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Thoughts on the Auralic Altair?

Digital Audio Review and 6 Moons both recently did previews of the forthcoming Altair, which is intended to be a 1-box streamer + dac solution. The posted msrp of $1895 is about 63% lower than the cost of a Vega + Aries setup. Both previews said the Altair will essentially be a scaled-down Vega with the Femto-Clock version of the Aries.

In terms of marketing, it appears textbook, provided it can deliver around 80% of the sound quality of the separates. (I’m essentially taking the 40% cost of the Altair relative to the separates and doubling it).

I’ve heard the Vega is particularly sensitive to static discharge. If that’s been addressed in the Altair I would certainly consider picking one up.

What do others think?
courant
almaaudio's avatar
almaaudio
14 posts
 
We just got our demo Altair for the store, and it's still breaking in. So, far I like it. Build quality is very good, Vega level. 
The 4 filter options are great, and change the sound significantly, which can help in some systems...
Just the other day they did a firmware update, and Roon is working flawlessly now.

cheers,
alex

1extreme's avatar
1extreme
161 posts
 
Can you confirm that to configure Altair the user must use Lighting DS which is only compatible with an Apple IOS device. Or is there some other option for non-Apple users.

Also, how do you think the Altair will compare to the "coming latter this year" Oppo Sonica DAC product?
1extreme's avatar
1extreme
161 posts
 
No one?
dbtom2
382 posts
 
There's a review on Positive Feedback:

http://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/auralic-altair/

@

1extreme's avatar
1extreme
161 posts
 
Thanks for that link. It did answer my main question about whether one needs an IOS device for Lighting DS to setup and config Altair.
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