Ayon Audio CD-5 versus CD-5s

Audioman, I don't doubt your digital solution sounds great, but there seems to be a lot of steps in the signal chain, so i'm less convinced about of any advantage from shortening the signal path. Less moving parts? Well look at Accuphase, Ayon & Vitus; they produce bullet proof transports which are very accurate, so I don't see any deficit there. Whilst I do agree that mainstream cd's will inevitably fade out, leaving mostly audiophile cd labels still producing high rez cd's, I don't believe in absolutes like "This is the future". Who says so? That is not true for me if I don't agree with it. I plan to buy a lot of audiophile grade cd's and vinyl in the next few years and continue to play them on my cdp. My next cdp is likely to be the future replacement for the current Vitus SCD-010. I'd be more than happy to put the Vitus up against any streamer on the planet. At the end of the day however, vinyl played on a high end rig is still clearly superior to even the best digital front ends i've heard. As for Ayon, since I already reviewed the CD-5s in an earlier post, I wont comment any further on it's sound or repeat specs or part bins which can be readily found on Ayon's website or in the many online reviews. Suffice to say it is a wonderful sounding player.

There seems to me continued confusion over the advantages of reading a CD into memory before replay as in a computer versus just reading it on the fly as CD players do. Anyone who has experienced the vastly different ripping times on various CDs will appreciate that there are numerous read-errors on direct replay which a small buffer can only imperfectly address.

Antigrunge, thanks for your f/back. I would think the very best cdp's like Vitus would be considerably more accurate than the majority of cdp's. Also, Boulder's 1021 player features up and oversampling (8x) and a buffer which reads approx 2 minutes ahead, so the performance is comparable to ripped files. Not sure how the Vitus works, but to my ears the SCD-010 sounded just a touch better than the Boulder, but it was very very close.

Before making any statements regarding digital players
You must have the best digital cables , and I feel the Wireworld Platinum usb, and xlr digital cables fit that bill,also the Bryston being all solid state
From buffer , angela@ sound card greatly modified as well as a pure
Class-A analog output stage is a major step up from Any transport out there.I compared the cd-5s standard as well as master recordings, then
The ripped version through db power amp program it is just more natural sounding and 3 dimensional sounding ,the Bryston player truly raises the barred the reviews- awards then take the time to experiment with slower rips and a good ripping program,it is also much better than from a computer
No notice from internal drives and fans and switching .
Starting in 2012 more and more new and old Hirez downloads are becoming available. I owned a Clearaudio turntable setup worth over $ 15 k
That I don't personally feel it bettered my current setup especially when they both are close In sonics.Inmy opinion no cd player out there is as good. Don't knock it until you have built a digital library to an external hard drive going to the Bryston
Digital player with the best programs and cables.

Audioman58, I also have ayon cd-5s.
Great player with really good pre-amp.
Your comments about using Bryston digital player instead of transport made me thinking about setting up front end utilizing Bryston and finally have my all cds on a hard drive. Couple questions here. Does computer and cd/dvd drive quality/brand affect ripping qulity. Is that better to rip cds on computer first or directly to external HD. Does one need to use specific brand/quality of external HD. How dificault to attach ipod/ipad as a remote for Bryston? Your input will be very helpful.
Thank you.