm wide) casework, the two could be used side by side, or indeed stacked. The idea is that you can buy one unit or the other, and then build to the full CX/EX system, which Antipodes says will give better results than, say, using one of the two connected via USB to an external DAC. There are also the benefits of each unit being optimised for its task. In the CX/EX combination, the former only runs the server app, allowing the EX to function just as a renderer/client – and with a direct Ethernet between the two, rather as is the case when a Melco server is used to supply music to network player, a high degree of isolation from interference is claimed. This set-up takes advantage of the fact that each unit can be customised by the activation of a variety of onboard apps. If all that doesn't have you going all spinny-headed, you can also use the EX together with the company's £5720 CX, which by the way also says it's a 'Music Server', creating a £9655 combination Antipodes says is 'jaw-droppingly superior' to any product it has previously offered. Or you might use it as an all-in-one digital transport to feed a USB DAC with files at up to 768kHz/32-bit and DSD512, depending on the DAC's own capabilities, or even as a complete player, with analogue output straight into an amp or preamp. The upshot is that this means you could use it as a purely Ethernet source to feed an external player/renderer or as a client for an external network store. It combines the functions of storage, serving, rendering and digital-to-analogue conversion all in one box. New Zealand-based Antipodes Audio doesn't help too much, for its £4080 EX, available in silver or black, may say 'Music Server' on the front, but in fact it's rather more than that. What's more, the terminology used to describe the products designed to make it possible seems almost wilfully imprecise. One soon comes to realise that, in the new world of computer-based music playback, nothing is quite what it seems. This 'music server' is rather more than it might initially appear, and you can apparently use it alone, or with another music server model, the CX.
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