THE 2011 GOLDEN EAR AWARDS 14 Pa ges of Ou Favo r r Gearite ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM SEPTEMBER 2011 NEW HIGH-END STARS Constellation’s State-of-the-Art Electronics
An Unprecedented Assault on the State of the Art Constellation Audio Altair Preamplifier and Hercules Power Amplifier Robert Harley H igh-end audio products are often the realization of one person’s singular vision. The designer conceives of the product, designs the circuits, builds prototypes, and puts his personal stamp on the result by voicing it to reflect his own sonic taste. To this designer, any outside influence is anathema.
COVER STORY Constellation Audio Altair and Hercules The first products to emerge from this audacious and unprecedented undertaking are the $60,000 Altair preamplifier and $140,000-per-pair Hercules monoblock power amplifiers. (The Orion phonostage and Sirius disc player/music server were not shipping at the time of this review.
The Altair’s design and construction are unlike that of any other linestage.
COVER STORY Constellation Audio Altair and Hercules or flashes to indicate power status and mute, while the row of buttons provides basic controls such as power on/off, source switching, volume, and mute. These buttons are tiny and not marked, so unless you become familiar with their operation or consult the owner’s manual, stick with the Pyxis. Hercules Power Amplifier The Hercules power amplifiers are just as radical in conception, design, and execution as the Altair and Pyxis.
COVER STORY Constellation Audio Altair and Hercules Before getting to the listening impressions, a few operational notes. I mounted the Hercules amplifiers on a pair of small platforms custom made by Peter Madnick. This mounting prevented the amplifiers from sinking into the carpet and potentially interfering with the convection cooling. The platforms also made the amplifiers more stable physically. They should be standard issue with every pair of Hercules.
COVER STORY Constellation Audio Altair and Hercules Constellation has established a benchmark against which all other linestages and power amps can be compared. difference and the musical perception of that difference. The objective difference in the signal must be vanishingly small between the Constellation electronics and other excellent products, but the musical result of correctly resolving those microvolt signals is profound.
COVER STORY: Constellation Audio Altair and Hercules Inside Cost-No-Object Design and Execution These products are packed with cuttingedge engineering never before seen in an audio product. Let’s start with the Altair and a crucial sub-system of any linestage, the volume control. Adjusting the signal level may seem like a trivial proposition, but it is actually challenging to design a sonically transparent volume control.
The sub-enclosure is made from two non-magnetic steel plates laminated with a polymer sheet between them. This sub-enclosure is then divided into two sub-sub enclosures, with the top half containing the audio signal electronics and the bottom half housing power-supply regulation and the digital electronics that control the lightdependent resistors. This entire “raft” structure “floats” within the massive 8.2mm-thick solid aluminum of the outer chassis.
