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Thank for your impressions!

I was wondering if a QX-5 twenty paired with a VX-5 twenty with digital volume control would sound as good as a QX-5 twenty paired with an AX-5 twenty. I could save $3k there and get a more powerful amp to boot.

Did Alex mention anything special about the digital volume control?

Thanks!

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If the digital volume control is as good as what you are saying, saving money by going with a VX-5 seems mighty tempting. Or even going for a even cheaper Pass Labs XA30.8.

One more thing, any idea on how heavy the QX-5 weighs? Seems like a hefty beast from your pictures.

Thanks!

No clue how much it weighs! Looked pretty substantially built to me!

This is probably not a fair question, but did you have an opportunity to compare the Ayre DAC SQ to that nice DCS equipment next to it?

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I looks like Vivaldi. I think it was Scott? who said it was that one. Larger than Rossini, which I really like a lot, but that's freaking 25k and wayyyy out of my league, lol. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to get this unit in my system. Now that the Melco can hook up with an optical drive to transfer my CD;s, I'm going to get that this week and start the music transfers and then get the QX in August when they will probably get shipping. Can't wait.

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I just ordered one too! Should get it in August as well.

Ordered one yesterday. Its about the same price as the DCS Debussy here in Singapore though. Would the DCS be a better choice? Hmmmmm

I just ordered one and am excited. I just sold a GREAT sounding DAC in the Empirical OSDE and I am concerned the Ayre may not be as good, but I think it could be. This is the first time I've ever bought something like this without listening first. The OSDE was just a SMIDGE lower than the Berkley Ref 1 DAC, so this Ayre has a lot to live up to for me. I do have faith or I wouldn't have sold the OSDE at this point. I'll most probably be using the newer QNAP 471 NAS running Roon Core as well as HQPlayer (not totally sold on the latter though). If not, I'll just get the Melco and us it as a NAS. I'll do USB if I have the Melco, but if I go with the QNAP, I'll be needing to go Ethernet. I wonder if the connection is Galvanic Isolated.

My DX-5 has galvanic isolated USB connection, my guess is that they will do do that for any Computer/network connection.

There is not much info yet on the Ayre site, hopefully the will give more info on the website soon.

I am wondering how much better it will sound than my DX-5.

The QB9 and QB9-DSD were always reviewed as one of the most computer immune DACs out there. I assume the QX-5 will be as good and probably better in that regard.

I've spoken to Alex a couple of times as well as others who have heard it. That's the only reason I sold my Empirical OSDE/SE. that was the best DAC I've ever heard under 15k and it's not close. Many feel the same about it. I love Ayre gear other than a piece or two, so I'm assuming the DAC will be special. It's not their statement piece since it's a 5 series, but it should sound great with my AX-5/Twenty. Learning so much about digital. I have decided that I'm getting the QNAP 471 and running Roon core and most probably the HQPlayer after reading up on them.

I know they say HQPlayer sounds good upconverting to LPCM. But wouldn't a DAC that does Native DSD be a better option if you are going to do HQPlayer? Native DSD 256 or better.

Otherwise I'd let the Ayre do it's magic on Red book. It's filters are top notch as it is.

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So basically go without the HQPlayer and use Roon? I have about 300gb of well recorded high res material in all genres that is run from a mac mini that was rebuilt by Steven Nugent of Empirical. He used the server in shows before moving to Antipodes. I will be selling it off as soon as I figure out what NAS to run for the best sound. I don't have to have a network as I only will stream Tidal in my Linn Kiko system (bedroom). SQ first as long as I can afford it, ease of set up and use are vital and cost will play a roll, but I've budgeted to do this properly I hope.

I have the QX on order. I sold my Empirical, which is the best under 15k DAC I've ever heard and many others with top systems agree with me. I'm expecting a ton from this Ayre and want it to sound it's best. thanks.

Which Empirical?

Empirical OSDE/SE, mentioned in a previous post.

I too ordered one and am looking at upgrading server from my rebuilt Mac Mini. the more I think about things, I don't know if I need a high end server/streamer or if I should just get a NAS or a good hard drive. I'm trying to figure out the best SQ...I can't afford the Aurender W-20, but it's a great sounding server/streamer as is the Music Vault Diamond Ultra, but would the QX-5/Twenty sound just as good hooked up to a NAS or HD? If I had the QNAP 471 NAS, I could load up Roon Core and use it headless with an iPad just like any other server.

Blackstone, did you speak with Alex about this? I spoke with him about the Melco and he said that he likes that, but there are other options out there. I would hate to have to much redundancy and maybe I can save a lot of money and just get a top NAS set up or the Melco (although you can't use Roon with a Melco).

thoughts?

I'm going to try the QX-5 Twenty/NAS/ROON first and see how that sounds and works, then I will demo the Aurender in my system to see/hear the difference. In addition to flawless operation of accessing your music, I'm told the Aurender does improve the sound quality too. I was looking at the N10(?)... Just below the W20.

I recently had a chance to listen to this, and frankly I found ti hard to believe I was listening to a Red Book CD and not something higher resolution.

Excellent reproduction of voices, retains all directional cues and I suspect for anyone with no analog sources completely would obviate the need for a pre.

Bill, what did you listen to? With NAS running Roon and if so, which NAS and how was it hooked up? I spoke with Neal Von Berg about his Music Vault yesterday. I have a close friend who owns the top of the line MV and feels it's better than the W-20. I can see that honestly, as I have heard their older ones and liked them better than the Aurender at the time (right when Aurender was coming into this country). There are home made (by professionals) servers out there that also sound better than the W-20. I have LOVED the W-20 since day one and I've been fortunate to hear it in a few systems that are worthy.

I lean towards the Music Vault only because it's an all in one. The blue ray ripper is tied into dbpoweramp and rips bit perfectly in about 2minutes per disc. It can store the half dozen blue ray discs the wife would want so those will be gone from the room also. It has a very high end A/D converter built in so that I can record all the albums and then sell off the Basis TT, Rhea and albums to pay for the MV in the first place. It's all balanced and I can use the AES connection for a perfect hook up to the QX-5 and stay completely balanced throughout. Wire world builds a special balanced cable that has the 4 pin on the server side and the 3 pin on the Ayre side. It's their cast solid silver cable that sounds terrific. Cast silver to me, sounds the best by far and is never too hot, which I am very sensitive to.

I'm not 100% sold though. If I can get much better SQ from the Ayre and either the Melco NAS (can't run Roon) or a QNAP 471 NAS then I'll go that route for 4k less and I could use that 4k for college for the kids, LOL... So many questions.

Glad that I will get to see and hear it in person on the 30th at Audio Connections in Verona, NJ.

Bill, thanks for the answer in advance. Really appreciate it.

It was a vanilla RB CD being played from optical disc from a DX-5 DSD to the QX-5 Twenty.

My gut says if the QX-5 Twenty sounds that good with RB, it will sound incredible with other sources as well.

I was impressed enough that I'm thinking of the possibility of selling my Wadia S7i and using my Oppo BDP-105 as a transport for the QX-5 Twenty, but as always digital is such a personal thing that I can't say it would be right for you.

What I found most favorable was the sound was always detailed and pure but without any induced fatigue; I still recall listening to (admittedly, two decades ago) Theta DACS which resolved impressive detail but just made me too tired to listen to after a few minutes.

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The first ones shipped to dealers yesterday. Audio Connection in Verona, NJ will have Alex from Ayre next Saturday for the Northeast premier. Anyone else going? If so, say hi to me, I'll be using my rollator to get around (walker with wheels). I have a separate thread on nearly any board about it as I love meeting guys I know from the boards.

As for what I'll do, I will NOT be using USB. Even though the usb was rebuilt on the Mac as well as the clock etc... I will be upgrading to make it easier to use the system headless and to get much much more hard drive space. Steve only installed about 300 plus GB of space. Since all I need is a hard drive to store all my stuff and a noise free ethernet connection for the Ayre, I'll figure out where I go and now I do it.

Are you saying the dealer demo units are shipping?

Yes, Blackstone, they shipped late last week I believe. That's why this Saturday will be so cool. Can't wait.

I've asked the Roon guys if the QX-5 Twenty has been in for certification. No response yet. I have to assume it's preproduction or a beta firmware coming to the dealers in that regards.

Hopefully my unit is not far behind!

I'll be at the event on Saturday and ask Alex about this.

Demo unit arrived in Singapore. I will try to listen to it on Friday.

(Audio)

cool. I"ll also try and post as soon as I can after Saturday. I hope it's burning in nicely as I know it will need about 500 hours and like other Ayre gear, that may mean on each input.

What a great day at Audio Connections in NJ. I've become a fanboy of them (they aren't the only dealer I frequent) because Johnny is a great human being. He really does care. I continually see him keeping folks within they budgets and coming up with great systems.

The star of the day though was the QX5/Twenty. It was a fun day. The QX5 showed tons of promise and I'm glad that I purchased one. It only had about 30 hours on it and by 6pm last night, you could hear it breaking in little by little. The bones of it were there though and I know it will be killer once it's got a few hundred hours on it. Looks great, built great and the headphone amp was outstanding with my Noble Savant's and it had 0 hours on it, lol. The amp is built similarly to the Codex (to me one of digital's best buys), but with the best parts they had on hand as the budget allowed for that. I still can't believe that it has 10 digital connections you can use. What a digital hub and we used Roon to run it. I've never used Roon before, but Michael Lavorgna has been telling me use it before deciding what to use for a hard drive set up. I honestly think that I will just do the Qnap 471 with Roon on the SSD in the first bay and follow the set up that Michael shared and that's on the QNAP site. I will also do the optical conversation and run it to the system to get rid of the RF problems that an ethernet cable can have.

I can't really talk about HOW the QX5/Twenty sounded since it was nearly out of the box, but it's going to punch well above it's range like every other Ayre product. What an exciting company to watch as they continually keep upgrading what are good products and allowing we users to pay minimally for these upgrades so we don't feel left out in the cold. Alex from Ayre is a great guy and it was fun picking his brain on the QX5/Twenty as well as other Ayre products. Was a fun day for me personally as a few of my friends showed up from the boards.

Wrong thread

What thread was it supposed to be? LOL....Blackstone is loving this QX5 and my friends are all selling their Berk ref mk 2's for the QX5 Twenty. That says a ton.

Got your QX5 yet?

I've been gone and will be for another week. I told them to ship it either tomorrow or Monday. It will be here when I get back. Cant' wait. I did audition the Codex with the regen I believe it was on the ethernet to usb input, using the optical converter to reduce the noise on the line. It was awesome. I'll be running a line for a Melco I'll use (most probably) as well as the QX5 Twenty. Cant' wait to get it all up and running.