REPRODUCED FROM HI-FINEW S
HI-FINEW SVERDICT Describe the Altair G2.1 as a technical tour-de-force, and one m ight seem to have falen foral Auralic’sproprietary technology,or to dam n it with faint praise. Far from it: this excelentdigitalfront-end com bineseaseofuse and flexibilty,and then layers on a crisp,clean and gutsy sound as adept at crashing out
boogie asitissum m oning up althe atm osphere of a clas icalconcerto orintim ate jaz trio.
LAB REPORT
AURALICALTAIRG2.1 This generational uplift from Auralic’s G1 platform sees im provem ents in proces ing speed, functionality,file form athandling and technicalperform ance.The lateristhe focusofthisreportwhere the Altair G2.1 clocks-up a very high 4.9V output from a rem arkably low 200-300m ohm source im pedance.Notonlywilthisdrive anyinterconnect/am plifiercom bination but,with asuitable adapter, would also serve as a very efective secondary headphone am plifier.This is a function ofAuralic’s self-titled ‘O rfeo’outputstage which,tag-team ed with ESS’stried-and-tested 9038 DACs,m aintainsa fabulously low 0.00003-0.0003% distortion (20Hz-20kHz)overthe top 15dB ofitsdynam ic range [see Graph 1,below].Although Auralicspecifiesitsown m asterclocksforthe AltairG2.1,the jiterrejection perform ance ofthese ESS DACs is already wel proven.Here,digitaljiteris vanishingly low,with a corelated figureof<15psecacros alsam pleratesand inputs.Thelackofanyuncorelated,noise-like, jiteris reflected in the sharpnes ofthe centralJ-testsignal[see Graph 2,below]and this typicaly bodesverywelindeed forthe stabiltyand focusofstereo im ages. In sim ilarvein,the S/N isa verywide 117dB (A-wtd,re.0dBV)and resolution good to ±0.02dB overa 100dB dynam ic range and ±0.2dB overa ful 110dB dynam ic range,suggesting an efective 20-bit resolution forthe AltairG2.1.O nce again both digitaland analogue engineering isatplay here,the lateralso as isting in the super-wide 135dB m idrange channelseparation,faling to a stil-im pres ive 105dB at20kHz.The channelbalance isgood to ±0.03dB,asexpected with Auralic’sprecision ladder volum e control.From whateverangle you choose to view,the AltairG2.1 hasno obviousblind spots. PM
ABO VE:Distortion vs.USB 24-bitdigitalsignallevel overa120dB range at1kHz(black)and 20kHz(blue)
ABO VE:High res.jiterspectrum viaS/PDIF and USB (black,48kHz/24-bitwith m arkers;red,96kHz/24-bit)
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