AURALiC has introduced a category-wide update to its G2 and GX Product Range: Series G2.1/GX.1. The G2 Series now stands as one of AURALiC’s most successful projects.

While the success of the G2 products proved a welcome chapter, the AURALiC team, in its innovative spirit, felt that it was time to further the series in terms of its capabilities, both in the realm of hardware and software.

Enter Series G2.1. The AURALiC engineering team has developed G2’s next evolutionary step, embodied by the all-new  ARIES G2.1 Streaming Transport,  VEGA G2.1 Streaming DAC, LEO GX.1 Master Reference Clock and SIRIUS G2.1 Upsampling Processor.

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 aluminum and an additional internal enclosure is made from copper. These design revisions enhance EMI shielding. 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. This substantial base adds overall mass to the product and further builds on AURALiC’s modest elegance.

Enhanced Suspension System

The balanced weight distribution design found internally in the original G2/GX layout remains unchanged, but a newly designed suspension spike 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”.

Circuit Optimisations

While external changes to the series are certainly welcome, internal circuitry modification couldn’t be ignored. 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 optimizations have extended the potential feature sets of the products.

CD Playback and ripping – the latest from Lightning streaming  Auralic couldn’t ignore the importance of additional features offered by the tried and tested Lightning OS, now in its seventh iteration. As requested by their 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”.  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 their ARIES (Not ARIES Mini), ALTAIR and POLARIS variants. Simply connect a CD drive via USB to one of the capable AURALiC products and begin to play back or rip your CDs.

Lightning Link Continuity One aspect of the overall G2.1/X.1 design that remains unchanged, and for good reason, is AURALiC’s Lightning Link protocol, making connectivity between G2/GX devices and G2.1/GX.1 an uninterrupted feature so that owners of both G2  products and the newer generation of G2.1 products can be connected together for seamless functionality in one system.

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.

Pricing & Availability

Available Now G2.1 and GX.1 products are all available now, have begun shipping globally, and will reach customers very soon.

Suggested Retail Pricing (U.S. and Canada)  

ARIES G2.1 ……………………..….…………………………………………… $4,799.00

VEGA G2.1 ……………………………………………………………………… $6,899.00

LEO GX.1 ……………………………………………………………………….. $8,999.00

SIRIUS G2.1 …………………………………………………………………….. $6,899.00

Suggested Retail Pricing (EU, with 20% VAT)

ARIES G2.1 ……………………..….…………………………………………… €4,699.00

VEGA G2.1 ……………………………………………………………………… €6,699.00

LEO GX.1 ……………………………………………………………………….. €8,999.00

SIRIUS G2.1 …………………………………………………………………….. €6,699.00

Suggested Retail Pricing (UK, with 20% VAT)

ARIES G2.1 ……………………..….…………………………………………… £4,199.00

VEGA G2.1 ……………………………………………………………………… £5,999.00

LEO GX.1 ……………………………………………………………………….. £7,999.00

SIRIUS G2.1 …………………………………………………………………….. £5,999.00

Get all the latest Hifi News with Hifi Pig here!