Ayre C-5xe vs Ayre C-7xe??

Just a word from the wise.....don't spend ANY money on a digital source BEFORE you listen to it, ideally in your setting.
No review is worth the paper it's printed on when it comes to digital as far as I'm concerned, moreso than other components.
I've had numerous cost no object digital front ends in my reference level system, and with no concern for cost to me I have found very little correlation to musical enjoyment and written hype or price.
What is priceless is YOUR own auditory perception and thats all she wrote.........

PS: The Ayre and Meridian are cut from totally different cloths

I have owned an Ayre C-5xe since 2006. I compared the C-5 and C-7 when I was buying. I thought the C-5 was better on redbook, but there are some who disagree with me. If you don't plan to get into SACD/DVD-A and if you haven't already, it may not be worthwhile to do it now. For the money, both are great players.

Having said that, the MP upgrade puts both of these players on a whole different level altogether. A significant narrowing of the gap between digital and analog, and even does some things better than analog.

Ed

Coolhand, thanks for your perspectives. Please enlighten me though on what you hear as the clear differences between Ayre and Meridian CD players.

Thanks in advance.

Just wanted to jump in here...

I used to have a 506.24 and now have a C7xe. The presentations of the 2 players are polar opposites - the 506.24 is a laid back, calm, slow presentation which glosses over detail in order to present a smooth end result. The Ayre is involving and exciting with music that requires it, or calm and intimate with music that requires that emotion.

The Ayre seems to really focus on the timing/rhythm, whereas the Meridian seems to be attempting to sound what some people term as "analog". While there are people that would prefer the less engaging sound of the Meridian, in the end, the C7xe winds up being better in every aspect of what I enjoy in my music listening. And I also consider it to be a more analog-like presentation than the artificially smoothed-out presentation of a lot of CDP's that try to sound "analog".

The difference between the 5 and the 7 is far smaller than that between the Meridian and either Ayre IMHO. I've listened to the 5 for a short period, and not overly critically, but it sounded like the same sonic character as the 7 to me. While the 5 is most surely better than the 7 on redbook, I would expect that the experience of listening to either over the long haul is likely very similar. As such, I'd say that the $3K difference would likely be better spent elsewhere in the system, if it's just for redbook.

Thanks Countingbackwards. I had already committed to buy a 5-MP before I read your reply. I will now get a chance to see what all of the hype is about SACD and DVD-A. Plus I will have a great player for my over three thousand CD's. The Meridian G-08 is definitely laid back, refined, and images well. I'll be curious as to how I like the 5-MP once broken in. The audiophile disease is one sickness that I don't want to be cured from.........................