Hey @beetlemania -
How close do you feel they are in sound quality??
How close do you feel they are in sound quality??
Pono and the Ayre Codex
It is also possible that Amirm is doing something I’m a little afraid I am doing. He’s training his ears with his scope. I’m much more sensitive to, and more accurate, than other audiophiles, when it comes to frequency response aberrations. This has to do with me using a measuring microphone as much as I have. Kind of like how working at a sandwich shop you end up learning to weigh exactly what 2 ounces of meat feels like. Use the scale enough times and you’ll be dead on. It may also be that having Parasound and Class D amps I've trained my ear out of distortion which Pass and fanatics love. Maybe this is why my taste in amps and my utter dislike for Pass comes from. Ear/brain training. |
I think the Pono and Codex have similar 'guts'. They sounded pretty much indistinguishable when I had a chance to listen back-to-back. Having said that, when I had the opportunity to compare the Codex to the C-5xeMP and the QB-9 DSD, both of which I still own, I thought the Codex wasn't quite as good. It was less resolving and sounded a touch more forward vs. the older sources. |
How close do you feel they are in sound quality??I’ve only heard the Pono with headphones and my short demo of a Codex was with speakers. But, if you like the SQ of the Pono it seems you would like the Codex at least as much. Supposed to be similar topology but with better power supply and parts quality. Ayre is not a company that will charge you more for the same or worse SQ as you move up the product line. https://www.hifiplus.com/articles/ayre-codex-dacheadphone-amplifier/ https://darko.audio/2015/01/ayre-acoustics-build-on-ponoplayer-with-codex-1-dacamp-at-ces-2015/ https://www.audiostream.com/content/ayre-acoustics-codex-usb-dac-headphone-amp-digital-preamp Also, Jim Smith has credible ears, IMO https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/15/152594.html |