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Re: Ayre CX-7e CD player - next impressions. A follow-up.

Posted by kurt s on February 14, 2007 at 09:40:59

In Reply to: Re: Ayre CX-7e CD player - next impressions. posted by kurt s on February 13, 2007 at 08:12:13:

Last night I again compared the addition of a 27 line stage against it straight into the TVC. I did a little tube rolling on the Type 27 triode in the line stage and took a Philco ST for more smoothness and less shout from the Lowther.

Interesting experimental results. This combination just goes to show how delicate it is to drive a pair of Lowthers correctly. Too much microdynamics can actually make the Lowthers do some excessive "ringing", which is to say it excites resonances that you don't want to hear. There is a correct amount that my phono system seems to get about spot on. The CD player is now "bracketed". With the 27 line stage added it is too much and it causes excessive shouting effects, even at lower volume levels. With it feeding the TVC directly, it is not shouting at all, and might be considered slow sounding, but I can play it real loud and not shout the Lowthers. Hmmm... how do I optimize that for the middle ground, I wonder?

But I prefer the sound straight into the TVC for now. Much smoother, with more detail coming in without a resonance excitation overtaking the details in the recording, and like I said, it's mesmerizing. VERY 3-dimensional sound, rounded edges, not like cardboard cutouts. It's not the greatest for dance music maybe, but so good for a relaxing sound, like slow moving jazz pieces and rich orchestral works. The tone is beautifully on the nose, too. Horns are remarkable, and astonishingly good for redbook CD I have to say.

With this in mind, I have to say I cannot yet fault the player for doing what it does. I can almost make it do anything in spades, and all this coming from just the RCA outputs. I haven't even tried the balanced outputs yet, and probably never will. The question is what do you connect this player up to? How do you handle the signals it gives you? It can be quick, high paced and edgy to downright slow and sluggish, depending on the type of load and downstream components that are placed in there. My guess is that if you don't like this player, you might want to think about what's wrong with some other part of your system, at least from the line stage onward. I don't know where the negative comments are coming from. It's not weird to me, it only seems to show what's weird about what the rest of the system is doing. How else am I able to make this player out to sound so different in so many configurations? It must be pretty balanced and neutral sounding in the first place, IMO. YMMV.

Kurt

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