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Ayre C 5xe Universal vs. Cary 306 SACD

Has anyone done a direct (as in same system), thorough comparison of these two players? If so, please let us know if you were able to compare their performance on both red book CD's and SACD’s and how it turned out. Some back ground about the setup, gear, music material, etc. would be helpful, too. Thanks.
kalan
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
>>Khrys: "The C-5xe is the finest Redbook player yet made."<<

Ignorance is bliss.
theaudiotweak
1,793 posts
 
You are still charming the masses with your two faced 2 dollar Bill..Most of us are Not Ignorant to your previous incarnate as Wc65Mustang. Tom
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
To the audiodweeb: always nice to hear from you.
theaudiotweak
1,793 posts
 
Always nice to hear from the TWO of you as well..One post covers TWO Bills. A certain gain of efficiency wouldn't you concur twice, in your singular mind, Bill/Bill?..Tom
taoh2
4 posts
 
I have Cary 306 SACD for 2 month now with 800 hour on it.
I have not hear the Ayre.
I use it with Calypso(with mullard 10M 12ax7) and JC-1 power amp, harbeth HL-5, alpha core cable.
the Cary red book sound so good to the point I am so emotionally envolved that I normally sit there for 4 hour every night until my wife get mad at me. I used to have sony sacd xa-9000ES with $1500 mod from referenceaudiomod which they claimed it will make the sony beat any player on the shelf.
the thing is,Cary beat it by a wide margin. the mod did make sony sound better but not enough.
I also have a vpi scout with blackbird cartidge and a class A phono pre-amp. I have Holy cole "don't smoke in bed" CD and LP, I just love the CD on cary over the LP on vpi.

SACD sound much better provided that it use the lastest recording technique(like the Yo-Yo-Ma solo)
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