Some of you from GS may have been following the rather extensive ordeal I've had over the past year with my Antelope Audio Goliath and Goliath HD units. Currently, I'm on my 5th unit, and 2nd Goliath HD unit. I had previously had 3 non-HD Goliath units here that were returned. Antelope were very good about issuing RMA's.
I decided to start this thread to let people know the current status, what's working well, and what's still outstanding. I also wanted to document the issues with previous units that were either resolved, or RMA'd before a resolution could be found.
CURRENT STATUS:
Currently I have a Goliath HD, the 2nd unit I've had here now. There are still outstanding issues with the AES/EBU connection. It seems to me that the internal firmware is not correctly detecting when there is signal present on the AES/EBU OUTPUT ports. The result is that in order to get your device to "engage" with the Goliath HD, you need to physically unplug and plug back in the AES/EBU connections. I've tested this with external hardware (Bricasti M7), as well as a round trip AES loop in the Goliath. Tested with Cubase 9/9.5 and Logic Pro X.
It appears to be just AES/EBU coming out of the Goliath that is the issue. Incoming AES/EBU appears to have no issues. I've got a keyboard coming in via AES/EBU, and does not have these problems. I suspect that is why Antelope has been seemingly confounded by this issue, as there's probably not a lot of people using the AES/EBU outs, or at least using both in a loop for external hardware. Either that, or it's just a lack of thorough testing on their part, or both.
Below is a quick video I made for the Antelope techs showing the problem. Note the lack of meter activity on the Bricasti FX channel, until the unit is unplugged and plugged back in. (This is not a Bricasti issue, as it doesn't happen when connected via AES/EBU to my RME MADIface XT).
As of Dec. 25, 2017 this video and description of the problem I am told has been forwarded to one of their main engineers.
OLDER ISSUES:
The first unit I had was having issues with AES/EBU not functioning correctly. I contacted Antelope in January 2017.
The original unit was remote tested and RMA'd by Antelope. The 2nd unit that was sent was unfortunately not working correctly at all and had to be sent back. It was dropping communication continually (computer, wordclock signal, USB, etc.)
I lived with the original unit (several golden boots seemed to make things better) for a time before eventually getting another RMA on it.
After one of the firmware updates (March, 2017), the unit ceased to be able to power down on its own, and required a manual shutdown from the back of the unit. The screensaver and dimmer control also didn't work.
I reported this issue on March 27. According to my notes, it was fixed on or around June 24th. So 3 months later. However, in the same firmware update that resolved the screen issue, my AES/EBU ports were now D.O.A. After some back and forth, it kind of worked, but ultimately was RMA'd again for another unit in July.
3RD UNIT:
I received a 3rd standard Goliath unit in July. Unfortunately upon testing, things were not a lot better with AES/EBU.
From my notes at the time:
Other strange things are also happening that I didn't document with photos, such as channel 1-2 loop test getting no signal back. Same with 5-6, or meters 3-4, 5-6 showing when 1-2 and 5-6 are looped, etc. Meters also "sticking" halfway when channels are disconnected, instead of dropping to zero.
At this point, I'm just not sure what to make of it. I've reinstalled the most recent firmware, and did a factory reset again. Strange things happening testing with 4 different AES/EBU snakes, either brand new or close to new.
At this point, I decide to cut my losses and instead of getting another Goliath, I'd bump up to the new Goliath HD, in hopes that things would somehow be better. Either an incredibly brave move, or incredibly stupid...
4TH UNIT:
The 4th unit was still giving me grief with the AES/EBU connections. Intermittent, metering anomolies, etc. On this unit, in an attempt to secure the DB25 end as tight as possible, I ended up snapping off one of the two cable connection pins on the Goliath unit.
At this point I decided to bump things up to the HD unit, and see if things were going to work better for me. After some back and forth, Antelope and my dealer were good about facilitating a return on this unit, and sending out an HD unit.
I decided to start this thread to let people know the current status, what's working well, and what's still outstanding. I also wanted to document the issues with previous units that were either resolved, or RMA'd before a resolution could be found.
CURRENT STATUS:
Currently I have a Goliath HD, the 2nd unit I've had here now. There are still outstanding issues with the AES/EBU connection. It seems to me that the internal firmware is not correctly detecting when there is signal present on the AES/EBU OUTPUT ports. The result is that in order to get your device to "engage" with the Goliath HD, you need to physically unplug and plug back in the AES/EBU connections. I've tested this with external hardware (Bricasti M7), as well as a round trip AES loop in the Goliath. Tested with Cubase 9/9.5 and Logic Pro X.
It appears to be just AES/EBU coming out of the Goliath that is the issue. Incoming AES/EBU appears to have no issues. I've got a keyboard coming in via AES/EBU, and does not have these problems. I suspect that is why Antelope has been seemingly confounded by this issue, as there's probably not a lot of people using the AES/EBU outs, or at least using both in a loop for external hardware. Either that, or it's just a lack of thorough testing on their part, or both.
Below is a quick video I made for the Antelope techs showing the problem. Note the lack of meter activity on the Bricasti FX channel, until the unit is unplugged and plugged back in. (This is not a Bricasti issue, as it doesn't happen when connected via AES/EBU to my RME MADIface XT).
As of Dec. 25, 2017 this video and description of the problem I am told has been forwarded to one of their main engineers.
OLDER ISSUES:
The first unit I had was having issues with AES/EBU not functioning correctly. I contacted Antelope in January 2017.
The original unit was remote tested and RMA'd by Antelope. The 2nd unit that was sent was unfortunately not working correctly at all and had to be sent back. It was dropping communication continually (computer, wordclock signal, USB, etc.)
I lived with the original unit (several golden boots seemed to make things better) for a time before eventually getting another RMA on it.
After one of the firmware updates (March, 2017), the unit ceased to be able to power down on its own, and required a manual shutdown from the back of the unit. The screensaver and dimmer control also didn't work.
I reported this issue on March 27. According to my notes, it was fixed on or around June 24th. So 3 months later. However, in the same firmware update that resolved the screen issue, my AES/EBU ports were now D.O.A. After some back and forth, it kind of worked, but ultimately was RMA'd again for another unit in July.
3RD UNIT:
I received a 3rd standard Goliath unit in July. Unfortunately upon testing, things were not a lot better with AES/EBU.
From my notes at the time:
Other strange things are also happening that I didn't document with photos, such as channel 1-2 loop test getting no signal back. Same with 5-6, or meters 3-4, 5-6 showing when 1-2 and 5-6 are looped, etc. Meters also "sticking" halfway when channels are disconnected, instead of dropping to zero.
At this point, I'm just not sure what to make of it. I've reinstalled the most recent firmware, and did a factory reset again. Strange things happening testing with 4 different AES/EBU snakes, either brand new or close to new.
At this point, I decide to cut my losses and instead of getting another Goliath, I'd bump up to the new Goliath HD, in hopes that things would somehow be better. Either an incredibly brave move, or incredibly stupid...
4TH UNIT:
The 4th unit was still giving me grief with the AES/EBU connections. Intermittent, metering anomolies, etc. On this unit, in an attempt to secure the DB25 end as tight as possible, I ended up snapping off one of the two cable connection pins on the Goliath unit.
At this point I decided to bump things up to the HD unit, and see if things were going to work better for me. After some back and forth, Antelope and my dealer were good about facilitating a return on this unit, and sending out an HD unit.
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