Ayre C5xe or APL 3910 ?

The question I have for APL is that given the huge following, why stay as modded specialist? Why not go further now you have that following and start commercial production? The problem I have with modded players is not with their quality but reliability: and not really just the players but the mfr-dealer-after service. Perhaps if I lived in the States would be less of a problem. But there are so many smaller companies that come and go in audio and personally don't like taking that risk: or more accurately want to reduce that risk if possible.

Henryhk: That is why this really isn't a fair thread. I know Orjazzm is strictly interested in a sound comparison but there are inherent problems with modded players that have been covered in this thread as well as others.

This past April, I visited Alex Peychev at his home in Fremont, CA and he kindly demoed his Denon 3910 along with the rest of his equipment--custom-built integrated amp, interconnects, and speaker wire. He is an exceedingly gracious man. In my opinion, his APL Denon 3910 was the single most revealing and balanced player I heard on a trip that had me listening to more than a dozen players, including other modified units. However, the interesting thing that emerged that morning was his news he will be marketing his own two-box player beginning next January--a DAC and transport manufactured in Bulgaria. It will be his own design, top to bottom. The APL 3910 has been discontinued and the new player/DAC replaces it. I think this is a significant development and I hope I've gotten all the facts right.

Just curious ... in all of these evaluations of the Ayre CX5e...was it run in balanced mode with any Ayre integrated/amp/preamp equipment (i.e., Ayre AX-7e or their separate amps/preamps? If so, I would have to think (based on personal experience) that the CX5e performed much better compared to the other players mentioned. It seems like there was a lot of apples to oranges comparatives, and not in the environments that would be best suited for this particular player's sonic characteristics.