Esoteric SA-10 or Ayre CX-7e: Too close to call??

Richard, Thank you for the support. By making members self conscious of asking even the simplest questions, however far out or bothersome is to make them gunshy of ASKING ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL and forever Jim

Chayro & Tom6897 reminded me why I left these forums. Things haven't changed much in the past 30 years I guess.

Both you and I love Ayre....go for it.

Sunnyjim asked a valid question about comparing Ayre to Esoteric and I believe we should answer his question. It makes no difference to me how many questions he asks as long as it helps him get closer to making a decision. His equipment choices are limited since he lives in Honolulu and he has a limited number of retailers to select from. Many people are asking questions on Audiogon to help them get closer to the right decision for them.

I own the Ayre CX-7e MP CD player and like it very much. I experimented once with the Ayre QB-9 USB DAC. At first, I was impressed with the way it sounded. I used the MAC Book Pro computer with 4 GB RAM and the 120GB solid state drive. I used the Seaport Free Agent Go Pro 500GB external hard drive to store my music files.

After many months of listening, I decided I did not like it the way it sounded in my system. In addition, there were too many boxes and too many wires in my living room. I sold everything and returned to my Ayre CX-7e MP CD player. I never looked back and like my CX-7e MP CD player very much.

For me, I liked the sound coming from the Ayre CX-7e MP better than the sound coming from the MAC computer and the Ayre QB-9 DAC. It felt more natural and clearer than the computer and DAC did. I do not know how the Ayre sounds compared to the Esoteric but I like my Ayre very much. My Ayre CX-7eMP is running balanced into my integrated amplifier. I hope this helps.

I have enjoyed the SA-10 for over two years , finally selling my Electrocompaniet 1Up. I love the way it plays both formats an sounds excellent. I have auditioned a couple of more expensive Esoteric model (SA50, X03SE) and the SA-10 really holds its own. As you move up their line you may hear more detail but if you didn't hear the more expensive models, you wouldn't realize anything from the presentation was missing.