Chord Dave or Ayre QX5 Twenty DAC???

ctsooner, thanks for all your input. The Sasha's have plenty of bass. I listen to many types of music, love amazing vocals, lots of jazz, some electronic, love chill music like Thievery Corporation, some 80's music--mostly on vinyl...I have heard the Ayre QX5 Twenty with the Ayre integrated AX5 (?) with smaller speakers than mine at an audio store. I also heard the Dave, but with electronics much more expensive than mine. I am not able to hear either in my system. I really liked both, the Ayre was smooth and natural w stellar vocals. Loved it. The Dave for me was more dynamic, eerie and dramatic. Loved it also. Will buy one of these two DACS  in one week. If I get the Dave, I will also get the Aurender A10, which also has MQA and storage that I need. If I think my funds will be too tight, I will get the Ayre. 

Hi everyone, thank you for the kind words.  I would just like to caution everyone to not put too much stock into one individuals personal choice.  Just last week I loaned out 4 DAC's to a local client in Tampa and he chose the Ayre QX-5 Twenty in his system.  The Roon endpoint and the overall relaxed "just right" sonics were what appealed to him.  About a month ago, another chose the Chord DAVE.   And as others have said, the Berkeley REF2 is also excellent (albeit more than double the price of the Ayre and others).   There are so many great digital products on the market and it all comes down to personal preference, music tastes, system synergy, etc.  I learned a lot time ago not to guess what I think people might like.  Ultimately, keep an open mind, listen and decide for yourself.   If any of you are in the Sarasota/Tampa area, I would welcome you for a visit to my store to meet and listen.

Very well put for sure.  To me these shoot outs are nice to read about and if you know the ear of the person posting, you can whittle things down a bit possibly.  

I'll probably take you up on a visit that first week of April.  Have to watch daughter in Daytona for the national collegiate cheer championships the 4th-that Friday or Saturday. I will leave Sarasota airport that Monday afternoon I believe.  I"ll let you know the schedule when I get closer.  Glad to see a Vandy dealer on the west coast. lol.

I got no skin in the game but know of and have heard both of these companies fine products, both have some good strengths, we used to sell Chord and do not now sell them so we have no skin in the game nor do we sell Ayre. 

There is one advantage that the Chord Dave has the Aqua Hifi Dac have that the Ayre doesn't.

The Chord is FPGA based and is easy to update, the Forumla is designed on all separate boards and Aqua has shown they can and will offer reasonably priced updates, I haven't heard the Forumla but we have the Lascala and it is excellent I haven't heard the Forumla I will say that the Lascalla is excellent. So one thing I would ask with the Ayre, is how easy would it be to upgrade?

Aside from sound quality, ease of upgrading, in the turbulent world of digital is a very good thing. 

For those on the East Coast we, Audio Doctor have one of the largest collections of digital gear on display: we display: Lumin, Aurender, Mytek, Aqua, EMM Labs, Light Harmonic, Baetis, Cary Audio, T+A, Nad, Naim, Nuprime and a few others. For those who haven't heard the Light Harmonic Davinci is amazing and we have one of these rare dacs!

Troy
Audio Doctor
www.audiodoctor.com old website new one coming soon
877 428 2873

Troy,  I do not understand your comments above regarding the FGPA.  I found two references below that describe Ayre's use of the FGPA.

Note #1: "The Ayre QX-5 Twenty DAC uses the ESS ES9038PRO DAC chip which is used for D/A conversion with Ayre's proprietary FPGA-based minimum phase filter.

Note #2:  "The ES9038PRO used in the Ayre QX-5 DAC, combined with Ayre’s custom minimum-phase digital filter, implemented in a low noise FPGA".

What is the difference between the the Chord's FGPA based implementation and Ayre's FPGA-based minimum phase filter implementation? 

Since both DAC's are using a FGPA, does this mean that both DAC's can be upgraded by re-programing the FGPA?