Transporter vs Ayre CX-7e

I thought the 2 were closer than I initially thought when I compared them using with Ax-7e

I wouldn't say Ayre is 'clearly' better. Maybe Cerrot can elaborate more on his/her comparison?

I also enjoy the convenience of having music on a hard drive to play hour long playlists on my squeezebox, though, as I have said, not up to par (to me) for critical listening. (I did come up with an excellent work-around, though-I have an Alesis Masterlink CD burner and put nice compilations together on MoFi Gold CDR's and play them on my Esoteric. 70 minutes or so of pure bliss - close, but not totally the squeezebox convenience, albeit much better sound).

As for the difference(s) between the Ayre Ax-5e & Ax-7e, I thought they were close at first, but after a few hours of listening, on redbook, I found the 7 to be a bit leaner overall, a bit more forward sounding than the 5, not as much punch or dynamic and the soundstage was petty much as wide, but no where near as deep. On SACD, the difference was even more dramatic. The 5 had much, much more overall resoultion. The 7 played SACD's like very well recorded Redbooks but the 5 delivered more music, more of the experience. Cymbals had more air around them and the decay was very realistic on the 5; on the 7, it didn't have as much space, and was a bit abrupt. Vocals on the 5 were smooth and lifelike, while on the 7, there was a hint of symbilence (please excuse spelling) and I didn't feel the presence of the singer as I did with the 5. The 7 did mask inferior recordings better than the 5, but that's a trait I find in less revealing gear, and, to me, I need to hear everything that was recorded-good, or bad.

The Esoteric (X03-SE) was even better than the 5, with greater dynamics, deeper soundstage greater air and presence and the retrieval of low level detail blew my mind. On Jacintha's SACD, Goes To Hollywood, on Que Sera Sera, on the opening acordian, you can hear the acordinaists fingers on the keys, and the sound the keys make when they are released. On the 7, you can barely recognize what it is; on the 5, you hear it distinctively but on the Esoteric, it becomes part of the performance. It actually adds to the experience and makes the little hairs stand up on my neck. The resolution is absolutely amazing.

Cerrot: Thanks for the detail...very informative. However, my understanding was that the 7 only plays RBCD, not SACD. As such, it would lead me to believe that perhaps you were actually hearing the RBCD layer of the Hybrid SACD on the 7 as opposed to the actual DSD layer (which would explain a difference).

Anyway, I wish I could get an Esoteric of 5e but I think they are both out of my range....although I could possibly stretch :-)....

-Ben

Cerrot is confused on couple things

Ayre CDP are C-5xe (SACD) and C-7xe (CD)

Ayre integrated amp is Ax-7e

More likely than not Cerrot is comparing the SACD layer to the CD layer between the 2 players; and more likely than not Cerrot have not actually compared the C-7xe with transporter head to head. educated guess

Transporter is close to C-7xe when transporter is running 16bit 44khz flac file and C-7xe is reading the physical disk. However, transporter is significantly better than C-7xe when running 24bit 88khz flac file. Is it a fair comparison? no. but does it matter? If I can listen to the 24bit file why would I go for the 16bit version?

Just as there is no way C-7xe can compete with C-5xe when one is running the RB layer and the other is running the SACD layer, so is C-7xe hopelessly trailing transporter when the latter is running flac at 24bit/88khz.

My error. The 7 is cd only, and, yes, I was comparing the sacd to the redbook layer (didn't know until now). My apologies (also on the models - I am referring to the 5 series and the 7 series of the Ayre CD players). I did listen to the transport and the Ayre 7 directly, in the same system. Have a buddy who has both (he agreed with the opinion that the 7 blew the transport away. I listened to the 5 and the 7 and the esoteric DV60 and X03SE for what seemed like a zillion hours so excuse me for that fatal error. (at least, now I know why I couldn't hear the accordian keys with the 7)