Ayre advise a balanced connection, I have tried with CX7E-mp and DX-5, both times balanced was the better option. (my integrated amp is also fully balanced)
One of my friends has my old CX7E-mp player now, he tried a balanced connection to his Primare Pre-Amp, and here the balanced connection sounds worse than single ended. So it depends on your own system, but if you have full balanced amp, I am sure the balanced connection is the preferred way to go. Ayre gear is notorious for breaking in, and even after breaking in, if you take the power supply off (in my case 8 weeks, due to my work rotation) it takes 2 days to get back to the "magic" |
dbphd... Welcome to AA! :wave:
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Welcome. I can only talk about the gear since the AX7e (I owned that and upgraded to AX5 and then AX5/20. I also own the QX5/20) and since. I am very familiar with the ref series, but don't own it.
If you want the Ayre magic as you call it, then yes balanced is needed. It's just designed to be used that way. Honestly, I've felt for years that using the balanced inputs and outputs is most important as it lowers the noise floor allowing you to get the micro and macro dynamics of the music. That's where that magic happens. I used non balanced phono stage for a year or so and once I upgraded to a balanced phono I noticed a huge difference in sound. Totally different amp to be honest. I ran the phono both ways and anyone could tell the difference. Even reviewers who often don't mention things like that will mention it. JMHO |
The problem with that is I want to shunt frequencies below 100 Hz away from the LS50s where distortion is said to rise. I bought a used Bryston 10B today to do just that while maintaining the balanced link.
db |
Recently I changed out the interconnects and speaker cable between my C-5xeMP, K-5xeMP and VX-5 Twenty from single-ended to entirely balanced Cardas Golden Reference, and the difference was immediate. I estimate having about 300 hours in, and still keep noticing improvements, but basically it has really smoothed out (just talking about from the time of initial balanced installation). Compared to single ended, the performance I'm getting now is apples to oranges, a different league.
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The reason you notice improvements may be due to you breaking in a new connection. On the QX5/20 you only need to break in the DAC, but on the preamps and amps you need to break in each connection. It will get better all the way up to at least 500 hours. Its' the amount of silver used in the leads etc... Crazy isn't it?
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My dealer had only used the streaming interface on theirs and when I borrowed it and used the coaxial and Toslink inputs it sounded quite harsh and brittle. A few months later after my dealer had broken in those inputs I borrowed it again and it sounded quite a bit more musical. |
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It's difficult, because analog break-in makes sense, needing to break-in a path that just transmits either 0 or 1 doesn't, but there are still components in the path that may or may not need a signal applied to break in properly.
Regardless, I think that break-in of the analog side is much more important. |
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