AURALiC’s One Stop DAC Solution
AURALiC’s brand new ALTAIR streaming DAC comes at an opportune time for audiophiles.
The market is fairly buzzing with sales of turntables and ironically, DACS. But just as vinyl hits a new apogee, sales of CD and SACD players diminish by the second.
So where do models the calibre of the ALTAIR fit in? The answer is as close as your nearest online hi-res music provider and just as importantly the billions of CDs and SACDs still extant in collections worldwide.
The ALTAIR is nicely placed to do sterling work with both of these signal sources. What’s more the ALTAIR has the technology to work as a Home Music Centre thanks to its compliment of 15 input sources.
Streaming inputs include Network Shared Folder (for both NAS and computer), USB drive, Internal music storage (optional), uPnP/DNLA media server, TIDAL and Qobuz streaming, Internet Radio, Airplay, Bluetooth, Songcast and RoonReady.
Digital inputs are just as comprehensive and a choice is offered of AES/EBU, Coaxial, Toslink, USB to computer, 2 USB host for storage and external DAC, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11b/g/n/ac Tri-band Wi-Fi.
According to the company’s top hombre, Xuanqian Wang, it took more than three years to develop the ALTAIR that he says is based on the brand’s Vega DAC but has Lightning streaming functions added to make it a one-box solution for audiophiles.
The Lightning streaming platform is now more stable and powerful.
Lightning is AULRALiC’s award winning technology and is the industry’s first steaming technology to support DXD and Quad-Rate DSD playback through a Wi-Fi network.
Used in the ALTAIR, and to boost sound quality Lightning DS allows you to fetch and cache an entire track in the unit’s memory or system storage in advance. Or you can use the feature to stream TIDAL, Qobuz and tune in to Internet Radio. Apple device owners will also enjoy streaming music Apple Music, Soptify and others using ALTAIR’s AirPlay, Soncast and Bluetooth modes. The same streaming function is being developed for Windows. ALTAIR supports AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA and WV files.
Frequency response is a claimed 20-20KHz +/- 0.1dB while THD is said to be 0.001 percent, 20Hz-20KHz at 0sBFS.
The ALTAIR has a 512x64 pixel OLED display and buyers can opt to add an optional 2.5-inch HDD or SSD for internal music storage.
Price is $1899 and will be available soon.
AURALiC is distributed in Australia by Busisoft AV.
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
Posted in: Hi-Fi | Headphones
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