REPRODUCED FROM HI-FINEW S
m echanicalisolation.That’s the inside story: the outer im pres ion is of a producthiding itscom plexitybehind a sim ple and elegantexterior,and with a noticeable sense ofsolidity when you heftitfrom the packaging –itm ayonly be 34cm wide but it weighs a
FILTER FLIRTING
In com m on with the earlier AltairG 1,thisG 2.1 variant oferssom e user-selectable ‘sound tuning’in the form of fouralternative digitalfilters –Precise,Dynam ic,Balance and Sm ooth.Seven pre- program m ed filter algorithm sare baked into the
respectable 9.5kg. STRAIGHTTALKER
As I m entioned, I stuck with the ‘Sm ooth’digitalfilterforthe m ajorityof m y listening,and used the AltairG2.1 straightinto m y Naim NAP 250 power am p,aswel asconnecting itasa line source into the Naim Supernait3 in m y ‘other’system ,in both casesusing m y tried-and-tested Neat Acoustics and PMC loudpeakers for auditioning. Regardles of which set-up was em ployed, the Altair G2.1 proved a neutral and extrem ely clean source, presenting high levels ofdetailwhile neversounding m echanicalorartificial. Indeed,itdelivered excelentlevelsof m usical involvem ent acros a wide range of musical genres, again, regardles of the input that I used. W hether with stream s from online services, low-res Internet radio, or hi-res m usic served up from m y NAS, the experience ofusing the AltairG2.1 was generaly a case of‘m ove along, nothing to see here’:the com ponents into which you playitare going to have m uch m ore ofan efecton the sound than this unit.True,the perform ance wasvery slightly drierwhen com pared to m yreferenceNaim ND555[HFN Apr ’19],which delivers m ore body and a greater sense of presence and perform ers being placed before the listeners, but that’s hardly a criticism given the diference in price between the two. Above al, the Auralic Altair G2.1 ‘com m unicates’. Play a dem anding recording suchastherecentTrondheim
Symphony Orchestra set of Kleiberg concertos [2L 2L-166-SABD,DXD],and the sheerfocusofthe sound,and the naturalbalanceofthesolo instrum entagainsttherichweightof the orchestra isbreathtaking.As,Im ightadd,isthe sense of presence and space in the soundstage,and the speed and rhythm icdrive on ofer.The sam e goesforCharlie Haden,Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gism onti’s 1980 M agico album [ECM E1151].Here the AltairG2.1 realygetsitsteeth into the label’s typicaly gorgeousproduction,alowing the sax to soarabove the deep,superbly-resolved bas ,while the guitarand piano are also given ful icence to be heard to thriling efect.It’salso efortles ,as wel as being a richly rewarding listen,and the recordings don’thave to be state-of-the-artforthis playerto workitsm agic. For exam ple,‘Precise’[black]is a typicalhigh-order linear phase type with long pre/postringing and m oderate group delay but a flat and extended HF response with a steep cut-of and excelent rejection of aliasing im ages. Tim e dom ain perform ance is traded for excelent frequency dom ain perform ance in a filteridealysuited to lowersam ple rate m edia.‘Sm ooth’[green]ofersa contrastwith itsslightly earlybutgentle HF rol-of and pooraliasrejection,butm uch reduced ‘tim e dom ain’distortion.The benefitsofthistype of filterprogres ivelyoutweigh any‘negatives’athighersam ple rates,butletyourearsdecide!PM ESS DAC butitwil also ac ept custom versions,typicaly generated using M ATLAB and then downloaded asC code. Forthe AltairG2.1 the response is flatestwith al sam ple ratesvia the Dynam ic filter[see insetGraph].The respective tim e (im pulse)and frequency responses with 48kHz m edia (solid traces), 96kHz (doted) and 192kHz (dashed) are colour-coded here in black,red,orange and green.These are a m ix of linear phase (Precise, Dynam ic, Balance) and m inim um phase (Sm ooth) filters that trade response extension and stopband rejection (99dB,83dB,14dB and 18dB,respectively)forreduced group delayand pre-ringing.
26 MUSICATHOME+
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