Ayon CD Players: CD-1 and CD-3

Sally and Darealjaydee,
The unit I purchased was the review unit from the recent Dagogo review, so Doug Schroeder did the hard work of breaking it in. I bought the unit from USA Tube Audio. I have enjoyed working with them and previously bought my amp there too. They are really responsive and great to deal with.

I listened to the Ayon for several hours after I received it Tuesday. I'll only send preliminary impressions now, since one day is hardly enough to make a judgement! It took a while to warm up because it had not been used for a while during shipping. Impressions on first listening are very positive. I have been thinking of getting new speakers and mentioned this to Charlie at USA Tube Audio. He said to try the Ayon, you might not need new speakers. I was skeptical about that as a sales pitch, but I have to admit that I am less interested in new speakers after I added the Ayon CD-1. Clearer sound, deeper bass, less "honk" on vocals. More 3-d soundstage and more detail. I am quite pleased so far, but as I said too early to say much more. Can't wait to spend more time listening, although the demands of daily living might be getting in the way of extended listeing for a while.

I'm planning on taking the Ayon over to a friend's house tomorrow night. He has a very nice system with Wilson Puppy 7 speakers and Pass Amp/preamp, so we'll see what he thinks compared to his vinyl set up.

That's it for now.

Howard

Howard.
Keep me posted on your findings. The Ayon specs alone are very impressive. It's much cheaper to get a good CD player than new speakers. Ha.
I like it that Ayon has a money back guarantee.
Sally

Sally,
I purchased the CD-3 unit from USA Tube Audio about 2 months ago and just started to do critical listening about 2 weeks ago now that I purchased a Pass Labs preamp. Overall, I’d have to say that the CD-3 is quite impressive. The sound quality in terms of musicality and detail are what I like best about the unit. I had a Musical Fidelity before and the high end tended to be a bit grainy and thin as opposed to the CD-3 which is much more realistic and with much more detail. Low end is better as well -- it is not mushy but rather has tight punch. The unit is built quite impressively – solid and simple. The anti-vibration features built into the feet are pretty cool and the remote is almost absurdly solid. One factor that made me ok with a sizeable purchase like this is the level of support from USA Tube Audio which included everything you could ask for: service with very quick response times and courtesy.
John

The CD-1 looks similar to the Raysonic 128 and certain other parts are also the same (Sony 213Q transport). Is the "Made in Austria" component extra circuitry or tweaking done after initial manufacture (in PRC?).

Hi sboez23,

The Ayon Audio CD-1 and the Ayon CD-3 were in manufacture for sometime before Raysonic presented their, Copy.... of the Ayon's. Many manufacturers will use Sony, Phillips or other transports, since just a handful of electronics firms make them. Actually the cases look similarm but they are really quite different and without a doubt, other than the transports used, the circuit design, internal boards, tubes, components which most are from Germany, parts used in the Ayons; the two brands are in no way the same, but dramatically different. How do I know this, I previously owned a Raysonic and when I purchased the Ayon, I opened them up and compared them. Different as night and day. By the way, the factory and the distributor also confirmed this for me. Hope that helps.
MLK