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Ayre -- a different opinion

160.79.139.10

I'm glad you're enjoying the Ayre. I had an older Ayre CX7 -- the last one that came out before the e-upgrade. I traded in that machine for the C5-xe player but later sold that one too. Both models seem to do Redbook well, and I wouldn't quibble with the analogue-like nature of the presentation -- I guess in some ways it's more like vinyl compared to a lot of CD players, and also seemed to make some CDs that sounded harsh on other players that I had owned more "tolerable." Having said this, and I realize that in some circles it may not be fashionable to critique a player (or players, if you include the C5-xe too) that have universally received glowing press reviews, I would like to point out several things that bugged me about these machines. One concerns the transports -- for the very high price of these machines, it is disappointing that better quality transports could not be used, rather than relying on modified CD-ROM or DVD units. Not that they don't do the job, but they are noisy - the CX7 had an annoying swishing noise, and even worse was a random ticking in the C5-xe that I've only heard before in cheap DVD players. The transports and drawer mechanisms did not seem appropriate for machines in this price class. Another annoying thing about the CX7 (not C5-xe) concerned the display - no time remaining indication. The remote controls -- even the new metal ones -- are quirky and somewhat difficult to use -- on the C5-xe remote, I had trouble getting certain modes to work, and occasionally it would freeze up. As for the sound - as you know, both machines have a definite analogue-like quality, however there is a downside -- neither one of these machines made the music very exciting for me -- oh yes, there was excellent dynamic range, soudstage, etc. but in some ways, the music sounded almost too "good" or smoothed over. Something seemed to be missing. The overall effect sort of left me cold, and when I switched in an older Creek CD player that I had, the music seemed brought back to life again, even at the expense of making some of my less well-recorded CDs sound harsher. Interestingly I found this to be true in the C5-xe with the hi-rez formats too. In case anyone is thinking -- "well, I bet he used the single ended rather than balanced outputs", in fact I did use the balanced outputs on both machines, fed to an Ayre AX-7, which is likewise a fully balanced amp. I'm sure there are many people who disagree with my opinion of the Ayre, but I did feel an obligation to offer another viewpoint, especially for folks who may be thinking of buying one. I think there are some excellent not-so-expensive CD players out there now that can give the Ayre and others in this price range quite a good run for the money.

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  Michael Percy Audio  

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