REPRODUCED FROM HI-FINEW S
foryourm usic colection as wel as the usual abilty to stream from networkconnected storage.And,as icing on the cake, there’s the com pany’s Leo G X.1, an £8799 m asterclock forthe whole system , which wil take controlofthe digital reference for a num ber of Auralic units. In practice,a‘solo’VegaG 2.1isa very com prehensive ofering in its own right, so if you’re purely com m ited to networkstream ing,be it from local storage or online services, then it wil m ore than sufice.M oreover,working with the com pany’ssuper-slickapp,and with the bonusofitsown suite ofdigital (and analogue)inputs,itwiloperate as a hub/ pream p straight into a power am p or active speakers,or into a pream plifier. EARNING ITSKEEP If,however,you also have legacy digitalsources to connectinto the system ,orwantto take advantage of al that equalisation or room
corection,thentheSirius G 2.1 wil startearning its keep, though it should be noted that the addition ofthe upscaler wil have no efect on your network-streamed music. Yes, there’s an Ethernet port on the backofthe Sirius2.1,but it’s only there for firmware updates and notstream ing duties,so the prosaic description is that the upscaler works as a digital switching hub:connecting itto the Vega G2.1 via the Lightning Link disables the streamer/DAC’s conventional electrical and opticaldigitalinputs. Both units are substantialy built, with the now-fam ilar‘copper chasis within an alum inium outer casing’ construction of al the
l ABOVE: Both the Sirius upsam pler [top] and Vega G2.1 [botom ]have 4in TFT displays thatare synchronised when Auralic’sL-Link isused.Info includesinputchannel,volum e, sam ple rate,playback statusand conf iguration setings latestAuralicm odels.The Vega sticks with the com pany’s tried-and-tested platform seen in the Aries G2.1 and AltairG 2.1,with an Auralic-m odified ESS Sabre DAC combined with its proprietary Orfeo analogue stage, including pas ive volum e, and that line input. W ith so m uch capabilty here,Iconfes thatittookm e awhile to workouthow to setitalup,and m ake valid com parisonsbetween the Vega G2.1 alone, and the streamer/DAC with upscaling proces oradded. Iended up switching between m y M acBook Air connected direct via USB to the Vega G2.1,and then via the Sirius G2.1,and doing the sam e with the digitaloutputofm y Naim network player.AseverIplayed with the digital filters of the Sirius [see PM ’s Lab Report], cam e to no conclusive findings,so then ignored them ,sticking to the ‘sm ooth’option foral m y listening.O fm ore interest
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