So recently my dad and I were trying out a few new things we on the Auralic Altair, and somewhat on the NAD C368. My dad got a hold of a few DSD format test tracks and we tried to stream them through these two DAC/ and DAC hybrid. Surprisingly, as the Swiss army knife (as my dad referred to the NAD as in his upcoming review which can be found here), couldn’t play it through the streaming app by Bluesound called BluOS. But the Auralic Altair could play the DSD and quad quality recording easily through a third party app called BubbleUPNP as the Android version of the Lightning DS app for the Altair is still in the works and is so far only available in the Apple app store only (one of the drawbacks at this point).
The more surprising point here, is that the swiss army knife NAD C368 could play the Tidal MQA format, but could not recognize DSD (is it probably the BluOS app itself? I’m not sure). The Altair the one that wins in the format recognition through streaming for far as we realized a few days ago, from the time I’m writing this. Despite that, we only realized as my had already submitted the review article and is waiting publication. Oh well, it is not dubbed the Swiss army knife by my dad for no reason. You can probably read it in the review when it comes out, in the link I have placed above.
One things I realized from this is that everything has its pros and cons, as we view them from a different perspective. It is certainly interesting that you can realize such things from trying out something new, and refer it to something older (in this case, the order of the review). I’m also just really glad I get this chance to help review with my dad, and experience all there is with the audio world today, such as new products, innovations and conveniences that are incorporated from the mass of other products.
So far, I’m liking how the industry is heading, as far the stereo components, but not so much the Home theater, as I think, alike my dad, that the constant updates to new formats such as 9.1 can be a bit out there, and for me especially the Dolby Atmos because of the necessity of ceiling firing speakers. I could be spending that money on upgrades probably, and on a simply a really 5.1 as most of the TV formats and Netflix are nowadays. instead of an average or below average 9.1. But that’s just my opinion.
Enough of my ranting, I’m going with the flow on this one. Sticking with stereo for now (can’t really put a home theater in my room anyway), and enjoying the heck out of it.
HIFI Sound Enthusiast 