Antelope Zen Q Synergy Core USB Reviews

Sounds Great

This thing sounds just great. I've had one of those "pillow of my speakers" moments with it. Both monitor and headphones outputs sounds very pristine, deep and detailed (coming from Motu Ultralite mk3, which didn't sound bad at all). Software is not flawless, but nothing too critical. USB cable that's coming with it is better to be swapped for something more decent — somehow it couldn't transfer enough power which resulted in some hickups during recording. Overall I'm very happy, great bang for a buck. Oh and built-in DSP is something else too, in a good way!

Antelope Zen Q Synergy Core USB

One of the most impressive aspects of the Zen Q Synergy Core is its signal processing based on Antelope's Synergy Core technology. This technology utilizes on-board DSP processors and FPGAs to process audio signals with minimal latency and no loss of sound quality. As a result, the Zen Q Synergy Core delivers stunning performance and excellent sound quality even when overlaying complex audio effects or real-time signal processing. Another important advantage of the Zen Q Synergy Core is its high-quality analog and digital audio. With two Hi-Z-class microphone preamps and a wide range of analog and digital inputs and outputs, this interface provides maximum flexibility and functionality for music recording and production. Finally, it's worth noting that the Zen Q Synergy Core USB offers excellent value for money. Although it is a high-end audio interface, it is still available at a relatively affordable price, making it an attractive choice for many professional musicians and sound engineers. Overall, the Antelope Zen Q Synergy Core USB is an outstanding audio interface that offers high-end audio capabilities, advanced technology, and stylish design. It is ideal for recording, music production and sound design at the highest level of quality.

Antelope audio ZEN Q USB

A very high-quality and modern product!!!!

Excellent sound card

Excellent sound card, all the plugins that were promised were given to me for free! Convenient control of buttons and knob. There were problems with the DSP plugins, when you inserted a compressor or preamp, the microphone sound disappeared, but after contacting support, they advised me to downgrade the firmware, control panel and server and everything began to work as it should. Yes, there are questions about the software, but I think the company will fix it.

Excellent interface

Great sound quality and excellent plugins included.Perfect with Antelope emu mics.

The included software is a scam

Finally after years of looking at Antelope I bought an interface. The integrated processing and the plugins were a major selling point.

I should have listened to the Internet comments. Those integrated „plugins“ are a joke! They are really trying to make you believe that this pile of ones and zeros is worth anything. You are transported to the dark early 2000s with this. Very noticeable crackling noises when tweaking parameters, dull animations when turning knobs, the tape saturation is not even running. 😂 That’s all cosmetic but you can imagine what happens under the hood and where these plugins really come from. They come from nameless programmers without dedication probably in a cheap labour country.

How do companies like Waves and Softube finetune and research their products for good 20 years now and these Antelope guys pretend they can pull that off in a few years?

The aggressive marketing tells you what’s going on. I was browsing the plugins on their website and although I seemingly own all of them, they would send me emails whether I forget to purchase?!

This is cash grabbing.

The support adds to the experience.

different kind of world, changed to Zen Q from M-Audio 2x2 after years, best investment for the kind of money

Warum das Antelope Zen Q nicht hält, was es verspricht

Statt der versprochenen über 90 Plugins waren nur knapp 30 im Angebot. Möglicherweise hätte man dies mit dem Support klären können, jedoch sollte solch ein Problem idealerweise direkt funktionieren.

Das "Control Panel" ist unzureichend. Die Inputs werden als Channels bezeichnet, bei denen die Lautstärke angepasst werden kann. Die Inputs können dann auf Preamps geroutet werden. Das bedeutet, um "Channel 1" in einem "Preamp" zu hören, muss man "Preamp 1" auswählen. Die Existenz zweier Begrifflichkeiten erscheint hierbei unklar.

Die Gitarren-Plugins sind qualitativ mangelhaft und die Auswahl ist begrenzt, insbesondere bei den Stompboxen. Es gibt lediglich einen Bassamp, und die Möglichkeit, eigene Impulsantworten zu laden, fehlt.

Beim Laden von EQ oder Kompressor im Control Panel verschwand der Sound vollständig. Dies war der Punkt, an dem die Frustration nicht mehr akzeptabel war.

Der Kopfhörer-Ausgang ist mit meinen DT 770 Pro (250 Ohm) sehr leise.

Eigentlich nur ein physischer Button/Knopf der eigentlich nutzlos ist.

Es hätte so schön sein können, mit den beiden Inputs vorne am Interface, SPDIF ohne die Notwendigkeit eines ADAT>SPDIF-Adapters, Bus-Powered-Funktion und den Plugins. Dennoch bleibe ich bei meinem fünf Jahre alten Audient iD14.

Sounds great

Very nice interface. Converters and preamps are great for this price range.

Latency is very low. Plugins sounds great. Some minor software issues but not critical.

Good but not the best

The hardware itself is good and nice design with a great built. But on the other side, the software is quite buggy and unstable which every single day have a different kind of problem come up.

I recommend you to visit the Antelope user community before considering about making any purchase.