Auralic Altair DAC/Streamer

[ddps]

I received mine this week and it sounds marvelous and works well. I am using it with a Synology NAS, and DS Audio and Audio Station work well with it. However, you have to use the Lightning DS app to disable AirPlay so that you can stream native files at their native bitrates (AirPlay as a standard always downsamples to 44kHz ALAC).

 

You don't need to use Lightning DS app at all if you have a Synology NAS. DS Audio or Audio Station do everything that Lightning DS does other than displaying the bitrate within the app.

 

The only thing I don't like is that you don't see the bitrate (instead, you see the track playback time) on the Altair's main display if you are using uPnP/DLNA streaming - however you do see 44kHz on the display if you are using AirPlay. This is not configurable, and I have asked Auralic to make it so, but they seem resistant for some reason. Let's hope they can provide this. I think they assume that if you care about bitrate you will use Lightning DS, but Lightning DS and every player app I know display the track time anyway. So allowing the bitrate to display seems like a good thing to do, to provide that visual feedback that you are listening to the file at the native rate you expect, with no mysteries.

 

I still prefer DS Audio over Lightning DS because of its support for lyrics as well as a couple of proprietary Synology playlists that don't translate over DLNA - "Recently Added" and "Random 100." Plus, I have smart playlists based upon ratings, and I can't apply ratings to have those update via Lightning DS.

 

However, all my other Synology playlists - both standard and smart - appear in the "folder" based browsing on Lightning DS, as they do on all DLNA devices.

 

Frankly, I wish that more companies would focus on the hardware and integration with standards (i.e., DLNA) rather than on software like Lightning DS, which provides little actual value given all the other software that is out there. Maybe limit Lightning DS to configuring the device's features, but leave the streaming and playlist management to other software.

 

Overall, a great piece of equipment that does everything I want in a DLNA renderer. Much better sounding than the Teac NT-503 I tried earlier this year, which I think tried too hard with its multiple DACs and power supplies, providing imprecise and muddied sound.

 

Drew

 

P.S.: Oh - I use a wired (Ethernet) rather than wireless connection for my Altair. The Lightning DS software throws up like 10 dialog boxes assuming you are connecting via wireless, and waits until late in the configuration process to ask you if you are using a wired connection. Trudge through it with common sense, and it all works, but be warned that it's a little annoying for those of us who prefer wires for devices like this, which I really really do .

[ddps]

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[ddps]

How does this streamer differ from the Lumin streamers? If I were to buy an all in streamer the cheapest Lumin would be my first choice.

 

Seem pretty similar, but the Altair has promised support for MQA, as well as some other software-based enhancements like room correction. The Altair uses ESS SABRE DACs (and exposes their nice filters, which I like to have access to), whereas the Lumins use Wolfsons, if that matters to you. Altair has support for DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 as well.

 

The Altair also comes with a nice remote control, FWIW.

[ddps]

I realize tonight that I said bitrate when I meant "sampling rate." Apologies for any confusion that may have caused.

[ddps]

Great info overall, thanks.

 

Interested in how you felt about the N-0503...Would you say the Altair is worth twice the price? Functionality, was the Teac on par (what interface did you use)? Did both do gapless DSD streaming over ethernet?

 

In that I could not tolerate the muddy sound of the Teac, I would say, yes, it's worth twice the price. The Teac's case and switches were very luxe, but the overall execution was, IMO, more gimmicky than good sounding. I do believe that it's probably difficult to use one DAC per channel (as the TEAC does) and get the timing synchronization to be perfect between the two chips. I don't really understand the point of doing that, given that most modern DACs can decode 7 channels of parallel sound at a time on one chip.

 

If you want to know how I notice the difference, well, one nice DSD track I have is from SA-CD.net - Carpenters: The Singles 1969-1981 - "We've Only Just Begun." When Karen sings "...to live" in the very opening line of the song, I always enjoy the way her voice breaks up a little - the emotion is just perfect. On the NT-503, I could barely hear that - it was pretty much "smoothed out," and the only thing I can attribute that to is the left and right channels kind of being out of sync with one another, diminishing the sound through an interference effect.

 

One other strange thing about the Teac was that, when I used my Synology to push many high resolution FLACs from HDTracks to the unit, the sound got all broken up after 30 seconds or so of playing. Teac support could not reproduce that issue. There is no such issue with the Altair.

 

I used an ethernet connection to the Teac as well (that is a big preference of mine - always willing to pay for that whenever possible).

 

I do like that the Teac shows the sample rate and format on the display. Altair should be ashamed that they don't do that. But that is about the only advantage of the Teac.

 

The Teac did not do gapless DSD streaming. I haven't tried that aspect of the Altair yet; I believe it is supposed to do that when using Lightning DS. I can say, however, that whether using Lightning DS or Synology's DS Audio, the track-to-track switching speed is impressive. The Teac was unbearably slow to switch between tracks.

[ddps]

I'm curious as to why you guys prefer to have the sampling rate of the track on the display when all of that information is in the track view on the Lightning DS app, which imo is much more convenient?

 

I thought I made it clear that I don't want to use Lightning DS, as it doesn't support many features of the Synology DS Audio app that are key for me. Also, it's cumbersome to have to keep updating the cache of another app when I don't need to do that with DS Audio.

 

Drew

[ddps]

@ddps, have you had a chance to try gapless DSD streaming yet? Now that you've had the Altair a couple weeks, are there additional comments on the performance/sound!

 

Thanks!!!

 

Yes, it does gapless DSD streaming, at least with Lightning DS. I still prefer my Synology DS Audio app, even though it doesn't support gapless, and I still hope Auralic can add sampling rate to the display as an option in lieu of time.

 

Sound is great. For my setup I have been enjoying the "Balanced" filter mode the best. I am using it in a very "live" room with a lot of glass and wood surfaces, however, so YMMV, but that's why we buy configurable products, isn't it

 

I have been enjoying music immensely and not thinking too much about the unit itself, which to me means the purchase has been a success!

[ddps]

Case in point, I'd be very careful, if I were you, using the Synology Audio Station Music Player (with or without its DS Audio remote control app), to stream with the Altair in uPnP Renderer operation mode (why do Auralic use lower case 'u' for UPnP - so amateur!!). Especially, as you've indicated, the Altair doesn't display the sample rate/bit depth of the audio file it is UPnP streaming, let alone display the audio file type.

 

This is because the Audio Station can be set to transcode (convert on the fly, while UPnP network file streaming) certain audio file types, including FLAC, ALAC & AIFF, to either WAV or (more seriously) MP3. Also, even with the transcoder in the WAV output setting, it can only handle 16-bit files; if the bit depth is higher they will be downsampled. So you need to make sure the transcoder has not been set in the Synology NAS!

 

That is true - I already have that set. The Teac I was using previously showed this, so I know it is working properly, including for .DSF (DSD) files.

 

Drew

[ddps]

Since there are clearly a lot of opinions on this forum about using Lightning DS, I thought I should share a few extra tidbits about the drawbacks from my perspective.

 

First off, when I made the switch to using a NAS for my music, I did it to achieve several benefits:

 

1. I wanted to move away from iTunes and the confusing, unreliable mess it had become.
   
2. I wanted to ensure that when I got new music, which I do 2-3 times per week at a minimum, I could put it in one single place without having to "sync" the multiple devices I would play that music from.
   
3. Additionally, I wanted metadata updates to that music (tweaks to years, song titles, etc.) to be made once, and appear everywhere, without additional work.
   
4. I wanted to move to having the option of either compressed or lossless music wherever I was (I have a large CD collection dating back to 1983, as well as HD audio from more recent years; 93% of my music collection is CD quality or better).
   
5. I wanted to be able to create curated playlists and smart playlists that were accessible by anyone using the NAS, so that even playlists were centralized.
   
6. The net result is, anybody in my household can listen to the NAS wherever they are in the world, at any time, losslessly if they would like, and they all get up-to-date metadata and the latest music, without me doing a huge amount of work to make that happen.
   

So, now adding Lightning DS into the mix - which, thankfully, I am not forced to use - creates the following issues:

 

1. In Lightning Server mode, which is when Lightning DS is at its most reliable, it's not automatically synced to my music. I have to refresh/rescan my music every time I make an addition to the collection or update metadata (which is fairly often, because music is a huge hobby for me.)
   
2. Lightning DS does not ingest the .m3u playlists that sit on my Synology, so I have to read them using Lightning DS' media server browsing mode (they are in a folder), wait for the tracks to load (which takes a long time), hit "Add to playlist", and finally create a new playlist, which luckily remains available when I am in Lightning Server mode, but which retrieves the tracks a little slowly. Of course, if I update the playlist on the Synology, I have to take action once again on the Lightning Server app.
   
3. I cannot manage and edit playlists in Lightning DS while I am listening in a way where they feed back so that they are available to everyone using the Synology.
   
4. Oh, and while I am at it, where is the option to shuffle playback of my entire music collection?
   

Basically, having a separate app (Lightning DS) removes the centralization of metadata and music management that is so delightful about digital music servers today: where your music and playlists are available across browsers and mobile apps in identical form, wherever you and your family are, all up-to-date and as perfect as it can be, every day, with minimal effort.

 

If Auralic were to do what other competing players do - and display the sampling rate on the screen of the unit the way that we know that it can (because it does so in AirPlay mode as well as when it's in pure DAC mode), then this would help users verify that the device was indeed playing an unadulterated file that didn't get transcoded somehow, and also help us all know, at a glance, what kind of file we were listening to without a lot of work.

 

An alternative would be to have Lightning DS show the operational status of the Altair when it was being used as a DLNA renderer (which Teac's app did, FWIW). The current Lightning DS displays no playback status when the Altair is a DLNA renderer. Sad.

 

One note after my first few weeks: I have found that, unlike the Teac and other units I was using prior to the Altair, the current Altair firmware disconnects occasionally when music is being pushed to the device via DLNA/DS Audio/Audio Station (that is, when the Altair is being used as a DLNA renderer). This is sad and almost feels like they are trying to surreptitiously push people to using Lightning DS. Let's hope not. I wrote Auralic support with this and hope they can fix this soon.

[ddps]

I do not know if this will help you...but I am using BubbleDS Next as a control point on Android instead of LigthningDS (which I only use for updates, settings and setup). Not only do I think it sounds better than LightningDS (atleast with Tidal as source)...but it also displays the sampling rate. You should give it a try if you have an Android device laying around. It is free to try (15 songs playlist limit I think it was) and cheap to buy.

 

My preference is to use the Synology software that includes all my playlists that I can access from anywhere, and that allows me to edit metadata as I listen. I covered this in detail in an earlier post.

[ddps]

I noticed the subtle lower bass output as well. I changed to Smooth mode and it calmed the highs just a tad (a good thing).

Have been leaving the unit on continuously to see if there is any improvement with burn in. Will continue to listen as and report.

 

I have not noticed any bass insufficiency fwiw.

[ddps]

Review from Positive Feedback:

Auralic Altair

[ddps]

3 hours ago, pvanosta said:

In the meantime, I decided to do a little experiment. I set the scheduled rescan to 'On', set the time to 01.00 am and added a few files to the library.

This morning I launched the app on my Ipad and sure enough, after a quick 'album art refresh' pause, the new uplooads showed up.

 

Excellent! No more manual rescans of the library during the day...

 

Yes, this is because the Altair itself is what is doing the rescan, and the iPad app is just displaying the Altair's database in more or less real time. Your iPad could be away or turned off, and the rescan would still happen.