CES and AYRE

Apparently Ayre must have been stuck in a closet somewhere. Didn't any Agoners wander into Hansen's hooch? Not a good sign.

I went in there & listened but wasn't impressed with the Wilson Watt 7's. Last years room w/Avalon Eidolon Diamonds was better sounding. I also heard the player in the Joseph Audio room with the new RM55 & it sounded very good powered by Ayre gear. I also heard the integrated in the Ginko room with the prototype Tubulous spkrs & was impressed.

Ah, thanks Driver. I would have thought Ayre would have employed Vandys rather than Wilsons, but what do I know? I'll give it a listen at the end of this month. Anybody else?

I do not understand Ayre's marketing philosophy. Their web site does not have their new universal player advertised, dealers are basically clueless, they blew a great opportunity at CES to reveal their new player and people did not even notice their presents.
A dealer let me demo the CX-7 in my own system for 10 days and I really liked their cdp. The dealer encouraged me to wait until the new player was out. He said from what he was told redbook was greatly improved over the CX-7. So I figured I would wait. This was three months ago and I have moved on and purchased another universal player.
Now I would still like to audition this universal player in my system to see if it betters the player I purchased. The one that was best in my system would be the one I would keep.

Irish:

I spoke with "Steve" one of the Ayre PR folks about two weeks ago about the Cx-7 I had on order. He told me a little about the new uniuversal player: It's gonna retail for $6000, and of course will be much better redbook than the Cx-7. They have 75 built and are awaiting delivery of additional parts. I can't remeber if these are spare parts or they ran out of building supplies. Anyway, he said they'll be shipping any day now.

Sammie,

Thanks for the update.

I heard the new universal player. In my opinion it is better than the D-1X.

It got a glowing, gushing, review from Wes Philips in Stereophile. One unusual thing about it is that it is a 2 CHANNEL universal player. It might be unique in that regard.

Cheers.

I auditioned the C5xe in my system when it first became available and I was mightily impressed as well. Listened to both CD and SACD and really enjoyed both formats. CD playback provided a wide soundstage with clear highs and a well-defined bass. I almost bought the Ayre but then a week with the AA Capitole II changed everything. But for $3K+ less than the AA the Ayre is a real bargain (if one can consider $6K a bargain). Hansen has a real winner in this cdp.

Will the Ayre accomodate an external digital input? I want to be able to add hard disk as a source in my system, but I would love to not have to go back to separate DAC and transport. I think a few CDPs offer this.

Drubin, Steve Silberman at Ayre will be glad to answer your query re the external digital input or alternatives.

Well, Ayre has finally put the C5xe up on the website, including the user manual. The unit does not have digital input facilities, unfortunately. I think it would be a great thing to offer.