Ayon CD2 is AMAZING

Gentlemen,
I read a review on the Eastern Electric Minimax DAC and I went and purchased it for $650. There is no way conclusively - positively for sure that this DAC is an improvement, over the Ayon CD-2. I was hoping it would work but it doesn’t. The sound stage is flat and non involving and sharp. I now own the CD-5 and the CD5 is by far superior, than any Minimax combo with an Ayon CDP. With the CD5, the musician is in my room. The Minimax DAC when connected to any Ayon product, in any method, does nothing special. It actually makes the sound closed in.

I think it is more an amplifier anomaly folks are hearing. My friend used it with his Cambridge amp and a CD2 and it made the soundstage really even even worse, but it may have made the soundstage a bit faster, different, but really an ugly combo.

Folks are always looking for the cheap way to outfit a system, but it is a waste of time. I have been there and done that and learned my lesson - you get what you pay for!

Jim

Just out of curiousity but why whould anyone put tubes in a CD player? No matter the prices I think tubed CD player are bit of a gimmick. There are many people that like tube amps so I get the feeling that some companies add tubes to a CD player just so it will sell better. But my hunch is that adding tubes to a CD player makes it more expensive and not neccecarely better. Sorry for my rant.

Jim,
Thanks for the info on the Ayon/MiniMax combo. May have saved me 700.
Drat's no cheap fix to audio perfection*^&%$#@@
Looks like I will need to save up and upgrade the dac chip thru Ayon at some point.
Does anyone have any info on upgrading to the CD2s chip?

Question for Afc: Is it possible that some of the improvement you hear in the CD5 over the CD2, such as resolution and bass slam, have to do merely with its increased output signal (0-4V for CD5 versus 0-2.5V for CD2)? Such a difference can sometimes make a source component sound more vivid and powerful. Did you compensate for this output difference when comparing the two?

I have the CD2 and thought about upgrading to the CD2s, but after hearing the EE DAC after install and cold, the CD2 doesn't come close. My soundstage is deeper, wider with images you can touch. My system is very resolving and I'm hearing things I've never heard and my unit is only 5 days old. Decay notes and the ambiance is unbelievable with pin point imaging even at the edge of the soundstage. The gain does appears to be a little low when ran into my CD2 with an XLR but you'll just have to turn your pre up another 1/4 turn to reach the same SPL. This is a bargain price for a DAC and the BDA-1 doesn't come close. The Minimax sounded better than the CD2 even with a 10 year old RCA cable