The Altmann Tera Player - Thread

[H20Fidelity]

I'm guessing that you 'discovered' the SHE3590 or a variant thereof - heavily reviewed by ljokerl and others here and widely acknowledged as one of the best VFM bargains in portable audio.

Guys, I know this player was greeted with howls of derision when the price was ~800 Euros - then I saw it at '3000 Euros' - now I see this figure on Charles' product page:

EUR 6720,

The comma is my addition - I believe that's what Europeans use in place of a decimal point. Please tell me I'm missing something here. I'm no stranger to others calling my purchases into question, having owned the Chord Hugo, but that number simply beggars belief if its the same product that started out at 800 Euros.

My personal theory on the price increases is Charle's believes greatly in his product, that it's the best sounding player on the market available still to this day, and most likely (to him) above all the AK line up. I've seen a pattern where each time AK released 240, 380 etc the price of Terra increased not long after.

Of course there's no absolute truth behind my words, just my personal theory..

 

[musicday]

There are many guys that belive ,Tera player is still the best music player available but they don't need to come here to tell us that.
Please read the reviews on Charles website as they are all genuine!

 

[spitfire777]

Now thats desperation to refer to reviews on the tera website. Please listen to the QP1R. i would just like to say thank goodness for this forum how i nearly was inticed into buying an overpriced device. I too am defecting this tera forum. The tera might appear in christmas crackers in the future its so small then i would like the opportunity then to own one.

 

[smial1966]

The Tera Player has an uncharacteristic 'analogue' sound and is justifiably loved and defended by it's owners. As a former owner (4 years of usage) I too was seduced by the warm and natural soundstage, as in it's day it was an innovative and unusual DAP. However, recently advances in DAP technology and affordability made me realise that the Tera Players organic sound was at the expense of frequency extremes and resolution. Thus the Tera Player truncates both high and low frequency extremes to pack out the midrange and deliver a very pleasant yet artificial sound. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but those seeking more realism or authentic playback from their DAP will look elsewhere.

There are many guys that belive ,Tera player is still the best music player available but they don't need to come here to tell us that.
Please read the reviews on Charles website as they are all genuine!

 

[musicday]

Now thats desperation to refer to reviews on the tera website. Please listen to the QP1R. i would just like to say thank goodness for this forum how i nearly was inticed into buying an overpriced device. I too am defecting this tera forum. The tera might appear in christmas crackers in the future its so small then i would like the opportunity then to own one.

Desperation for what? )
It doesn't bother me if you read the reviews or not.Was trying to say that they all genuine as one is mine.
Been listening to QP1R thank you, and it sounds good but not in same class with the Tera and Lotoo Paw Gold,from what i am hearing.
Happy New Year !!!

 

[flymetothemoon]

The Tera Player has an uncharacteristic 'analogue' sound and is justifiably loved and defended by it's owners. As a former owner (4 years of usage) I too was seduced by the warm and natural soundstage, as in it's day it was an innovative and unusual DAP. However, recently advances in DAP technology and affordability made me realise that the Tera Players organic sound was at the expense of frequency extremes and resolution. Thus the Tera Player truncates both high and low frequency extremes to pack out the midrange and deliver a very pleasant yet artificial sound. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but those seeking more realism or authentic playback from their DAP will look elsewhere.

I have the Tera for 1-1/2 years and had let go some 6 months ago.
 
From a "form" perspective, it's a device similar to (or copying) the Apple iPod Shuffle.  
 
It does sound terrific (or even better if you amp it) should you able to "match" with a "certain" IEM/Headphones.  Apart from sound, new owner should be aware of its high output impedance as this will induce roll off at both ends as described by Smial1966 above.    I used Tralucent Ref 1 (started off with the 1Plus2) with good results.  The performance upped to another level once amped as this helps to eliminate (or isolate) the output impedance issue.  I used the Vorzuge Duo (still very portable when both stacked together) with very good result while the Wagnus Epilson lifted it to the ultimate performance (but not portable).
 
Why I have it sold?  As explained by Smial1966...there are better players out there and in my case it was the AK240.  It out-performed Tera in all aspects and my common sense told me that one have to let go if I stride for better sound from my headfi system and that was the Tera on the to go list.
 
Hope this helps
 
Happy New Year 
 
Cheers

 

[musicday]

Did anyone managed to find a case for the Tera?
I want a soft leather case to allow me to use it without having to take it out.
At the moment i use the little bag that came with Porta Pro,which is not bad.

 

[estreeter]

My personal theory on the price increases is Charle's believes greatly in his product, that it's the best sounding player on the market available still to this day, and most likely (to him) above all the AK line up. I've seen a pattern where each time AK released 240, 380 etc the price of Terra increased not long after.

Of course there's no absolute truth behind my words, just my personal theory..

 
Fine - lets assume that it IS the 'best-sounding portable on the market', purely for the sake of argument. At that price, he is now competing directly with pre-loved uber-DACs from Berkeley, Lumin and Linn and well beyond the current HF obsession with the Schiit muiltibit DACs. I get that he chose a vintage R2R DAC for the Tera based on the fatigue-free sound quality - its one of the first things people start raving about with Yggy and other R2R designs - but when you look at it from a functional POV it just cant hope to compete with  the aforementioned mega DACs. Still, as someone pointed out, its his product and he can ask whatever he wants - there may well be something to your AK theory, even if the 380 seems to be aimed at a completely different market to the rest of their range. In the absence of any sales figures for anything in boutique audio, we can only speculate as to the number that are actually sold - Head-Fi tends to give the distorted impression that 4 or 5 impressions for a new product equate to hundreds of sales but I remain skeptical.

 

[musicday]

Happy New Year from South London !!!

 

[john1711]

Perception about the lack of resolving prowess of the Tera could be due to the limited range of headphones/earphones that can be driven well by the Tera without external amping. I've amped the Tera to some Japanese amps using neutral sounding Wagnus cables and have found the Tera to be quite highly resolving. I've compared the Tera and Lotoo Paw Gold, both with the same cables and amp and find that the Tera is not any less resolving than the Lotoo.

 

[Ruben123]

Perception about the lack of resolving prowess of the Tera could be due to the limited range of headphones/earphones that can be driven well by the Tera without external amping. I've amped the Tera to some Japanese amps using neutral sounding Wagnus cables and have found the Tera to be quite highly resolving. I've compared the Tera and Lotoo Paw Gold, both with the same cables and amp and find that the Tera is not any less resolving than the Lotoo.

That is because any player with anywhere near flat frequency response will sound the same as any other... When using the same amp to compare different players, you keep the output impedance the same (the amp's, not the source's). The irony here is buying a 6000$ player with a relatively big output impedance that needs to be corrected by an amp.

 

[musicday]

Can you please tell us what amplifiers you have used when connected to the Tera player?
So in your test Lotoo Paw Gold and Tera were on same sound levels using same amps?
What headphones did you used with both?

 

[Currawong]

  My personal theory on the price increases is Charle's believes greatly in his product, that it's the best sounding player on the market available still to this day, and most likely (to him) above all the AK line up. I've seen a pattern where each time AK released 240, 380 etc the price of Terra increased not long after.

Of course there's no absolute truth behind my words, just my personal theory..

 
IIRC Charles did post something on his web site about it for a while which confirms it. I don't recall absolutely what, but I recall reading something that gave me the same impression as well. It's crazy, because he could have stuck to the original price and simply said "You don't need those expensive DAPs, here's mine for much less and has a better/purer/whatever sound." or something to that effect. 
 
Moving on though, I wonder what Tera owners might think of the Soundaware M1 Esther (Analog version). My experience with it could be described very much the same way as people have described the sound with the Tera -- wonderful to listen with yet not lacking in detail. I'm also curious what people who have both the Tera and the Mojo think about them. 
 
Back before the price hike madness I'd long been considering buying one, but now the above two components have thoroughly nuked any desire to own one, though I'm still curious to know what owners feel. 

 

[clarkydaz]

   
IIRC Charles did post something on his web site about it for a while which confirms it. I don't recall absolutely what, but I recall reading something that gave me the same impression as well. It's crazy, because he could have stuck to the original price and simply said "You don't need those expensive DAPs, here's mine for much less and has a better/purer/whatever sound." or something to that effect. 
 
Moving on though, I wonder what Tera owners might think of the Soundaware M1 Esther (Analog version). My experience with it could be described very much the same way as people have described the sound with the Tera -- wonderful to listen with yet not lacking in detail. I'm also curious what people who have both the Tera and the Mojo think about them. 
 
Back before the price hike madness I'd long been considering buying one, but now the above two components have thoroughly nuked any desire to own one, though I'm still curious to know what owners feel. 

I had the mojo briefly using it with my smartphone. its the first time ive used amp, but didn't care for the change in sound it made on songs I'm familiar with. Felt like they had been 'remastered' to me, (using jvc 850s earphones maybe added to the thickness) or maybe I prefer straight up simplicity

 

[soundblast75]

IIRC Charles did post something on his web site about it for a while which confirms it. I don't recall absolutely what, but I recall reading something that gave me the same impression as well. It's crazy, because he could have stuck to the original price and simply said "You don't need those expensive DAPs, here's mine for much less and has a better/purer/whatever sound." or something to that effect. 

Moving on though, I wonder what Tera owners might think of the Soundaware M1 Esther (Analog version). My experience with it could be described very much the same way as people have described the sound with the Tera -- wonderful to listen with yet not lacking in detail. I'm also curious what people who have both the Tera and the Mojo think about them. 

Back before the price hike madness I'd long been considering buying one, but now the above two components have thoroughly nuked any desire to own one, though I'm still curious to know what owners feel. 

I took my Tera out for the first time in about a year last week, I was actually surprised how it still beats anything I've heard, only Mojo is digital portable piece id say id prefer purely on sound. The thing about Tera is any Asian produced portable product just sounds dirty next to it,hissy,not pure etc. it is of course a very frustrating product with its ass stuck in wav, no options for just about anything and that idiotic price.But, and thats a big but..its battery was working after a year of sitting in its box,trying to sell and it fed my new Pioneer Master headphones so good it almost made me cry why ive wasted time with anything else..