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Ayre now has a new QX-5 all in one

box with DAC/Streamer (Tidal etc), Roon ready. It has nearly any input and a great headphone amp too.  It can also be used as a preamp, although I personally have yet to hear any digital pre sound as good as a great preamp, but that's me.  It's all balanced and has the Ayre power supply filters that all the Ayre products have.  I can't wait to hear it. I personally am running a great sounding Empirical Audio OSDE/SE with all the upgrades from Steve and I also have a Mac Mini server that Empirical totally rebuilt with a separate Hynes linear power supply.  It's full of only hi rez, well recorded music of all genres.  I love it, but the new servers do sound a bit better, so I've been looking.  I didn't want to set up a NAS, but since I run a Linn DS system in the bedroom I'm open to it.  I love the Melco NAS and may just get that for my NAS and the Ayre for everything else.  I want a simple, one box solution and I do use IEM's and cans on Sunday and Sat mornings so having a great amp solution in my main rig is enticing too.

I rn an Ayre AX-5 Twenty with Vandersteen Treo's (going to sell so I can upgrade to the Quatro's) and Basis/Aesthetix's for vinyl.  Pretty exciting times in digital.  I'm sure that Ayre will be a great value for all that it offers and it should sound incredible.  Time will tell.
ctsooner
dweller's avatar
dweller
2,152 posts
 
I'd listen to some MQA source material before making a big digital purchase.
ctsooner OP
2,104 posts
 
I have heard it and love what I have heard. That said, Ayre is still in the wait and see mode.  If the record companies in mass, don't pick up on MQA, it will become just another great format that didn't make in main stream. I don't like the music that is recorded in MQA right now, so it needs to go mainstream to me as well as many other companies I've spoken to about it.  MQA isn't high rez either. I have nearly 500gb of well recorded high rez music with a very good digital front end and it sounds pretty incredible. I don't have the digital ringing that ruins so much music.  I would love to hear MQA in my personal system to see if it's better than what I hear now.  You can't compare what you hear in a store demo with others in the room vs your own system.  That said, I'd venture to say what I hear is pretty darn close if not better at the moment.  I never went the DSD route, even though I've always loved what I've heard in stores or on friends systems.  I has a Sony Beta and got burned.  I still listen to a ton of vinyl which still blows away any digital I've ever heard, IMHO and I've heard the DCS stacks and other highly thought of digital played on mega systems.  I agree on waiting to an extent, but if the Ayre sounds better than my Empirical Audio DAC, then I'm all in.  I need a server/streamer and a way to keep my music, so it's a Melco N1ZH (streamer, server, NAS in one), the Ayre QX-5 (matches and mates with my AX-5 Twenty) or the Aurender N10 with my DAC.  Lot's of choices, but these are companies I trust fully and are familiar with.  
yage
63 posts
 
I compared MQA to PCM on an Explorer 2 and came away underwhelmed. It might be fine for streaming, but I think it trades off performance against traditional PCM to do so (except perhaps at the 'native' resolution).

I'm definitely looking forward to the Ayre. I've got an AX-5 Twenty / C-5xeMP setup and can't wait to do an A/B with the QX-5.
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