Okay......best single box reference CD player

>>I can't believe no one listed the Ayre C5xe in the list<<

Believe it.

It would have been mentioned otherwise.

what's in the Ayre that's competing with Emmlabs, dCS or other top single boxes?

We are talking about -at least- over 1 class of performance.

Kops..Have you heard the Ayre in balanced mode in a good system? If you had you wouldn't ask that question.

Audiofeil... You were booed by many contributors on the Vinyl edition of Audiogon, and here you are again with your snide remarks on the digital section.

There is not a single product that pleases everyone, but surely ranking CD players, the Ayre unit should be listed in the handful of top players - those that provide real music in real time.

Stringbean,
Thanks. but it doesn't change the fact that nobody mentioned the Ayre heretofore.

And for good reason.

I could care less about being booed; it's still better than being you.

Stringbean,
Let me address two issues.

First, if you canvas 10 folks with really high end systems (I mean high end, not stuff like yours) and ask which one box cd player they prefer, none will say Ayre. You'll hear Esoteric, EMM, AMR, etc.

Point two, getting "booed" by some amateur analogists is not a big deal.

Thank you.