Antelope Zen Go Synergy Core Reviews

My New Interface.

Received this interface today, together with the Edge Solo Mic. I must say, I love how you can record on this without any latency. This stands tall, and the only interface I really can compare it with is my Apollo Twin X. One of the cool features of the Zen Go, is that you can actually save presets ON the device, so that you can use the device with other workstations, and still use your own presets! Love it.

The perfect combination of price and quality.

1. Appearance - 10/10. Compact, cool display.

2. Build quality - 9/10. Made reliably. The only thing is that the main encoder is slightly tilted. As if it was not installed correctly. And so everything is cool.

3. Sound - 10/10. So far there are no complaints. Pleased with two headphone outputs. Working with the sennheiser hd 600 is quite comfortable, there is a volume margin.

4. Soft - 8/10. The plugins individually work well, in real time, and that's good news. You can even assemble a whole chain of devices. But, there is a crack, sometimes a wheeze. For example, a chain: A fast compressor and then a slow one can cause unpleasant phase distortion. Or a pre-amplifier and then a tube compressor can also cause this distortion.

5. Support - 10/10. Live chat, email, everywhere answer any questions. They even helped through TeamViewer.

6. Additional options - 10/10. Awesome Promotions. Nice gifts.

Outcome: 9/10. Great device. I am satisfied with the purchase. We are pleased with the quality and price. Let's see how it shows itself in the long run. If you have a budget desktop interface, and you do not want to buy additional external equipment, and you want something one level higher, then this device is for you

Zen Synergy Gold They should have called this AI

This audio interface not only make my TLM 103 sound like a a neuman u87. It's attracting more customers to my studio, with the quality I can now deliver for the price and the bonus effects. It is worth every penny. Very happy with my purchase

antelope quality always let me satisfied

Antelope Zen Go Synergy Core

This is a gorgeous audio interface for your money. He revealed the sound of my studio monitors, I heard more detail in the sound which I haven't heard with other monitors. And more you will get great plugins bundle for free!

Хорошо за свои деньг&#1080

Цена для аудиоинтерфейса с dsp реально небольшая, и за эти деньги мы получаем - realtime обработку входных сигналов очень неплохими эмуляторами классических железок, хороший звук по мэйн-выходам и выходам на наушники (dt1990 раскачиваются хорошо), красивое оформление с нормальной по-человечески оформленной индикацией уровней по входам и выходам.

Перед написание этого комментария пробежался глазами по тому, что пишут здесь люди. Может от серии зависит, но в моём случае никаких хлопков при отключении питания от ноута не замечено, 50гц не зудят, софт не крашится и работает стабильно. Хорошая покупка, за свои деньги прекрасно

I am Windows 10 user, I don't have MAC so I will speak from Windows/PC side only

Handling: 2/5

As other mentioned volume control knob is 1 for all 3 outs. There is a button you have to click to choose which out you control. Not practical at all. I swap 2 headphones very frequently + my monitos and this is big issue.

Features: 3/5

This device claims to have some great features like internal effects (DSP) on channels, but for example there is no MIDI IN/OUT , Software is complicated and buggy - Antelope constantly update it, but still it looks unfinished, made in a hurry. It has little screen with very nice level indicator. There was a BUG with screen brighness, when it was <100% it creates noise in monitors. Antelope was able to fix it with firmware update, but come on, this is untested hardware.

Sound: 2/5

I read many reviews about how great antelope converters are, and how good is their sound. This was not the case for me, I had very bad ground loop noise on USB, in my monitors, and it went even worst when I move my mouse. No matter what I switched off and changed it did not disappear. Contacted support on this, and after all the tests, they recommended to test the device on other PC system. It works on my Laptop in the office fine. Thou my 2 desktops had this ground loop noise in monitors. Support is slow, and was not able to help me, and the fact I can use this only on my laptop is not fine too.

I have Focusrite 4PRE usb and 2 Pre USB too. Both work great on same PC/monitors.

Headphone Out is weak, they made an firmware update which helped a little, but my 250ohm Neumann NDH20 must have almost 100% volume to sound good.

Quality: 3/5

Construction looks good, supplied cable is good - but something like electrical filters is missing IMHO

Overall: 2/5

Really bad experience with this device. This is my 6th or 7th Interface, and most of the others were cheaper. I never had such bad experience.

You need to register and activate device even for simple drivers to work.

The promised promotion code was delayed more than 7 days in my mailbox, and that was after I opened a ticket in support site.

Control panel is kind of complicated, they fixed load time a little - my started in 10-12 seconds.

ADAT has only 2 channels as INPUT - so you can't really expand it.

After uninstalling software, I had to clean services manually because they were not removed even after PC restart. Bad software quality for sure.

Oh and did I mention - no MIDI IN/OUT

Product need a lot of software polish and some hardware rework, maybe V2 or V3 will be good with promised features.

Mac friendly device that is disastrous in Windows

I have purchased two antelope zen go units in total, after returning the first one due to several issues..first of all whenever you remove the power cable from your laptop(even when it's turned off) your monitors will do this loud pop. Whenever the interface starts up it pops again..never expected such cheap decoupling from an interface in this price range. Also the drivers on Windows are just abysmal..Laggy, buggy, crackly...when it comes to sound quality though I admit that this interface has a surgical precision in reproducing frequencies but it is Unfortunately invalidated by the issues of digital processing which in my opinion, if you don't have the Mac system, you are better off with an analogue interface that doesnt have so many bells and whistles like DSP and such but does the job well and doesn't damage your speakers whenever it's powering up. Pity, the sound quality is amazing and the build quality as well but that's kind of it when it comes to Windows users, nothing makes me want to buy this again

Especially after two consecutive issues and 2 months of my life without a functional audio interface..

[email protected]

I love that preamp and converter. It's sound very clear and warm. Antelope made a masterpiece.

Gute Features aber leider kein Ersatz für das Apollo

Hatte das frisch erschienene Zen Go als Ersatz für das UAD Apollo angedacht und Antelope macht sehr viel richtig und sogar besser als das Vorbild von UAD:

Die Plugin-Auswahl ist sinnvoll zusammengestellt, sowohl für Gitarren- als auch für Sprach- und Gesangsaufnahmen, die starken DSP-Cores bieten genug Performance für bis zu 32 Plugins gleichzeitig und die Steuersoftware versteht sich wunderbar mit der Treiberstruktur von Windows, sodass man jedes Kanalpaar inkl. der Loopbackkanäle als eigene Quelle auch außerhalb der DAW ansteuern kann.

Allen tollen Features zum Trotz hakt es leider genau dort, wo es am meisten drauf ankommt:

Der Mic-Preamp bringt bei dynamischen Mics eine eher unterdurchschnittliche Leistung, die Headphone-Amps kommen beim DT770 250Ohm hart an ihre Grenze und die Line-Outs verursachen eine unangenehme, deutlich hörbare Masseschleife in den aktiven Monitorboxen (alle 3 Kritikpunkte entfallen beim Apollo, wahrscheinlich weil keine Abstriche aufgrund der Stromversorgung gemacht werden mussten, da dieses über eine externe Stromversorgung verfügt).

A dummies guide to the Zen Go

Okay, so I'm the artist, NOT the engineer. I'm not *lazy* but I do play to my strengths which means I'm not usually the one pressing the buttons - basically because I don't really understand them lol. HOWEVER. I'm constantly on the move and where I've been super inspired lately, I needed something that fits in my bag, sounds great, and is easy enough for me to use myself. Boom. Zen Go. It's actually amazing.

Once you get past the initial setup (installing the drivers etc.) it's plug and play. I'm used to high-end studio hardware, but with this and the free plugins they give you, I pretty much have my chain with me wherever I go. I use it with an SM7B (which I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to turn up - techies don't come after me I told you this isn't my field) and it just sounds crisp all of a sudden, which means I can finally send great quality demos to my engineer.

Probably not the most eloquent review but I'm sure there's people like me who are wondering about this so my advice is get it, get it, get it.

Very good product

I use it for home recording of guitars an syths for a heavy rock band. Preamps and converters are amazing, warm where you need it, crystal clear where you need it. Almost no lattency, excelent control management (software and hardware). It made me think of a future upgrade in the same company.

Antelope Audio Zen Go Audio Interface

Очень доволен своим выбором в пользу Zen Go. Интерфейс действительно звучит хорошо, имеет низкие задержки. С Kemper Amp и в связке с Cubase отлично работает. Огромное также спасибо команде Antelope Audio за качественную и быструю поддержку. До этого использовал карты Roland Quad Capture и Focusrite Clarett 2pre и испытывал с ними проблемы. Однозначно Zen Go превосходит их вместе взятых как по качеству, так и по софту . Рекомендую получше присмотретьсяк данному интерфейсу!

Antelope Zen Go Synergy Core

This is a total beast. It has clear preamps and the FX that include in real time they actually are as they say. You can play with almost cero latency. That incredible. But there are some cons like output phone impedance works at 120 ohms. I thought that I could connect 600 ohms phones but te interface doesnt support that impedance.

Although its a great Interface.

not perfect GAMECHANGER

I'm using mine in home studio, to capture some demos and edit / mix in headphones.

Sound quality of converter and preamps is stunning. This is very professional sounding device on my desk, afordable with pocket money.

HP amp could be less resistive, cause at first touch bringing it up very high, with SRH 1440, huge differences in freq response can be heard. But regardless, first mix went very well, so it might not be a big problem.

DSP is still a mistery for me. EQs and COMPs sounds great, amp racks sounds ok, Reel to reel sounds... decent, at most. Whats the use of 16ch mixing capacity, when we can use plugins only on 4 channels? Lack of option of using DSP in DAW, so now we can only record with them, Luckly we can record a clean path as well.

Overall: worth the price. Besides all - sound, which is most important, does the hob very well. That's what makes me stay with Antelope for extended perioid of time. I hope Zen Go will earn for itself and for the next purchase, which will be Discrete or even Orion, but for shure - Antelope.

Amazing Product for the price

Best device I ever had for my home studio.

Pro's:

- Studio quality Pre-amps

Even a weak piezo pickup will sound big.

- Both Headphone outputs are top-notch (even at lower volume level)

Individual control is a bonus at this price.

- Synergy Core is very easy to learn and they are constantly improving it.

- Extra plugins are way cheaper as compared to UAD.

- Aura reVerb quality is superb

- Compatible with Apple M1 chips (software and hardware).

- Led Screen is a good add-on.

Con's:

- Default Plugins are good but very limited.

- Can't use plugins in DAW directly.

Very good audio interface

Small but surprising!

The audio quality is really great and the use of the interface is quite simple to use, you just have to take the time to read the manual which is very well explained.

I do not regret my choice, solid for the price

Could've been great

Handling: 2/5

1 volume control for 3 different outs is about as practical as you'd expect.

Features: 4/5

Ticks a lot of boxes, but really buggy software. If they fix it eventually it could be great.

Sound: 2/5

Line out sound quality is good, but ground loop noise is passed to the monitors. You can hear your mouse moving when connected to a pc. Headphone outs are underpowered and low quality.

Quality: 3/5

Solid construction, looks pretty. High quality usb cable included is a nice touch as well. But with all the other problems I mention, I can't give it more than 3 stars. Not filtering ground noise is ridiculous.

Overall: 2/5

This is advertised as a 4x8 interface, yet there's only 6 discretely routable outs. 8 of the 16 available asio out channels are not mapped to anything and can't be utilized in any way, indicating they probably cut an ADAT out at the last minute.

The advertised 65dB mic gain turned out to be around 46dB. I hope this was down to receiving a bad unit.

Software controls are clunky. The mixer needs around 30sec to load, sometimes more, on a top of the line computer. Many features are buggy and work only partially or not at all. FX randomly stop working without any indication. The internal server running the fx engine crashes often, launcher loses access to the interface, restarts required, it's all very unstable.

The interface I received was nowhere near ready for launch. Could've been great if they worked on it a little longer. As it stands, I can't recommend it to anyone.

This could become the ultimate audio interface...

Antelope Audio does so many things right with this device! If only they would add AFX2DAW support (+ more Synergy Core FX, as the library is quite limited), it could become the ultimate audio interface. Without AFX2DAW support, you can not use any of the FX within your DAW without complicated workarounds = not worth the hassle. Everything (!) else about this device is really cool and impressive for the price, but I'm afraid Universal Audio UAD is the better choice for most people until they fix this issue.