So I was initially sceptical about sources being a significant piece to the puzzle. My first source being a laptop then moving to a node 2i I honestly saw this as a benefit to convenience more so than an improvement sonically.
Recently got an Auralic Aries G1 and with my current chain I really found this to be a tremendously worthwhile piece. It wasn’t subtle but I do find it hard to put into words beyond saying the background got blacker.
I didn’t notice an improvement in sound stage or dynamics or a host of other things but detail retrieval/noise reduction are very much improved. I may go back to a laptop eventually to compare it and evaluate further but for now I’m just enjoying it.
The App is great but is iOS only. In my case it works seamlessly with tidal and an external hard drive. If you add a favourite track or album etc in the app it also makes those changes in tidal. I appreciate small things like that as well as seeing the album art on the display screen and gapless playback.
Thank you so much for your impressions.
My setup has very little direction to go, but if I were to upgrade anything in the future, it will be a transport and/or switching from monoblocks to an integrated.
So you unintentionally encouraged me to compare my laptop (MacBook Air) and my Aries G1. I expected to be at it for a few days potentially but honestly after a few songs I had quite a few things to say and after a few albums I’m confident in what I’m hearing.
First things I noticed was improved timbre which I’m not normally sensitive to. Next was that blacker background. Greater definition in between sounds and a greater sense of speed mainly in the attack of notes. Decay lingers for a greater amount of time most noticeably with cymbals/high hats and just sounds much more natural. The laptop almost sounds like it lacks a bit of dynamic range by comparison. Detail and micro dynamics also see major gains often to the point where at much lower listening volumes I can still make out exactly what the sound is and not just that there’s a sound there (I hope that made sense).
I never thought I’d be saying this about a streamer but here we are. Once again getting a nicer piece has greatly improved my overall experience with music in no subtle way.
I have some curiosities about this since i relooked at it last night after reading your post.
Can you use a laptop instead of an iOS device to control it? And if youre using Roon is it possible to sidestep the iOS requirement and use any device as a roon remote?
I just bought a cheap ipad and it was fine, but if you didn’t want to have another device that would be a deal breaker
No unless you push to it via dlna or something but there’s no web interface unfortunately. You can access settings through a web ui but not control the player
I’m not sure positive but being able to control it through Roon is almost certainly going to be a thing. I’d talk to Auralic first to confirm though.
Fwiw I’m an iPhone user but I’ll still be getting a used iPad to control it with. The bigger screen will make for a better experience I’m thinking and less distracting than my phone.
Yeah, it’s a personal pain point that it’s another cost if youre not appled up already. I do have an ipad from work that they may be updating so I can keep it once the new units come in. But its still not preferable.
I also dont get along with iOS. I find it frustrating to navigate, screen presses regularly dont register, and more cables taking up more outlets.
If it can be roon’ed up and used that way then it’s much more viable for me. Which would be great because it really seems like a front runner for anything near this tiers.
It has a few things that are nice. The BF2 is the current dac, but rely that will be relegated to pc desktop use. I want the streamer to be a little bit versatile for whatever the next dac(s) are.
Right now the naim seems to hit the spot, and it has a dac to pair with a bottlehead etc until a more solid dac is researched and purchased. There are just no reviews or anything on it and the Auralic is a nicer, less expensive package.
I’ve been eyeing the Altair G1 as a Roon Ready Streamer/DAC/Preamp. Is it true these things don’t come with a remote? I know I could control the volume with Roon Remote, but I’m an old man. I want a physical remote, dammit.
I don’t know if it’s included in the package, but I’m pretty sure it can learn IR remotes to map things to, so you should be able to get a physical remote working
Just want to confirm but the aries streamers/servers can be entirely used offline right? Simply use the buttons on the front if internet is down with a hard drive connected (g1 specifically)?
Also, does anyone know how to buy one of those hoer-wege power supplies I’ve heard is a good mod to do?
It’s actually not that bad. You just have to unplug two of the white prongs and swap it with the new one. That’s it, no special tools or complicated operations required.
Site’s in german but if you email the dude in english he’ll reply in english. Nice and easy to deal with. He’s pretty responsive too. You get 30 days money-back guarantee (minus shipping).
I mean in the grand scheme of things it’s probably a reasonable price.
I paid around $512. It has more higher quality parts vs the stock psu.
Is it possible that I lost some bass and subbass emphasis when moving from the Node to the Aries G1? I was under the impression streamers won’t change the FR and just make it clearer.
I guess I can test this later but was wondering that since last night listening to some tracks with the Susvara and felt like I need to move to the 1266 TC for them…
It likely didn’t change the FR, in fact it can’t (unless one of the 2 devices was playing with the bits), but there is a tendency to equate other changes in presentation to Frequency response changes.
Every DAC that’s not broken (or a Border patrol DAC) will measure entirely flat well past the limits of human hearing, but that doesn’t mean they all sound the same.
There is a tendency to try and describe things in terms of the Frequency response, but often the change is not measurably there, it’s one of the reasons measurements are so misleading and why it’s so hard to have a conversation with someone who continually refers to them.
Short version yes a streamer, or even a digital cable can change your perception of the Bass you get, and generally Bass presentation tends to be the easiest of the differences you will hear to identify.
