Hi Lloyd.
Very nice write-up on the Altairs. I assume it was the second generation Altair you auditioned. I wholeheartedly agree with you on your impressions.
Although my impressions are based on the first generation Altair, the most important characteristic of the Altair was its high frequency extension, transient response and big dynamic svings in the upper frequency area. This is an area which surely must have been somewhat altered with the new tweeter. How would you describe this area? I know that the room, cables, electronics etc was different and will have an impact. Still I am curious how you would describe this area.
A comment from others with access to the Altair 2 or even Arrakis 2 would also be interesting if you put on the track "Smooth Criminal" from 2 Cellos and listen to the build up to the climax at 00:40 of the track and please let me know what you think.
Thanks for tipping the Hans Zimmer Sherlock Holmes score. I love most of Hans Zimmer's score but have never heard the Sherlock Holmes. Do you know if the cut you heard was taken from the first or the sequel Sherlock Holmes movie?
Hi Roysen,
Thanks...I really enjoyed my time with the Altairs and hope that it showed. Yes, I heard the Altair 2s.
I brought Sherlock Holmes first movie...but my wife loves it so much, we also have movie 2. She taps her feet and whistles along to the tunes of either movie soundtrack. She also like Hans Zimmerman so we've got 9 albums. Thin red line, both Dan brown movies (angels ande demons, da Vinci), gladiator, dark knight first and second, both sherlocks, pirates (Zimmerman produced I think).
I am not a treble freak...I am a bass freak, so my comments on treble are not based on as much obsession an experience. In general, the tweeter showed almost a slightly over illuminated presence in the beginning...but i kept commenting on the thinness of the mids...so likely that was the preamp warming up as described in my main comments a few posts ago.
Once warmed up, I heard a speed and purity across the board that always delivered control, balance, detail and space...equally well illuminated from bass to treble...and I stopped thinking about which range I was listening to...most likely due to the speakers excellent coherence and finely balanced presentation.
I certainly felt no loss relative to XLF, tidal, grande em...possibly preferred to some of these but different rooms and systems means I cannot be too definitive here on my judgments.
The only area where in treble i missed grand space and utter freedom in the air was relative to the custom-modded Genesis 1.1s my friend had rebuilt with an engineer who worked with Arnie Nudell yrs ago. But that speaker's current generation equivalent is a few times larger than Altair and more expensive than Arrakis. For something that feels smaller than X-series or grande utopia or the Sonus Faber or even Maxx 3s...be Altair is truly remarkable. I love this speaker. It makes most all elements on an audiophiles checklist seem easy to accomplish...and thus they make it easy to get back to enjoying music.