Any information on the new Ayre C5xe player?

According to Steve at Ayre the first manufactured lot went primarily to Asia. I've been notified that I will be able to audition the C5xe sometime at the end of next week.

Some US dealers are getting them. My dealer got 2 from what I was told; one was already sold sight unseen. I was also told that the C5x-e sounds better than the CX-7 and D1-x.

But will it top the Sony SCD1, still rated as one of the best ever, In fact Absolute sound called it one of the few digital players that they call a "classic" design. And they never been to happy with any digital format!

I think in some ways digital in the 2 channel format has finally reached it peak, now improves will be much slower, until a new format comes out and we have to start all over again...smile!

The C5x-e is Ayre's first SACD/DVD-A player which is somewhat of a suprise given some comments made by Charles Hansen in the past (although notice it is 2ch only). But the addition of SACD and DVD-A didn't come at much extra cost. The comparison above is Redbook only and is quite a statement for someone to make given the performance of the CX-7 and D1-x at their price points. I haven't heard it yet but I plan to in the next month or two when I do my audio upgrade. I mainly care about Redbook performance.

It is surprising that another SACD/DVD-A player is offered with the way these formats seem to be going. Ayre says it does sound better than the CX-7 but how, who knows at this point. $6000 is right pricey and approaches a lot of fast company. However, I do like Ayre's philosophy's on negative feedback, etc.
I guess we'll know something in the next month or so. I was going to buy a CX-7 w/ the Evolution upgrade but I think I'll hold for a bit. I was just at the point of going back to strictly CD playback.