Hi Lloyd, first I have to echo what others are saying...quality guy and love your writing style. You make your points on differences, but in a very classy way....Thanks for all you do here!
As a Altair owner, and having a friend nearby with Arrakis, I really have to agree here. The sense of scale is different, it's not a tonality or detail or ease of expression...they sound very similar actually with exception to scale and sheer bass power/control.
I might add, and maybe this is owner bias, the simplicity of the Altair, one amp, single wire etc has some advantages...maybe it's just easier set up. The Arrakis is double everyone..more interconects, speaker cables, amps...etc....it takes some time to get right (as my friends are certainly right I might add)
Thanks for stopping by on the way to the airport! Seems like you maybe getting a Rockport bug one day...
Great to hear from a high-end Rockport owner...rather than just a wannabe! In truth, I have asked about the Arrakis in passive mode for exactly the reason you state...no matter how OCD i am, i cannot see myself doing 2 sets of mono amps, dedicated cables from Preamp to the Active Crossover and 2 sets of cables out of the Active Crossover to the Amps...nightmare, mess, expense, room, you name it.
Plus, i really, really was wondering whether i care THAT much about scale. Ultimately, what was nice about coming home was that after a few minutes of clearly remembering the huge scale of the Arrakis...i very quickly re-acclimated to my music at home...and i think that is because the purity of the tone, very very low noise floor helps create a purity of music that i just simply enjoy. And after a while, you go back to listening to music...and by the way, with pretty darn good scale.
So coming back to Altairs...because i love my bass...and by the way not at high volume...just really care about getting a chest-punch when playing Nickelback or deep house even at 'volume 10' on my CJ GAT...i wonder whether for me the real solution is Altairs plus dual subs. Not it wont produce the mid-range scale when playing Norah Jones...but it gives me the punch and i think with the scale of Altair 2 being so exceptional with, as you say, pretty much the exact same voice as the Arrakis...might that not be a far better, cleaner, solution...that also provides me with far greater flexibility in setup at home and future homes? Could well be....could well be.
What the Arrakis did for me, besides show me scale again, was reemphasize just how organic, tonally pure and effortless the Rockport sound really is. I loved listening to the Arrakis, and it ranks up there to my ears with Gary's flagship 1.2s.