Bill, I'm not in anyway saying your aren't hearing what you are hearing, but none of us who own one feel that it's strident in any way shape or form, unless the recording or the system is. I know they don't tilt the spectrum as many companies do. I can promise you that as I've heard them discuss these things in seminars as well as personal conversations. It's ironic as the QX5 TWetny by most accounts are wonderful for all types of music that folks listen to.

I have a feeling that it's just not working for you and that you love your Wadia and will stay with it which is great as all we al want is the best for our own ears. It's all good.

Perhaps it's because I do little listening/auditioning via streaming or even HD digital but rather mostly of Red Book CD and 16/48 sources; I don't Roon and I only had a trial Tidal membership.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the QX-5 Twenty is in any way a bad DAC, but I had some friends over and played tracks for them and they agreed that what the Wadia was presenting on piano tracks sounded more like a real piano than did the same track played through the QX-5 Twenty. (This was, again, a normal 16/44.1 track played from a physical Red Book CD.)

How does the rest of the music sound to you vs your Wadia? Piano is just one piece of the complex pie. I've found that folks who love Wadia seem to stay with it forever. I'm not sure which model he has, but it's one of their newer ones.

Across sources I still found the QX-5 Twenty seemed to confine the soundstage to "between the speakers" where the Wadia extended it a bit beyond the confines of the left and right speakers.

The Wadia's soundstage was also a tiny bit deeper, though both seemed about the same in terms of forward/back placement of performers.

For reference, my Wadia is the S7i.

The demo I heard with the 803D3 , AX5 Twenty and QX-5 Twenty had such a wide sound-staging that it practically sent me into an audiophile gear acquisition syndrome panic. On Freddie Freeloader (Miles Davis -Kind of Blue, 192KHz) Cannonball Adderly's sax was coming from so far outside the boundaries of the speaker that I didn't even think a system could do that. Now, I can't quite reproduce that at home, in part because of my room and subpar cabling, and frankly my now middling 802D1, but the QX was like holographic in the demo that kicked off this thread in that regard. But the whole system has to be optimized for that kind of performance.

Bill, not trying to say you aren't hearing what you hear, so please don't take it that way. I too have the largest sound stage on cuts that have it. Same with depth and I was shocked to hear the height too as most don't have height. Even my wife and friends are in shock at how large the soundstage is and my other DAC threw a large one also (way past the speakers when it was called for). It's all good obviously, but it's strange that we all are getting the sound we do and you aren't. I'm just the curious type and wonder why this is. lol

Hi Bill, what are you using for a CD transport and digital interconnect? And could one or both be contributing to the stridency and diminished soundstage? Thanks.

Using the Wadia S7i as a transport, and comparing via a AudioQuest Cinnamon TOSLINK.

One nice feature of the Wadia is by default it sends the digital out from the transport no matter what input is selected, so I can connect the output from the Wadia back to its optical input and directly compare the sound transmitted over TOSLINK with either DAC.

Bill, I assume that you are running fully balanced with the Ayre gear right? Personally, you all know how much I like the Audioquest cables, however I have also found that the Wireworld newer optical cables are the best I can find. I guess they are made of glass not plastics that the others are made of (was told this by a manufacturer). True or not, I have done a LOT of A/B'ing and found the Wireworld optical made a HUGE difference, but personally won't use that connection for serious listening. That's just me and the fact remains that he's got both components hooked up the same way.

Bill, would it be too much trouble for you to rip a track or two from your demo CD to a lossless format and play the file(s) back via the QX-5's USB input? It might prove to be a meaningful comparison.... Thanks.