is ayre qb-9 dac better than cx7e mp?

Having lived with the QB-9 for a couple of months now, I still think it has pretty similar SQ on redbook material. However, I have a couple of hi-rez downloads now (most notably, Ani DiFranco's Reprieve) that make my system sound better than it ever has including my very best vinyl examples. The texture and warmth of vinyl is combined with the the completely silent backgrounds of CD. Wow! More of this, please!

"it's a possibility that the computer system wasn't fully performing"

Could be, but I'm finding my QB-9 more or less "immune" from computer-side tweaks. I suspect the asynchronous USB operation and galvanic isolation make it so that futzing with the PC is not neccessary to get great sound.

"The qb9 was no where near the C5"

My guess is that the QB-9 was not fully broken in. On another site, Charles Hansen opined that the C-5 and QB-9 are neck-and-neck sonically.

To my ears, in my system, the CX-7eMP and QB-9 are pretty close overall. The QB-9 sounds a bit more open and immediate but also a bit smoothed over, perhaps a hair less dynamic. I'd call it a draw, overall. It's impossible, however, to farily compare the two because the computer *must* be part of the equation for the QB-9 and there are boatloads of variables that affect computer playback (all the hardware combos, OS, msic player, power supply and on and on). I still need to try 1) different music players (eg, Jplay, JRMC, etc); 2) upgrade USB cable; 3) linear power supply; 4) SOtM USB card. I'm hopeful that the QB-9 will outperform the CX-7 after I get the computer "optimized". In the meantime, the CX-7 can't play hi-rez material even tho' it is far easier to use than ripping/tagging/organizing/backing-up music files.

@Bjesien
"I haven't had much luck with hi-rez downloads, at least from HD Tracks."

So, these were missing metadata?

I've read some negative comments about HDTracks but have, so far, been quite happy with my purchases and customer support from HDTracks (about 10 albums). The aforementioned Ani DiFranco is from HDTracks. The best sonics I've heard from any album of any format (hi-ez, CD, vinyl, FM) on my system.

I just didn't know what you meant by:
"Most were missing major information . . ."
Apparently you meant *musical* information.