AURALIC ALTAIR G1.1 DIGITAL AUDIO STREAMER

I’ve been using the ARIES G1 streamer from AURALIC in our upstairs system for a few (four to be precise) years now and it’s stayed there for the simple reason that it is simple to use and sounds great into our LAB 12 DAC. The ALTAIR series differs somewhat from the ARIES series in that they are designed to be a “one-box-solution” for all your digital audio needs…in short, that means that they are a streamer and a DAC in one box and have analogue outs, meaning that all you need for a full system is an amp and speakers, or for a more streamlined solution, a pair of powered loudspeakers. It is the latter ALTAIR we have for review here and in its latest G1.1 iteration that was announced during the Summer of 2023.

BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE AURALIC ALTAIR G1.1

Broadly speaking and as outlined in my little preamble above, the ALTAIR G1.1 from AURALIC is a DAC, a preamplifier, server, and wireless streamer all in one nicely put-together and pleasing form-factor unit. This is just the kind of product that I keep banging on about being the future of large-market quality audio for the home; a product that does away with the need for a million and one boxes, is easy to set up, has great compatibility with a wide range of streaming services, and, importantly for me, acts as a ROON endpoint (you will need to install ROON core elsewhere and I have it on a micro PC that is permanently attached to our home network).

Hook the ALTAIR G1.1, as mentioned, to a NAS, external hard drive (there is an option to add an internal hard drive should you wish), or to the streaming service of your choice and a pair of powered speakers via the RCA or XLR analogue outputs and you have a streamlined and unobtrusive system with which to enjoy your music. Of course, and as mentioned, you can use it in a more traditional way and connect it to the separate amplifier and speakers of your choice. If you want to add other sources you can utilise the AURALIC’s onboard DAC via its COAX, TOSLINK, or AES/EBU inputs. Another useful feature of the AURALIC is the ability to add a USB CD drive that allows you to play CDs like a regular old CD player, or (cleverly) you can play the CD and rip it to

Reviewed by Stuart Smith

your hard-drive, NAS, or onboard drive (if included) - or you can just rip the CD without listening to it. This latter point I find a really cool thing to have on the AURALIC as it adds a great deal of flexibility as to how you interact with your music. When playing or ripping CDs the CD goes through the units “jitter-reducing” Memory Playback tech which means that the CD is read, checked for accuracy in the cache and then played. Very cool stuff and when this feature came to our AURALIC unit I found it to be a very useful feature, essentially meaning I didn’t have to have yet another box by way of a separate CD player.

So, I mentioned that the ALTAIR G1.1 is a ROON endpoint, but AURALIC has their own LIGHTNING STREAMING platform that will integrate natively to all the usual suspects like QOBUZ, AMAZON MUSIC, TIDAL, SPOTIFY etc. It’ll also let you stream via Bluetooth or AirPlay2. However, and this is a small bugbear of mine with regards to the LIGHTNING DS, it is only compatible with iOS devices, and when we bought our AURALIC unit I also bought an iPAD to go with it. If you don’t have an iOS device then you can use the LIGHTNING DS from any web browser, but this only allows for setting up of the device. However, you can use the likes of BubbleUPnP (my preferred app when needs must) or other OpenHome-compatible software.

Network connection is via Gigabit Ethernet or Wireless 802.1b/g/n/ac Tri-Band WiFi and despite the Auralic unit being upstairs and well away from our wireless router, I can honestly say that I never had issues with dropouts or any other artifacts coming into play...not one! I think this is important and I have experience of having kit that gets upset when we use Bluetooth in the house or just drops out for no reason.

Naturally, and it sort of goes without saying, the AURALIC will deal with all the usual suspect lossless file formats including AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WV, as well as the lossy AAC, MP3, and WMA file formats. Sampling rates are from 44.1 to 384kHZ in 32 Bit for PCM, and up to DSD512. That pretty much covers all bases!

You get onboard filters that you can play with to tweak the sound to your own liking or depending on what music you are listening to. Personally, and as with other products that have filters, I tend to find the one that I like and stick with it for all playback. I fyou like to mess about and faff then you will likely use this feature more than I.

For those that like to, or have to listen to music on headphones from time to time, the ALTAIR G1.1 has an onboard headphone amplifier that connects via a properly sized (quarter inch) jack to the left of the front panel. The headphone amp on the newer G1.1 model is said to be more powerful than on previous models. It works perfectly fine, I had no issues with it powering all the cans I used with it and it sounds more than acceptable.

Other improvements on the latest G1.1 models from AURALIC include the high-mass base that comes from the G2.2 series of products and takes the form of a satin silver base plate that is said to “provide extra vibration damping”, and finally it has an “improved Femto clock that is said to “improve the precision of the onboard DAC”.

One of the features I’ve always enjoyed on the AURALIC products is the display and here we have a 4” true colour “in-plane switching display” with 300ppi resolution. It’s not as big as, for example, the HiFi Rose’s display, but it is adequate and it is easy to see cover art from a distance. For setup via this screen you do need to be pretty close to it, but then if you are setting up using this method rather than the LIGHTNING Server app, then you will have to be close to it to select the parameters using the large silver knob positioned to the right of the front panel. Personally, I found this method preferable for some reason and felt that the amount of menu-diving was pretty minimal and the menu structure pretty obvious.

There isn’t a remote in the box but you can map it to any remote you fancy and it will control all the basic functions of the G1.1. Not having a remote is neither here nor there for me given that I’ll be using, as pretty much everyone will, a tablet.

Aesthetically, the new ALTAIR G1.1 is a good-looking unit that takes up not a massive amount of space (it’s 34cm x 32cm x 8cm WDH) and will look great whether on a rack or on a more conventional bit of furniture.

For me, that’s about as deep as I think we need to go into the features and specs of the AURALIC, but for those that want to delve a bit deeper then there is more information on the company’s website.