Chord Dave or Ayre QX5 Twenty DAC???

Thanks for sharing. Have heard good things about Mike, but never knew where he was.  I"m heading down to Lido, where my sister lives in a month or two. I"ll need to call him to meet him.  Had no idea he had such nice products there.

Did you ever hear the QX5 with the AQ Diamond or Cardas's top of the line?  I've had many a cable with them over the last many months and noticed huge differences in sound. Personally, I've never heard it sound bright in the high end at all.  That surprised me.  As I posted, it's one of those products that I needed to listen to for a long time before I fully got it.  I have only heard it sound ragged once and that was on a newer, non broken in one.  

I've personally never given a ton of listening to the tubed DAC's as I don't want to deal with tubes anymore.  I liked the new Romulus a lot with stock tubes.  Haven't heard the B7, but I'm sure it's awesome based on what you had it up against.

Why did you change cables on the B7 and not the other DAC's that you listened to?  Just curious as that plays a huge role in digital I feel. Bigger than interconnects as long as you are using top gear.  

Just to show there's no best but just personal preferences / system synergy.  

Used my Dana USB cable on all DACs

( note after the shootout, Mike mentioned he likes the QX5 with another USB

Why?   Should use the best matching cable?

I had a Lampizator Atlantic in my system for 2 weeks and it's very very good ... most neutral Lampizator to my ear.   Ultimately I prefer my more neutral and a touch more transparent ModWright Sony HAP-Z1ES.   But if anyone needs a little tube magic, Atlantic would do the trick.

Forget about the Chord Dave or the Ayre QX-5 Twenty, I had them both but sold them for a French DAC Metronome C8 dual box for only $8000 purchased from Audiogon used but still a bargain considering the unit retail over $20K+...The Metronome C8 has both tube/solid state outputs via a simple switch and you could enjoy the best of both world! It is simply amazingly musical DAC with holographic 3D imaging that you could reach out and touch but the midrange is so natural so scary real...look for a used C8 or even better the Metronome C8+ DAC and you will be happy for a long long time...

Lampizator Atlantic and the Modwright Sony HAP. Now that's a very interesting top tier product comparison for certain. You could not possibly go wrong with either of these.The Totaldac would be a worthy competitor.
Charles

Totaldac was brought up earlier and he said why pay that much when you can get the QX5/20 for so much less.  It's great to bring up used DAC's, however they are not always available and he stated that he wanted new.  Don't blame him a bit either. He also stated that Roon is very important to him, so he needs a DAC that will be a Roon endpoint, which the Ayre is.  Are the other DAC's folks are suggesting also Roon endpoints? I"m sure some are, just am not up on all the DAC's that are.

Just because we all like a component, he's asking for some specifics for his situation.  Lot's of great choices for sure.  Not sure if he wants to deal with the tube thing or not.  I also noticed that most of the friends I have or posters I've seen post on Lampizator or other tube DAC's talk about changing out the stock tubes or other ones.  Unless you are a tube roller, you probably don't want to bother going there, lol.  I"ve done my share over the years with CJ, Audio Research, Aesthetix, Jadis, Quicksilver, DIY preamp, Audible Illusions, Cary, Marantz, Counterpoint and a few others.  It was always a pain in the butt for me, lol.  I never fully got the enjoyment out of it that others seem to.  The only tube gear left is the Aestheix Rhea that I've decided to sell even though it just came back with a new, updated power section and tubes.  

I decided I like the Ayre so much, that I'm finally giving up the analog and will sell it all.  Like I posted earlier, I also LOVE the new Brinkman DAC too.  I will eventually get one in the house to A/B vs the Ayre.