CD player upgrade/ Arcam vs. Ayre


I currently own an Arcam fmj cd 23, a very good player. I'm thinking about moving to the Ayre Cx-7e.
The question is would this be a significant improvement?
Has anyone out there had or auditioned both players?
The price difference between the two is not that great so, I'm thinking that it may not be that much of a difference and I'm trying to save some time. I know that auditioning it in my system is the best way to do it!
eee3

Showing 2 responses by mitch2

I keep looking around but have seen nothing in the approx. $2,000 price range (used) that would be an apparent improvement over my Muse Model 10. The Model 9 Signature is generally about $1K used, and has a similar sound. You can find Models 10 and 11 in the ballpark of $2k used. All of them are balanced players, and Muse has maintained a very proactive upgrade policy so you can always upgrade to the current top models.
I also own the CX-7e, and while I find it of similar quality to my previous Muse 10 I discussed in this post last July, it is different sounding in a good way. I would say the Ayre has better resolution and definitely deeper bass. The only thing I have been trying to work with is the highish output of the Ayre - 4.5 V. This has made matching with my Atma-Sphere to be somewhat problematic since the system is too loud for really low level listening. I have built some in-line voltage dividers to solve the problems.