Any one else going to Audio Connection in NJ

[ctsooner]

on the 30th to see the Ayre QX-5? Alex will be there and they'll most probably be running it with the Aurender. It may only be the N100h as I'm not sure if he's showing the N10 right now.

[ctsooner]

No one going? He may also have the Melco N1A if Alex can bring it in. This is the Northeast premier event. What else is going? Post here if you are thinking about it. I'm the one using a rollator to get around (walker with wheels) and would love to meet folks from the boards.

Pete

[ctsooner]

Looks like a bunch from the boards who are close to NYC/NJ are heading down on Saturday. Can't wait to meet you guys.

[Blackstone]

Make sure the unit is warmed up and that you have good hi rez source material. Report back at once! Have fun!

[Blackstone]

What's the verdict ct?

[ctsooner]

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.

Blackstone, PM me if you want to. This DAC was just too new to honestly say anything publicly. It is obvious that it's got a very rich tone. It just needs to break in. It's as simple as that, but I have the AX5/Twenty and I am so familiar with the Ayre reference gear as all my dealers carry the products (which is important so everyone can probably just drive a few hours to hear it). That double diamond circuit works. Bottom line is that it works and they use that as well as filtering in the QX5.

[Blackstone]

Hopefully I'll get mine this month. Just waiting at this point. Thanks for the feedback.

[ctsooner]

Blackstone. Give it time and I'm sure you'll be very very happy. We are all hoping to get ours in a couple of weeks. I didn't ask Alex the time frame for them getting the chips and shipping. I figure it will be like Hanukkah (or Xmas or any other holiday) and I'll get a call from Johnny saying that my unit is in the store and heading out in a few hours, lol.