I am thinking $3-6k.What price range Greg
BTW I have always enjoyed gear made by Ayre.
Not at all. I really like Ayre and was trying to make you laugh
So what are saying Steve. I should ante up for a Meitner or Playback Designs.
I listened to it two years ago and wound up buying the Linn Adikt instead. The only difference I heard was the bass was better in the Linn. There is someone on another forum in New York that I hope to visit later this year who has one with the MP upgrade and he loves it to death. When I visit him I'm taking my Linn with me and we're going to compare them side by side using the same interconnects and source music. I get the feeling they will sound very much the same. He tells me the bass has been improved with better punch, presence and tonal balance. It should be an interesting comparison. I'll let you know how it goes whenever I'm able to get up there.
I got most of my stuff at The Gifted Listener. Tom Unger was a great help and loved talking about all the great gear he has. If only I could afford the KX-R and MX-R! It sure was fun shopping for all that new equipment. It only took about three weeks of listening tests.
Hi Greg,
What kind of discs do you plan to use in the player?
I do not want to get into an argument (as we have on other forums), but at this point for Redbook CDs I am using an upgraded (modified) April Music Stello CDT 100 transport and an upgraded (modified) Lavry DA10 DAC:
My experience is that this combination will far exceed the performance of the Ayre.
If you are at all interested in this combination send me a PM. As I have mentioned, I do not want this to get ugly on this new forum.
Rich
Rich: What's special about that combo design-wise?
The Ayre 5xe CPplayer has been my main sorce for 4 years and I recently upgraded it to MPstatus. In my opinion it is one of the best CDP in the world regardless of price. But it needs some tweaks. First placed on a Relaxa magnetic "floating" bench made a big improvment. Second it is sensitive to power cords and really likes the Purist Dominus with Oyadie contacts. With this tweaks my Ayre has beaten in my system the Emmlabs CDSA, Meridian 808i2, AMR CD77 all more expensive. I also had a brief test of the Playback Design CDP in my system and it is a very good CDP indeed but it is twice as expensive as the Ayre. The sound from the Ayre and the Playback Design CDPs players was sligtly different but on the same level. At a used price under 4000usd ifor the Ayre CDP it is hard to beat.
Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |