Is anyone familiar with the Ayre Dac??

I don't know about the Ayre house sound, but the QB9 DAC as compared to many of the DACs out there is beautiful, slightly romantic and polite. All things that other people have said.

It's a fine sounding DAC, striking a nice balance between resolved and musical. For some systems, it may be just what the doctor ordered.

I've also auditioned or owned the W4S DAC2 (a bit on the bright side), PWD MK2 (smooth and undigital), NAD M51 (resolved, neutral, but not fatiguing at all, great direct to amp too), and a number of other DACs.

I'd put the PWD MK2, Ayre QB-9 and NAD M51 all in the same class. Their appropriateness separated mostly by personal preference and system synergy.

I'm a big fan of the M51 right now. I've never really thought too much of NAD components, but the M51 has really changed my mind.

I know I'm going off topic, but I had to comment on a post above that states the DX-5 is the flagship of Ayre's line, it is not, it is a Blueray player that sadly missed the mark when it came to an audio player. The C5 is still by far a better sounding machine.

Audio, I think you should try the REFLink with an AES Silversmith cable to the DAC3.5VB MKII.

I suspect that might beat the ST connection.

I do not think you can better the ST connection.

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 several 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 wires in my living room. I sold everything and returned to my Ayre CX-7e MP CD player. I never looked back and continue to like my Ayre CX-7e MP CD player very much.

For me, I liked the sound coming from the Ayre CX-7e MP CD Player better than the sound coming from the MAC computer and the Ayre QB-9 DAC. It felt more natural, clearer and better than the computer and DAC did. I like my Ayre CX-7eMP very much. It is running balanced into my Luxman L-590ax integrated amplifier. I hope this helps you better understand the Ayre QB-9. I suggest you borrow one and try it in your system.