Auralic Altair DAC/Streamer

[Enrok]

How much improvment do you get with altair compared to an auralic aries mini runing with an external DAC (Atoll HD 100)?

The question more precisely is would you improve the system by keeping the mini and changing the DAC or upgrading to the altair?

[Enrok]

Just now, Enrok said:

 

 

[Enrok]

45 minutes ago, pvanosta said:

I think the answer is 'it depends'. How much money do you plan on spending on the new dac? The Altair dac is not quite at the level of the $2600 Vega but it gets pretty darn close. Unless you plan on spending the price of the Altair on the standalone DAC, you might not get a noticeable improvement difference over the Altair, while the Altair offers a one-box solution. Also: How big is your library?(I had to move from Mini to Altair because the mini could not handle my library size (>200,000 tracks). Your mileage may vary, as always.

I don't have a library. For the moment it is only for streaming tidal or Qobuz