Ayon Audio CD-5 versus CD-5s

It is a Boulder after all Melbguy :)

Please remember personally The Skylla dac with the Bryston player
Is the ticket and $2 k less than the dac 5 and using the Bryston
Player beats the cd-5 without any doubt it brings digital
To the 21 st century and on another level. Also there is several gain
Positions to match gain of other preamps ,or direct into a amp
Which is the way to go and betters most preamps out there
This is a spectacular buy and I stand by my statement that this unit betters the Wiess in realism and musicality, the Berkeley 2 places 3rd .
This was done with 6 listeners 4 out of6 , but your values may differ
Find a dealer who will let you listen . The Ayon cd5 was used As the dac.
In reality the Skylla2 dac is potentially a bit better for of the 3 R core
Transformers in the dac it does not need to power the transport section.

Audioman, well done. Yes I agree, if you have the space for a separate transport and dac, i'd agree that approach should sound better. I don't know how a CD-5s would compare (as transport) to your Bryston, but there is no doubt the Skylla 2 dac (on which the CD-5s is based) is awesome! As an integrated player, it is no exageration to describe the CD-5s as over-built and one heck of a player at or even near it's price point.

That being said the Bryston player with properly ripped CDs to a external hard drive
Sounds superior to the cd5 s in every way .every review states the same
It is the new 21 st century medium,and with hires downloads
Even more so.

Audioman, have you tried 24/96 streaming via the CD-5s? If you're saying that ripping a cd to a computer hard drive, then passing the signal (with no additional information) then sending it back to a transport sounds better in every way, that strikes me as counter intuitive. I do agree high rez music sounds superior to lower resolution music, but you can also buy a range of high res music on cd from different labels including Chesky, Decca & Blue Note, and in different formats like XRCD, K2HD, HDCD & DXD. They said record players were dead, well look at vinyl now. I'm not tossing my cdp, and in fact plan to upgrade next year!