Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC

A DAC is truly a very personal item when it comes to high end audio and how it synergizes with the rest of your system.  I compared the Ayre QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC to DCS, Cord Dave/Hugo, Weiss, MSB, Hegel's top DAC and others.  All were outstanding sounding DACs in their own way, but it was to Ayre that ultimately captured my heart.  Also, the Ayre was a great value compared to some of the other much higher priced options.  I purchased my QX-5 Twenty pre-owned which makes this word class, reference DAC an even greater value!!!       

Good move!!!!

You know, there were times when I would look at my extensive collection of CDs, SACDs and DVD Audio discs and think, it might be fun to purchase a nice, used, universal player to play with.  You can buy pre-owned players now-a-days for a song-and-a-dance.  But, every time I sit down in front of my system and listen to how absolutely wonderful the music sounds, I just dispel the thought every time.  I stream and play ripped files exclusively, using the magnificent Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables into my (non-updated) Ayre QX-5/20 streaming DAC and Roon Nucleus Plus.   I do not use USB.  Not to mention, how convenient it is to operate and control my entire music library with the touch of a finger via my iPad.  The combination of sound quality and convenience always seems to win the day for me.  The key is to have very high quality streaming components so that you may experienced streaming at it's finest.  It made a believer out of me