Auralic Altair DAC/Streamer

[newworld]

Didn't know there was another Altair thread going on. I started one under the category "streaming". Here's the mini-review.

 

1. LightningDS: Clean and easy-to-use interface. It literally fits right into my hands. I love how you can start playing music from any track and the album automatically loads into the cue. When you move onto another album it clears automatically. It just suits my listening habits. Also, I don't need Roon. It was not a life-changing experience for me when demoed nor was I crazy about building (or buying) a server on top of the cost for its lifetime subscription.

2. Less boxes: I went from Bluesound to Bluesound+DAC to SOtM+DAC. Then read here about getting a linear power supply and USB regenerator and linear power supply for the USB regenerator and linear power supply for the linear power supply... You get the point. It was endless. Less boxes also means less cables. Less variables.

3. Sound quality: I can't recall any DAC sounding bad in my system. Some matched well, some didn't. The Altair matched my system perfectly. Compared to the Aries+Vega just for fun. There are too many variables to take the comparison seriously. All I can say is that I'm not getting a surprise degradation in performance the longer I listen. It was great out of the box. It's even better now.

 

More observations

4. Wireless sounds better than wired: I don't know why or how, but wireless just sings a different tune. When wired, I hear the same kind of cleanliness/etch with less bass and more flatness with the SOtM I had. I guess I like it dirty.

5. Tidal sounds inconsistent: Not related to Auralic, but some files from Tidal sound different compared to my ripped files. Just trying it out for a month, but so far not impressed.

6. Zero issues - No issues setting up and remaining consistent wirelessly. I've read some reviews about Auralic products and their idiosyncracies when setting up. I've had more issues with other products than this one.