Ayon CD2 is AMAZING

Budt, I think you were on to something in your March 15th post in this thread. I did not like the Ayon CD-2 and posted about it. Jimphd14, dripping with sarcasm, says I should just go and buy a Sony CD player at Best Buy. In another thread, in which I claimed the PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC & Transport sounded better than the Ayon CD-2, both of which I owned at the time, he claimed he also had owned the Perfect Wave DAC & Transport and that the Ayon CD-2 blows the PS Audio gear out of the water.

Now I just looked at his previous posts on Audiogon. He has a total of 8 posts to his name and in every one he recommends Ayon equipment. He claims to have owned BAT and Audio Research amps, the AMR-77, the Meridian 808.3, and in every case -- wait for it -- the Ayon CD-2, CD-5, Triton, Spirit, etc. was superior.

Regarding the AMR-77 vs. Ayon CD-5, the CD-5 is "a remarkable improvement over the AMR-77 -- NO CONTEST".

Regarding the Perfect Wave DAC&Transport, "The Ayon CD-2 is a superior unit to the PS Audio -- FOR SURE."

Strangely, he claims to have been an audiophile for 25 years, yet he has never written anything outside these 8 posts about his experiences using BAT, Audio Research, AMR, Meridian, or PS Audio equipment.

If you own BAT, Audio Research, Meridian, or AMR, be prepared for Jimphd14 to denigrate it by claiming its inferiority to Ayon.

Mcondan, without wishing to get into personal opinions, I agree with your comments referring the Ayon players overstated superiority are clearly not realistic. In Doug Schroeder's review, he rated the Perfect Wave stack as superior to the CD-2.

Re: the AMR, it is clearly a very good player, though it has a different presentation to the CD-5. The arguement over which is better has been done to death, so I wont go there. In the past i've been guilty of getting caught up in this Ayon hysteria to an extent. Now I simply believe the players I know (CD-5/CD-5s) are excellent players worthy of kudos.

I've only been into high end audio for 3 years, but experience has shown me only very experienced audiophiles, or reviewers should effusely comment on "which is better", otherwise it's best to just comment on general observations or ask specific questions. Just my two cents.

Macdude,
No hard feelings please but may I correct your statement a bit:
"It's just that one looks like a Raysonic, and the other looks some like car amplifier", LOL.

Mcondon
Well, I had noticed these same type of posts previously with companies like Simaudio in which member audio4ever( C.K) was really the member pretending to be your everyday audiophile.I owned Simaudio at the time and liked the stuff but I simply will not support a company which conducts itself in such manner. The irony of all this is I was really considering Ayon until I read posts like those from Jimphd14. When anyone comments in thread after thread of how great something is I always check out their history( like member audio4ever).
When I took Jimphd14 to task regarding his posts he became overly defensive and angry, hurling insults, claiming to have co-authored a book on the mental health status of Canadians and insinuating I suffered from paranoia , anger and I forget what else. It was quite ironic and rather amusing( considering his claim).
I also think he would be quite embarrassed if he knew my profession.

Budt, you hint at a very useful recommendation, which is to look over the previous post history of Audiogon members who strongly praise one product over another. Such a check would confirm that the member is behaving like an honest broker, not a shill.

If it turns out that a member (like Jimphd14) has an Audiogon feedback score of zero, no items for sale, and uses the Audiogon forums solely to "pump" a single manufacturer (Ayon) while denigrating competitors' products, it is probably completely safe to ignore his posts.

Such posting behavior is juvenile and a disservice to the Audiogon community.