2. digital
  3. 124453-113

Ayre now has a new QX-5 all in one

box with DAC/Streamer (Tidal etc), Roon ready. It has nearly any input and a great headphone amp too.  It can also be used as a preamp, although I personally have yet to hear any digital pre sound as good as a great preamp, but that's me.  It's all balanced and has the Ayre power supply filters that all the Ayre products have.  I can't wait to hear it. I personally am running a great sounding Empirical Audio OSDE/SE with all the upgrades from Steve and I also have a Mac Mini server that Empirical totally rebuilt with a separate Hynes linear power supply.  It's full of only hi rez, well recorded music of all genres.  I love it, but the new servers do sound a bit better, so I've been looking.  I didn't want to set up a NAS, but since I run a Linn DS system in the bedroom I'm open to it.  I love the Melco NAS and may just get that for my NAS and the Ayre for everything else.  I want a simple, one box solution and I do use IEM's and cans on Sunday and Sat mornings so having a great amp solution in my main rig is enticing too.

I rn an Ayre AX-5 Twenty with Vandersteen Treo's (going to sell so I can upgrade to the Quatro's) and Basis/Aesthetix's for vinyl.  Pretty exciting times in digital.  I'm sure that Ayre will be a great value for all that it offers and it should sound incredible.  Time will tell.
ctsooner
yage
401 posts
 
I compared MQA to PCM on an Explorer 2 and came away underwhelmed. It might be fine for streaming, but I think it trades off performance against traditional PCM to do so (except perhaps at the 'native' resolution).

I'm definitely looking forward to the Ayre. I've got an AX-5 Twenty / C-5xeMP setup and can't wait to do an A/B with the QX-5.
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
From what I was told, you'll be blown away.  They just get how to do digital correctly.  Some companies do great digital filtering and others analog.  Steven Nuggent (Empirical Audio) has both down extremely well.  Right now, my DAC is on the same level as Berkley Ref, which is a very nice DAC so I'm still needing to hear the QX5 Twenty in my system. That's not going to happen for a long time as production isn't huge right now.  Warner just signed up with MQA, however no details on how much of their catalog or when.  For me, I won't be adding that much new music as I have all of my favorites and I can stream Tidal to get any new stuff I want.  
mahler123
3,380 posts
 
As an FYI, my dealer told me the tentative price for the new Ayre will be around 10 grand
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
Ok. It may be. Ayre told me around 9k last week. I do hope it's much closer to 9!lol
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 

Here's the latest on MQA: Warner Music Group Goes with MQA

http://www.stereophile.com/

Warner is one of the big three major labels, the other two being Sony and Universal.

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