Welcome Themis.. I've talked to Ayre occasionally and haven't heard of any mods or updates. I'd think Ayre would encourage the upgrade to those of us who've bought one, but you might call them as they're easy to reach.
My ONLY small complaint is that I wish it were a little quieter when open/close, but it's performance has been spectacular. |
The c5xe is a great player for the money. I don't know of any updates that have been made and I highly encourage you to pick one up. |
http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/have_another_hit_of_fresh_ayre/ |
There is a mod on the C5xe. It isn't major...I think its only a firmware update, and is brand new. Check with Michael at Ayre. |
I'm sure Mr. Hansen will chime in here shortly, but we've been chatting about this over at the Asylum: We'll have to work out the details of the upgrade program. It will probably be several more weeks as it takes a while to recover from CES. We'll work out a fair deal. The C-5xeMP will only require a firmware upgrade, a full check out, and a 24-hour burn-in. The CX-7eMP gets that plus a completely new "operating system" plus a new ATAPI cable (to the ROM drive) plus a new chip on the audio board to configure the DAC chip. (And that's if it's an "evolution" version. Older units will require even more changes and cost more for the upgrade.) http://www.AudioAsylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=digital&m=142833 Also... We re-wrote the entire "operating system" that controlled the ROM drive. The new software adds a few nice user features. We honestly added the "time remaining" feature just because of you. It wasn't that hard to do it for each track. We couldn't do a "total disc remaining time" feature and keep it backwards compatible with the existing units, plus it gets really confusing when you think about random and repeat (or worse yet, both of them combined) modes.
Previously you couldn't do anything until the drive read the Table of Contents (ToC). Now you can do things like place the disc in the open drawer, press "5" on the remote and it will close, read the ToC, and play Track 5.
However, it does take the ROM drive a slightly longer time to read the ToC than a stand-alone player. (Well, at least most stand-alone players. I think the champ here was the Sony SCD-1 at something like 30 or 40 seconds!) But that is better than the alternative of selling people things that will become boat anchors. I know of one customer that has an expensive ($10,000+) Goldmund that he cannot get a replacement laser or transport for. Now it is only good for an interesting sculpture.... http://www.AudioAsylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=amp&m=140187 |
