Ayre C 5xe Universal vs. Cary 306 SACD

Thank you, Mattkimb96 and Theo, for your input. When you get your C-5xe (Theo), please update us on your impressions. And if you get one too, Mattkimb96, it would be great to hear from you. (BTW, it's great to hear that Ayre offers a black faceplate for the C-5xe; the CX-7's come in only silver---as far as I know.)

In the meantime, I will wait until I can get a side-by-side audition of both machines, hopefully in my own system.

Any others who've heard the 306 SACD next to the C-5xe...?

Congratulations, Theo, on your C-5xe. How does it look in black? Thanks for the great "sonic" description, too.

I may opt for Mattkimb96's suggestion of just upgrading my CX-7 and be done with it.

I have been side-tracked with some recent auditioning of the new GamuT DI-150 (integrated) and some Shunyata Altair interconnects. I hope to get back to my digital front end decisions soon.

I hope to get a good side-by-side demo of both the Cary 306 SACD and the Ayre 5-Cxe soon. Besides any ergonomic and user function capability, I really need to hear them both in the same system. My preference going in is for the Ayre because its baby brother (CX-7) does such a fantastic job of making the music "read" artistically, so to speak.

Well, it looks like this thread finally picked up some traction. Nice to see.

On a side note...does anybody know if you can program individual tracks into the Ayre C 5xe for just those tracks to be played back? I need this capability for recording down to a Marantz DR-17 recorder. I know the Cary 306 SACD will do this already.

I also second the motion to have those users who have had the direct comparison experience to report on the Ayre/Cary differences specifically on Red Book, HDCD, and SACD. I am way more interested in Red Book performance because that's what I own more of and will also likely have access to in the future.

So, what's up, guys? CD, HDCD, and SACD. Break it down for us, please, in relationship to these players.

The only concern I would have about the Cary 306 SACD unit at this point would be reliability, as it runs quite hot--apparently. Doesn't greater heat increase the chances of damage where delicate SS circuits are involved?

So....TBoooe, did you listen to both players in the same system, back to back? If you listened to them in different systems, way too many other variables are involved.

Joey_v, I am also interested in your decision. Please keep us posted. There is no replacement to hearing both units, side-by-side, in your own system.

Thanks, Theo. For whatever it's worth, I just did a comparison of the 306 SACD on Red Book CD with my own CD-only Ayre CX-7 (not what I started the thread for). On just CD's, the Ayre sounded just as good as the Cary 306 SACD did. There were differences, but their overall tonal balance and performance qualities are closer to each other than not. This makes me wonder about the Ayre C-5xe Uni-2-channel player even more.

Of course, on SACD, the Cary 306 sounded just great....really fantastic, actually.

The comparison was done in the same system, one player right after the other with the same CD’s in the same order. System: Cary SLP 2005, Cary 805 AE edition, Ruark Solstice speakers, Audience Au24 cabling throughout. Mostly Reference Recordings of classical, Joni Mitchell’s “Travelogues,” Bobo Stenson’s "Serenity." This system is better than my own; so it was a pleasure to hear all of this music this way.