Auralic have introduced a category-wide update to its G2 and GX range of streaming audio products: Series G2.1/GX.1. The Auralic engineering team has developed G2’s next evolutionary step, embodied by the all-new Unity Chassis II. The G2.1 Series casework now features a double enclosure, or “chassis-within-a-chassis,” where the outer casework is manufactured from high-grade aluminium and an additional internal enclosure is made from copper. These design revisions enhance EMI shielding and are claimed to provide an audible improvement to performance. A new, sculpted metal base provides a high- mass, heavyweight foundation for the G2.1/GX.1 series, bonded to the enhanced four-foot assembly.
Enhanced Suspension System
The balanced weight distribution design found internally in the original G2/GX layout remains unchanged, but a newly designed suspension system further isolates the product from external mechanical vibration. “Potentially harmful vibrations are absorbed within the six-coiled-spring, acoustically calibrated core of each foot, with each spring tuned to a different tension point, resulting in greater sound clarity and a more open sound field through vibration damping at separate frequencies, yet again providing for enhanced sonic performance”.
Circuit optimisations
For the ARIES G2.1, the USB output has been transformed into a more universal category of application, allowing for a broad level of compatibility across most manufacturers’ USB inputs. The HDD port, for local hard drive connectivity, has been given a power boost to handle a broad range of USB drives requiring higher power delivery. These optimisations have extended the potential feature sets of the products.
CD playback and ripping
As requested by our customers, Lighting OS 7.0 will provide CD playback with optional ripping capabilities. Customers can use a CD drive connected via USB to the Auralic product. Lightning’s CD function will read each disk sector several times to ensure ultimate data accuracy, then save to memory cache prior to playback. This makes for a completely jitter-free CD playback experience, “besting other standalone CD players at far higher prices”. As for ripping, while you may already have the lion’s share of your CD collection stored on a drive or NAS of some kind, the ability to comfortably add CD albums to your library on occasion will add a welcome utility to your Auralic setup. This feature will work with any of our Aries (Not Aries Mini), Altair and Polaris variants. Simply connect a CD drive via USB to one of the compatible Auralic products and begin to play back or rip your CDs.
G2 by request
Auralic understands some customers may wish to add to their G2 series of components and maintain the aesthetics of the original series. To this end, Auralic will, by special order, construct and ship original G2 products for customers who would like to complete the look of their previously existing G2 products. Customers should expect a longer lead time for custom G2 product orders. Auralic will place a time limit on this courtesy offer, but it should provide customers with enough time and notice to take advantage of the opportunity.
G2.1 and GX.1 products are all available now, have begun shipping globally, and will reach customers very soon. Pricing is Aries G2.1 £4,199, Vega G2.1 £5,999, Leo GX.1 £7,999, Sirius G2.1 £5,999.