Auralic and ATC | AXPONA 2023

This was a puzzling room. Puzzling to me, at least. To be honest, though, I am easily distracted by big sounds and shiny objects, so perhaps it was just me.

I’m pretty sure what was going on — a demo of some brand new gear from Auralic, including the following:

• ARIES G2.1 Wireless Streaming Transport ($6,099)
• SIRIUS G2.1 Upsampling Processor ($7,899)
• VEGA G2.1 Streaming DAC ($7,899)
• LEO GX.1 Reference Master Clock ($10,499)

The cables were from AudioQuest, including the Hurricane and Blizzard power cables, along with Thunderbird balanced interconnects. A SolidSteel S4-3 Rack held all of the everything.

Words and Photos by Scot Hull

It was the ATC loudspeakers, courtesy of Lone Mountain Audio, that I was unclear about. That is, I am pretty sure they were the ($40k/pair) SCM100A SLT Loudspeakers. The QR code for the room had only a partial list of gear, and a ton of different speakers, so if they’re not the SCM100A, they looked like it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now, befuddlement aside, allow me to digress a moment, because there is something about the big ATC loudspeakers that our Editor-at-Large, Dr. Panagiotis Karavitis, has been saying for as long as I’ve known him — they’re wildly undervalued by both audiophiles and the audiophile press. And that’s both odd and peculiar as the brand has been around for a while.

In this Auralic and ATC room, something awesome was clearly happening. As to what was doing what? No idea. Sadly, Auralic was a bit more familiar to me once upon a time, and most of this gear has clearly post-dated my familiarity-zone. But you can color me intrigued — I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I will offer that, as a whole, this Auralic and ATC room sounded like a “big speaker system”, and IYKYK. There’s just something “big speaker systems” do that is impossible to fake or approximate. In short, this system was very impressive. Mids were real and present and palpable, highs were delicate and airy. But it really was all about that bass — good gawd, ya’ll. Seriously, there’s something that active speakers can do that is just mind-blowing, so consider that experience to be well represented here. Ka-blooey.

Turning back to the rack, I was immediately reminded that the Auralic gear here was not just an artful display of their current offerings, but instead, this was meant to be working together as a stack — and that meant it was knocking on a very particular door. Sourced from a server/streamer like the Aries, fed into a DAC + Upsampler like the Vega and Sirius combo, and controlled by a master clock like the Leo, this multi-box solution from Auralic is obviously reminiscent of — and meant to be reminiscent of — the very highest tiers of multi-box digital audio currently on the market (hello, dCS), but at an almost absurdly modest fraction of what that type of solution would typically cost. And yes, that should catch your attention.

I found the whole thing intriguing. Honestly, I was curious about the whole Auralic and ATC room. I was not expecting this — and I wanted loads more of it. Lots and lots of value here.

Sign me up. No, really. Sign me up.

Bueller? Bueller?

[tap, tap]

Is this thing on?

If you would like to hear even more coverage from AXPONA 2023, check out our recap report and highlights from our audiophile-oriented show The Occasional Podcast. You can stream the episode direct from the embed below, or from your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more.

Also don’t forget to check out our collaboration to commemorate the event with our solid bronze record weight available only for a limited run. This 800 grams of solid bronze features the PTA roundel on the top with also acts as a 45 adapter. You can purchase direct from the PTA Approved Store here on the site.