Resolution Audio Opus 21 or Ayre CX-7?

I compared these two head to head before I bought my Opus 21. They were indeed my two finalists after listening to several other players. I chose the opus because of its superior clarity. Other factors included the fact that Ayre recommended I not run both single ended and balanced outputs at once. RA's Jeff Kalt told me the Opus 21 could run both outputs no problem (I run my single ended outs to my subwoofer and my balanced outs directly to my amp. (When I compared the two however I still had my preamp to give both players identical downstream components).

I also reviewed both of these CDPs in store through a pair of Avant Garde Duos, very revealing speakers. I found both players to be excellent with the Opus winning on 3 of the 5 tracks I brought to listen to. But, in the end, I bought the Ayre! Since RA will not discount but the dealer did discount the Ayre, I did not feel the small difference in sound justified nearly a $1000 difference in price, especially since my system is not high efficiency like the Duos. I have Revel F30s and the Ayre sounded great out of the box, along with Audience Au24 ICs. Cannot wait until both are broken in. If you go with the Opus, order a DIN-RCA IC from Audience. I have read it is better than the balanced outs, so long as you don't need the volume control. Good luck.

I prefer the Opus 21, they share many qualities but the RA does have greater quality and integrity if you use the DIN output or either of the adjustable outputs into a power amp direct. I'm listening to Groove Salad web radio via the digital input of the Opus right now, it's surprisingly listenable for 128kbps.