Ayre C 5xe Universal vs. Cary 306 SACD

Kalan,

To further build on your last repsonse I just received the evolution version of the CX-7 which replaced the non evolution unit. There is a noticable jump in improvement especially in the blackness of the background....if the C-5xe betters rebook by the same amount of improvement that the evolution version provided over the non evolution CX-7, I'll begin saving today!

Kalan
If you already ownthe CX7 then have grown to appreciate the Ayre sound. I think you would be happier in the long run with the C5xe. I know I am patiently waiting for the C5xe to hit my doorstep. 5 week wait. I do know my local dealer just received another one that the customer didn't take. It is available for quick sale. I am waiting for a black face one or would have one already.

Thank you, Mattkimb96 and Theo, for your input. When you get your C-5xe (Theo), please update us on your impressions. And if you get one too, Mattkimb96, it would be great to hear from you. (BTW, it's great to hear that Ayre offers a black faceplate for the C-5xe; the CX-7's come in only silver---as far as I know.)

In the meantime, I will wait until I can get a side-by-side audition of both machines, hopefully in my own system.

Any others who've heard the 306 SACD next to the C-5xe...?

Kalan, I have had the C5xe for about 10 days now and I believe it is burned in pretty good. I have had it playing day and night for about 5 days and it sounding unbelieveably good. I am rediscovering my CD collection.
I have not played one disc that I haven't noticed some little nuance, back ground vocal or instrument that I had not heard before. The tonal presentation is hard to describe, it has such a "natural" sound. The space between the instruments has grown but filled with the added expansion of each sound. I am sure that doesn't describe it well but the bottom line is no regrets. I owned a Linn Ikemi which I felt was great player but this Ayre just pushed the memory of it to far reaches of my mind. I could not imagine many players that would sound better for less that 10K or more!

Congratulations, Theo, on your C-5xe. How does it look in black? Thanks for the great "sonic" description, too.

I may opt for Mattkimb96's suggestion of just upgrading my CX-7 and be done with it.

I have been side-tracked with some recent auditioning of the new GamuT DI-150 (integrated) and some Shunyata Altair interconnects. I hope to get back to my digital front end decisions soon.

I hope to get a good side-by-side demo of both the Cary 306 SACD and the Ayre 5-Cxe soon. Besides any ergonomic and user function capability, I really need to hear them both in the same system. My preference going in is for the Ayre because its baby brother (CX-7) does such a fantastic job of making the music "read" artistically, so to speak.