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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?
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Showing 1 response by karmanfamily

karmanfamily's avatar
karmanfamily
9 posts
 
I have tested both setups side by side:
Aries (the fancier one) with a Vega and an Altair.

Let me put it this way, I kept the Altair.
Selling the Aries and Vega and buying the Altair left me enough $ to take a vacation...

Sound quality?
In my ears the same, maybe a little detail gets lost. NOT $3,100 worth of difference...

Of course Auralic can't say that the Altair practically sounds the same as the Aries/Vega combo.

For 99% of the people that have a decent setup it will sound close enough to use an Altair over the Aries/Vega combo. (self conducted survey with 1 person asked the question...)
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