ASR is usable only as a general guideline. You will be in trouble if you blindly follow ASR's advice. I have Linn and Chord Dacs/DS which are among the best measured Dacs by ASR and Codex, which is one of the worst measured DACs by ASR. I can say from my experience the Codex sounds better (i.e., better weight, more mid range pureness, more analog sounding, more transparent, more dynamic, more of an ease) to me than the Chord and very competitive against Linn considering the price differential.
Pono and the Ayre Codex
Hi everyone, a recent review over at Audio Science Review made me put a few things together.
The review from 4/11/2019 is here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-ayre-codex-dac-amp.7282/
Couple of things I have to wonder about. First, what’s interesting to me is how close the distortion and output impedance measurements are to the Pono, measured by Stereophile here:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pono-ponoplayer-portable-music-player-measurements
The ASR reviewer (amirm) unfortunately measured the Codex before listening to it. I say unfortunately because honestly to my ears the Pono was one of the best headphone amps / DACs I’ve ever heard. In particular, I’ve never heard my Shure E4s sound as good as they did with the Pono, so the Codex has always been kind of interesting to me, now that the Pono is gone. I never ended up buying a Pono for user interface and size issues, but I have always kind of wistfully remembered it. Instead I’ve gone with Fiio.
It is impossible to tell if Amirm would have come to the same conclusions about the quality of sound if he/she had listened first.
As it turns out I’ve kept my desktop setup cheap and used a Topping which is quite nice.. but I wonder now and then if my memory of the Pono was wrong, or whether Ayre would ever make another portable amp, like say a module for the Fiio portable.
Sorry, this is a bit of a ramble, especially since I’ve not heard the Codex, and my time with the Pono was years ago.
For those of you who have heard either or both, what are your thoughts??
The review from 4/11/2019 is here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-ayre-codex-dac-amp.7282/
Couple of things I have to wonder about. First, what’s interesting to me is how close the distortion and output impedance measurements are to the Pono, measured by Stereophile here:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/pono-ponoplayer-portable-music-player-measurements
The ASR reviewer (amirm) unfortunately measured the Codex before listening to it. I say unfortunately because honestly to my ears the Pono was one of the best headphone amps / DACs I’ve ever heard. In particular, I’ve never heard my Shure E4s sound as good as they did with the Pono, so the Codex has always been kind of interesting to me, now that the Pono is gone. I never ended up buying a Pono for user interface and size issues, but I have always kind of wistfully remembered it. Instead I’ve gone with Fiio.
It is impossible to tell if Amirm would have come to the same conclusions about the quality of sound if he/she had listened first.
As it turns out I’ve kept my desktop setup cheap and used a Topping which is quite nice.. but I wonder now and then if my memory of the Pono was wrong, or whether Ayre would ever make another portable amp, like say a module for the Fiio portable.
Sorry, this is a bit of a ramble, especially since I’ve not heard the Codex, and my time with the Pono was years ago.
For those of you who have heard either or both, what are your thoughts??
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- 16 posts total
- 16 posts total