Ayon CD-2 sonics? thoughts? opinions?

A quick follow up on the CD2 with the NOS DR tubes. My oops in installing them was more of my own concern and less of a problem than my paranoia originally portrayed.

The player is now different animal, a pure joy. All the excessive energy is tamed and the microdynamics under control. Huge soundstage with a gentle and warm yet dynamic and detailed presentation. Hard to say 'reinvents your whole cd collection', but it is fun to relisten to things with it. The decays are now extended and I'm really not finding any deficits to my ear with the reproduction from this player. The DAC portion holds up the same high standard.....

Hopefully, I can get more out about it later next month. If anyone has any specific curiosities, shoot me a email.

Enjoy the tunes!

Budburma, thanks for your updates!

Most people here love to glow over whatever gear they are running. But, your honest perspectives of what you have heard along this journey should be applauded - thank you.

There's a big improvement to change the original tubes in aynon's CD player, I'm the owner of a CD-1, and was not satisfied with the little sound hardness remaining after break in, so I went for a pair of 6H30-DR instead of the original ones and switched the EH 6922 to a pair of Siemens Cca. The player is not the same ! Best improvement came from 6H30 DR, but be patient they take quite a long time before being at their top (at least 100 hours). Switching 6922 was not a so big improvement excepted to correct some sibilance on the top treble and change slightly the medium sound. I auditioned recently the CD-2, in comparison the definition is much better, coming partly from the real symetric implantation of components and mainly, to my point of view, from the PCM 1704 Dac (same as the one in the Audiomat Maestro).
But honestly I have the same result by coupling the CD-1 with a Whest Audio DAP 10 (unfortunately discontinued), this little box is quite a mystery for me, same effect as a high end DAC. Also coupled with a Burson audio buffer it gives interesting results (personally I connect the CD-1 in RCA to the Whest audio and in XLR with the Burson Audio buffer, both give a different sounding and I switch according to the kind of music I listen to).

This thread is a bit stale, so maybe no one will see my question, which is how difficult is it to replace the tubes in the Ayon CD-2? I have heard elsewhere that the tubes are difficult to access inside the unit and therefore are pretty difficult to swap with NOS tubes. Is this true?

I have the Ayon CD2 and Ayon Retailer here replace the tubes on my CD2, and yes the tubes are difficult to access inside the unit.

But I did not like the sound of it and return to the original tubes :-)