Ayon Audio CD-5 versus CD-5s

Melbguy1,

Vinyl does not destroy my Electrocompaniet EMC-1Up, in my system and in my listening room.
My LPs are in a crate. My last turntable is long gone.

Hi Melb1

Can you tell me your experience with the Ayon, KWA 150 combo. I have the same equipment, but have trouble with noise when i use the the Ayon as a preamp. Did you use XLR or RCA cables?

Thanks

Hi Antrigrunge,
I agree some cd treatments such as Ultrabit Platinum Plus can make a qualitative difference to the sound of cd's, but it's not really arduous; one treatment should last for years of normal use. It's interesting you mentioned your modded AA Capitole SE. I did an a-b comparison of a stock previous model Ayon CD-5 vs an AA Prestige player, and the CD-5 beat it comfortably. My modded CD-5s is significantly better, and my next player (likely a future Vitus model) will be in another league again. I appreciate the technical benefits of ripped and server based music, but at a certain level cd players like my modded CD-5s & higher end players like Vitus demonstrate what cd playback can do. With that said, I plan to invest in a high end server in a few years and connect that to my cdp's dac via SPDIF. I will still continue buy and play cd's however. I find downloads 'soulless' to be honest. There is no luxury packaging, booklets, photos, postcards etc which you can flick through and read (which often provide as much enjoyment as the cd itself). And a picture on a screen can never replace a colorful cd top cover or booklet. Audiophile cd's and cd's in general will be like gold in the future once the novelty of computer-based music has diminished, the world is devoid of character and wondering what went wrong. In 15 or 20 years, I predict high end cdp's & cd's will make a comeback just like vinyl did.

02-26-12: Danielk141,
Well I guess it depends on the level of deck we're talking about. The vinyl rig I heard demonstrated this to me was a Transrotor Rondino with an SME-V arm, Miyajima Shilabe cart, Vitus SP-101 phono stage & Siltech Royal Signature Series balanced cables. Fwiw, I like the warm, analogue sound of the EMC-1UP. The Ayon CD-5s has a similarly warm, analogue sound, though I would say the Electro is a bit more laid back in comparison. Glad you're enjoying your cd player :)

Hi Leicachamp, I asked Dan this very question previously, and this was his response -
"Hi, first of all, it is true that the input impedance of our amps is 15K at 50Hz. Our peamps range from 100ohm-300ohn-600ohm and I have driven our amps WELL with all of our preamps. A 300ohm Zout is NOT problem."
The reality is, the KWA-150 has a relatively difficult input impedance of 13K ohms which presents a difficult load to a preamp with high output impedance. The CD-5/5s has a moderately high output impedance of 300 ohms. In regard to your noise issues, this could be due to a number of things, but starting with the most obvious (cables); reviews have indicated that balanced out is more neutral in sound, whilst single ended sounds a bit warmer but at the cost of a higher noise floor. Conceptually, I prefer balanced cables and always use them when possible. I would rule line noise out as the Ayon is a pure power source. How many hours does your player have? The CD-5/5s needs 250hrs to fully bloom. Are you using stock tubes, or rolled tubes? The stock tubes should be perfect as Ayon use the best tube testing equipment in the world & only send out players with tubes tested for all 5 specs. With the KWA-150 I recommend setting the gain to 'low' and make sure the rca/xlr toggle is set correctly. Hope that helps.