the preamplifier built in the ayon cd5 is great?

Doug, some of Wig's stuff I think comes from some e-mail communication with me. I have the CD5. To this point, I prefer using my EAR 868 preamp instead of the CD5's built in unit. With the gain set on "high", I still have to push the CD5 volume control to -45 to get the volume I want (max is -60). With the gain on "medium", running through the EAR, it's all I can take with the volume knob at 10 o'clock. So, yeah, I have some gain issues with the CD5 preamp...or maybe the gain on the EAR is super juiced. At any rate, I seem to get a better soundstage and imaging with the 868. I may be biased, though, and my "test" situations are not perfect- cables are different. Need to do more blind testing with the same cable set up, but at this point, I like the sound better with the EAR 868 in the circuit. That's not a slap at the CD5's preamp, which I could easily live with. The 868 is a well received, quality tube preamp. It's essentially the EAR 912 with some minor internal markdowns and a different chassis, with a few less features. The 912 bested the ARC Ref 3 in some reviews. So, the 868 is no slouch. Sonically, I think it's better than the preamp in the CD5. Build/quality control/customer service? No contest. The Ayon absolutely smokes the EAR.

For what it's worth, Doug, I take your opinion quite seriously. I know Audiojudge quite well, and have the utmost respect for him. He raved about the CD5, and your Dagogo review of that unit pushed me over the top to purchase it.

Thanks for the reassuring comments. I was very concerned that as I pushed the volume on the CD5 that I was going to badly overdrive the amplifier. It does seem quite linear rather than front loaded. At low volumes, you don't get much bump from the CD5 volume control. As you get to about -40 though, it really starts to take off.

Fair bit of difference between the Zu and Aliante? No. HUGE difference. The Aliantes, you have to push them. The Zu's don't require a big shove, but they really, really start to sing when you open them up big time. The imaging and soundstage just explode as you push the volume on them. The Aliantes, they just kind of get louder.

I think what you experienced with the VAC, I'm getting a similar thing with the EAR. I'm sure you're familiar with that unit. Does it stack up similarly to the VAC?

Not so sure about the need for a high powered amp with the CD5. It really cranks with the 30 wpc Mastersound and the Essence speakers. Less efficient speakers, yes, maybe. But I notice essentially zero difference between the Mastersound and the Rowland 102 with regards to dynamics. The Mastersound has tremendous headroom that the Rowland doesn't seem to match, and with a six ohm load, that's a 150 wpc amplifier.

I read a thread recently in the amp/preamp forum about solid state amps increasing their power output as the speaker load decreases. Makes sense. But the author laid something out with tube amps that was the polar opposite of that- something akin to tube amps increasing their output as resistance INCREASES. I didn't touch that one, since I don't understand the concept. Is that a true concept?

Tosses a fair amount of heat. Not like an amp, but it definitely gets warm over the vents. Ayon claims the tube life is 5000-10,000 hours.