Ayre C5xe or APL 3910 ?

I've auditioned the Ayre and its little brother the cx-7e. Both are wonderful. I have to admit I've become addicted to Ayre's house sound. (I own the K1xe preamp) My current CD player, the Sony XA777ES, is good but the Ayres are way more musical. (I hate it when audiophiles use the word musical. It reminds me of euphonic ie pleasing to the ear but not really accurate. The Ayres are dead on accurate but they are very musical in that there dynamics (macro and micro and inner detail bring out the true nature of music more then any other electronics I've ever heard.) I've auditioned the big Boulder and the big BAT and Krell CD players and none of them come close to the Ayre. The Boulder is analytical, the BAT gives a bigger, but less accurate sound with less extention on both ends, and the Krell is a bit bright. I am also going to purchase the Ayre C5xe is the next few months unless this threat points me to something I'm not now considering. If you are into accoustic instruments (classical, jazz) you will find the Ayre does wonders with the harmonic structure of guitar and piano stings.

I do have one odd concern about the C5xe (other then the price) and that's the dynamics. I'm faced with a delema that should please many audiophiles. The dynamics of the C5xe are much closer to live music then anything I've every heard. But I'm finding I don't necessarily want the full dynamics of live music for a lot of my listening. Even though I've invested thousands in audio to get to this happy dilema (Revel Ultra Studios, Krell FPB300cx amp) I'm having to consider the consequences. So for background music its actually not recommended.

I have a Ayre and long time Linn dealer here in Ft Collins. My impression is the Linn CD12 is a very good player but compared to the Ayre C5xe there is no comparision. The Ayre has far more extension (high end) impact (dynamics and low end extention) and pure musicality (inner detail tember and harmonic structure.) The dealer, a real Linn guy, also agrees. I think when people talk about Ayre they need to be specific about whether its the evolution (e) version....It makes a big difference in both players and the pre amp (I own the K1xe also and its great in the same way)

Ozzy your comments about an upgrade requiring a purchase of new equipment is generally true, but not true with Ayre. They have a factory upgrade "path". All the newer Ayre products have the "e" for evolution in their name and you can send your old non-e version back to the factory for upgrade (not free). I upgraded my Sonic Frontiers Line 3 to Signature at one time also.

Again I auditioned the c5xe and it sounded stunning. Better then my Sony XA777es, BAT, Boulder, and to my ear Cary. Ayre's zero feedback designs would be impossible to provide in any realistic mod after market

Russellrcncom you should look into the Ayre C7e. Not as good as the 5 but 98% for half the price. I'm pondering that cost vs deminishing returns delema right now.