[music_man]

thats funny about the case. i know this is ot but what case was it? speaking of which i had asked why you do not use asio? computers is something i also really like. my music server has no fans. going from usb highly filtered i figure it is as actually more versatile than a dedicated non pc music server. you need to upgrade jriver too but now i would wait until 22.
 
i know that demo was very high end but i hope you have good stuff if you are springing for the qx-5. i am sure less expensive dacs will come out with this chip and even more functionality but of course lower sq.
 
you are correct though. the qx-5 was not what you heard in that demo. or very little of it. that system would still sound good if you swapped in a $1,000 dac. as i said ac do have better speakers on hand than the 803 d3 but those are already a lot of peoples dream speaker. they certainly qualify as high end. i really like them. my book shelf speakers are much better than the bw offering but they are still very impressive. $8,000 book shelf speakers are still a lot to most people. that whole system even with the bw speakers is big time.
 
do you mainly want the qx-5 for the functionality or more for the sq? i did not even know it had a headphone jack. at that level i would get a separate amp though imo. i know you did not want to high jack your own thread but i feel a comparison is in order if and when you could do it. the codex imo is a little better sq than the qb-9 dsd. i am guessing with the new chip alone before you even factor the rest of the better circuit the qx-5 must sound better than the codex, but by how much i wonder. if it turns out to be better than the msb diamond dac v i would get it for my dedicated system then. just cannot fit it in this room which has me kicking myself. i will be rather surprised if it is better than the msb. there are a lot of dacs to choose from at the high end but the qx-5 brings a lot of functionality. all of which i would not use lol. what i would like to have on it unfortunately is not there but hardly any dac has it. like multiple xlr,aes,spdif on bnc and multiple toslink. a very big thing would be usb 3.1. i am not sure any dac has that yet. files are getting to the point where they are maxing out usb 2.0. like 10x dsd uncompressed. of course the qx-5 does not provide 10x anyhow. so it does not really matter on that. you also need a ton of storage for that. which is why i prefer pc music servers since you can swap a bunch of multi terabyte usb drives. i currently have 36 terabytes on this. 3 terabytes ssd which i play the files from. i feel properly done from memory sounds better than redbook or sacd.
 
well anyways i can't wait to hear this. the joke is by the time i do they should already have better dacs out.
 
when you said volume control did you mean the ax-5 twenty? that is what is powering my little bedroom system. these speakers could use more wattage but not really. the ax-5 twenty aims higher than the wattage specs would suggest. i could throw krell mono blocks at these but do not have the room of course. as it is my power conditioner is on the floor standing on it's side with still points 6 below it. i would love to get a pagode and stands in here but this furniture is not going anywhere. i would certainly not throw out the dresser in the name of sq and bringing it to the basement even with 4 men would be nearly impossible. i have in this room severely compromised a very high end system. it still sounds good to me though. interestingly the codex sounds fine in here. the qx-5 is a higher end piece but the codex is not low end by any means. even though it is low end for ayre. until there is something better this small it stays.
 
oh, i see you have no loudspeakers. so this makes sense then. i thought you were going to pair the qx-5 with a lower end amp and speakers. i am sure without hearing it it is better than the bryston. are you going to listen right out of the qx-5? i have no idea how good the output is on any dac. i hardly listen to headphones anymore but when i did i always used amps and never even tried a dacs headamp. for all i know it may be outstanding. i still have multiple very high end cans but my favorite remains the ps1000. you have good taste then. that says a lot you will get the qx-5 to use with them. they are up to the task imo.
 
i apologize for my long post in my grammar i explained myself though. not doing this on purpose.  for the same reason i cannot go to audio consultants anymore as i mentioned before but i will just buy it and have them ship it. i am over six hours from them anyways. i used to always get to chicago/evanston in my glory days. i worked downtown for over 30 years. i used to love to go in their store.

 

[music_man]

blackstone, it appears the qx-5 twenty does not playback dsd? the chip certainly does. if you noticed this could you please clarify it?
or if scott is reading you can answer this too. thanks

 

[BlackstoneJD]

  thats funny about the case. i know this is ot but what case was it? speaking of which i had asked why you do not use asio? computers is something i also really like. my music server has no fans. going from usb highly filtered i figure it is as actually more versatile than a dedicated non pc music server. you need to upgrade jriver too but now i would wait until 22.
 
i know that demo was very high end but i hope you have good stuff if you are springing for the qx-5. i am sure less expensive dacs will come out with this chip and even more functionality but of course lower sq.
 
you are correct though. the qx-5 was not what you heard in that demo. or very little of it. that system would still sound good if you swapped in a $1,000 dac. as i said ac do have better speakers on hand than the 803 d3 but those are already a lot of peoples dream speaker. they certainly qualify as high end. i really like them. my book shelf speakers are much better than the bw offering but they are still very impressive. $8,000 book shelf speakers are still a lot to most people. that whole system even with the bw speakers is big time.
 
do you mainly want the qx-5 for the functionality or more for the sq? i did not even know it had a headphone jack. at that level i would get a separate amp though imo. i know you did not want to high jack your own thread but i feel a comparison is in order if and when you could do it. the codex imo is a little better sq than the qb-9 dsd. i am guessing with the new chip alone before you even factor the rest of the better circuit the qx-5 must sound better than the codex, but by how much i wonder. if it turns out to be better than the msb diamond dac v i would get it for my dedicated system then. just cannot fit it in this room which has me kicking myself. i will be rather surprised if it is better than the msb. there are a lot of dacs to choose from at the high end but the qx-5 brings a lot of functionality. all of which i would not use lol. what i would like to have on it unfortunately is not there but hardly any dac has it. like multiple xlr,aes,spdif on bnc and multiple toslink. a very big thing would be usb 3.1. i am not sure any dac has that yet. files are getting to the point where they are maxing out usb 2.0. like 10x dsd uncompressed. of course the qx-5 does not provide 10x anyhow. so it does not really matter on that. you also need a ton of storage for that. which is why i prefer pc music servers since you can swap a bunch of multi terabyte usb drives. i currently have 36 terabytes on this. 3 terabytes ssd which i play the files from. i feel properly done from memory sounds better than redbook or sacd.
 
well anyways i can't wait to hear this. the joke is by the time i do they should already have better dacs out.
 
when you said volume control did you mean the ax-5 twenty? that is what is powering my little bedroom system. these speakers could use more wattage but not really. the ax-5 twenty aims higher than the wattage specs would suggest. i could throw krell mono blocks at these but do not have the room of course. as it is my power conditioner is on the floor standing on it's side with still points 6 below it. i would love to get a pagode and stands in here but this furniture is not going anywhere. i would certainly not throw out the dresser in the name of sq and bringing it to the basement even with 4 men would be nearly impossible. i have in this room severely compromised a very high end system. it still sounds good to me though. interestingly the codex sounds fine in here. the qx-5 is a higher end piece but the codex is not low end by any means. even though it is low end for ayre. until there is something better this small it stays.
 
oh, i see you have no loudspeakers. so this makes sense then. i thought you were going to pair the qx-5 with a lower end amp and speakers. i am sure without hearing it it is better than the bryston. are you going to listen right out of the qx-5? i have no idea how good the output is on any dac. i hardly listen to headphones anymore but when i did i always used amps and never even tried a dacs headamp. for all i know it may be outstanding. i still have multiple very high end cans but my favorite remains the ps1000. you have good taste then. that says a lot you will get the qx-5 to use with them. they are up to the task imo.
 
i apologize for my long post in my grammar i explained myself though. not doing this on purpose.  for the same reason i cannot go to audio consultants anymore as i mentioned before but i will just buy it and have them ship it. i am over six hours from them anyways. i used to always get to chicago/evanston in my glory days. i worked downtown for over 30 years. i used to love to go in their store.

 The case was a Silverstone FT02 which is a monster air cooling case. Not an audiophile product. My current case is an FT01. Not an audiophile product. I indulge in the occasional computer game (when I am not working) so I have two GTX 980 video cards in there. 850 watt power supply. Not an audiophile solution. Six core Haswell-E intel processor. The computer can heat my living room. Not an audiophile product!
 
My stereo stuff is good enough to take advantage of a good measure of what the QX-5 Twenty has to offer, but not even close to all of what it offers. I have B&W N804 Speakers and a Bryston Amp. Older stuff. I also have a Threshold T2 Line Preamp that is for sale. I have been a headphone user for years because my living situation up to this point as my current apartment does not allow for speaker listening. The walls are too thin (neighbors) to really play music like that. Can't wait to get out of here. We are moving to a house in the burbs this year Looking at one today, actually. There will be a dedicated, but not custom designed, listening room for speakers.
 
I am not saying I did not hear the DAC and only the system. The system is only as good as the weakest link. You can't fix a mediocre DAC by putting better stuff in front of or downstream from it. Garbage in, garbage out. You just can't zero in on the DAC in a test like that--the cabling alone has a significant impact. The speaker cable in there was like $25,000! Maybe more. So no it will not sound like that at home.
 
They did have better speakers like the 802 and obviously you can see the mega Wilson's in the background, but the 803 was the one I was interested in, of course because the price is a little more attainable than the 802. I wanted to hear how good an 803 could be and it was impressive.
 
I would not buy the QX-5 if I did not think it had better performance than QB-9. But I would not have bought a DAC this year at all if it wasn't for the unique feature set. Other parts of my system could use some attention but this unit will boost my system because I can use my best interconnect cable to feed my power amp instead of my headphone amp, use the onboard headphone amplifier fully balanced, put my two best power cords on the QX-5 and power amp instead of on DAC and headphone amp, use the onboard volume control instead of jriver's software volume control, switch between headphones and speakers from the remote control, use Ethernet and Roon, and the list goes on. It also will allow me to sell off one QB-9, one preamplifier, and possibly my headphone amplifier to offset the cost. So it will serve as (1) dac (2) headphone amp (3) preamplifier (4) Roon endpoint. That gives me a better and more useable system. It should be a BIG step up in all respects.
 
Then when I have a better sounding room I can think about a good set of speakers and an amplifier, maybe some cable tweaks, and done.
 
I just use WASAPI for no particular reason. I suppose I could try AISO.
  
I really do not have nearly as much time for this stuff as I used to as I am a pretty busy attorney but once in a while I get sucked back in when a product launches!

 

[austinpop]

Just saw another favorable comparison of the Ayre Codex with a much more expensive product, in Stereophile.
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier
 
In this case, John Atkinson compared the amp section of the Codex with the $3500 Pass HPA-1, and essentially found it a wash, although he "ultimately preferred the sound of the Ayre's DAC feeding the HPA-1 via unbalanced interconnects and the Pass Labs driving single-ended headphones"
 
I know the Codex gets a lot of praise for its DAC, but I have always said it's headphone amp is something special too.

 

[yage]

  You just can't zero in on the DAC in a test like that--the cabling alone has a significant impact. The speaker cable in there was like $25,000! Maybe more. So no it will not sound like that at home.

 
I wouldn't be so sure, if it's Transparent speaker cabling that was used. Both my wife and I preferred straight up no-name wire to Transparent when I took her speaker shopping with me (this was on Vandersteen 2ce Sig II's). IMO their black boxes attached to their cables have the potential to do more harm than good.
 

  I know the Codex gets a lot of praise for its DAC, but I have always said it's headphone amp is something special too.

 
The amp section is incredible and I've always thought so. The Codex is a remarkable product and I think has set the bar very high for Ayre and other companies. I was also somewhat disappointed that the HPA-1 didn't use the super symmetry circuit design that's utilized in their loudspeaker amps.

 

[KmanChu]

  Just saw another favorable comparison of the Ayre Codex with a much more expensive product, in Stereophile.
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier
 
In this case, John Atkinson compared the amp section of the Codex with the $3500 Pass HPA-1, and essentially found it a wash, although he "ultimately preferred the sound of the Ayre's DAC feeding the HPA-1 via unbalanced interconnects and the Pass Labs driving single-ended headphones"
 
I know the Codex gets a lot of praise for its DAC, but I have always said it's headphone amp is something special too.

I read that. It was a weird conclusion to me as I think running from the RCAs is significantly inferior to running the Codex balanced either by the XLRs or the headphone out. I sold my Red Wine Audio Cassabria because it was only single ended input. The codex was better direct with the balanced connection, the RWA was better (vastly better)  than using the codex direct through SE output jack. I read his conclusion, he didn't say it was better, he said it was his preference. I think he was using LCD-4 for the review, so that is not an easy one to drive.

 

[yage]

 
I read that. It was a weird conclusion to me as I think running from the RCAs is significantly inferior to running the Codex balanced either by the XLRs or the headphone out. I sold my Red Wine Audio Cassabria because it was only single ended input. The codex was better direct with the balanced connection, the RWA was better (vastly better)  than using the codex direct through SE output jack. I read his conclusion, he didn't say it was better, he said it was his preference. I think he was using LCD-4 for the review, so that is not an easy one to drive.

Well, you can't very well expect JA to praise the balanced output of the Ayre and have him prefer it in the pages of a review about the Pass Labs HPA-1, can you? That would be suicide in a publication that relies on advertising dollars.
 
I can see what he was trying to do, which was take the DAC of the Codex out of the equation as a variable, though, as you point out, it sounds much better balanced end-to-end than with a single-ended connection in in the chain. I will also say that Ayre's single-ended output is no slouch either as I use that to connect my QB-9 DSD to a single-ended headphone amp and highly enjoy the results.

 

[cygnusx]

Just saw another favorable comparison of the Ayre Codex with a much more expensive product, in Stereophile.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-hpa-1-headphone-amplifier

In this case, John Atkinson compared the amp section of the Codex with the $3500 Pass HPA-1, and essentially found it a wash, although he "ultimately preferred the sound of the Ayre's DAC feeding the HPA-1 via unbalanced interconnects and the Pass Labs driving single-ended headphones"

I know the Codex gets a lot of praise for its DAC, but I have always said it's headphone amp is something special too.

Agreed. Ayre makes some fantastic sounding amps. They certainly have the technology to build great amps. I think we are seeing some of that tech in the Codex. If I had the budget I would sell my 3 months old Rogue Cronus and buy a used Ayre amp. I'm a huge Ayre fan now but to be fair the Cronus is special in its own right.

 

[yage]

Sometimes you'll find a used Ayre AX-7e for sale for around the same price as a Cronus new. It's a fine amp - my dealer lent one to me while my AX-5 was sent back to Ayre for the Twenty update. It powered through music and movies without skipping a beat. There were times when I thought that I should've saved some bucks and went with the AX-7e to begin with; it was that good.

 

[cygnusx]

On a different note,  has anybody tried using the Curious USB cable with the Codex?  Thx

 

[music_man]

nice case! certainly not audiophile friendly lol. i also have 5960x. i underclocked it way down so it is still a fast cpu but no fans! huge heatsink.  i see the "jd" at the end of your name which explains you are a lawyer lol. i am surprised you live in a cheap apartment but my dad was a miser too. he was a professor at the university of chicago. i went to northwestern undergrad and grad, depaul phd. yes, this is all ot lol! it is ironic now i am reduced to typing like this. i had a good life though and i am still happy.
 
okay now on ot. someone please tell me this thing does at least 256 dsd? it looks like they omitted dsd. must be a good reason if i am correct. the chip certainly does it.i mean in regard to the qx-5 of course.
 
nonetheless the codex hits high above the belt. i myself can compare the dac to the directstream for instance and feel it is better. so you all got your moneys worth. i am not sure if the qx-5 is markedly better sq but has many more features. don't kid myself though i am sure it sounds better but i am not sure how much. i am sure they will continue for now to produce both. they serve two different markets and i do not mean just budget. seeing as the codex is all i can fit physically i am very pleased with the sq. honestly i did not expect much but i stand corrected. it is certainly in the high end realm. besides the features what you do not get is the chassis. i do not mind though it fits the bill. literally!

 

[BlackstoneJD]

DSD 128 for sure. I think. It might be a firmware limitation per dealer, not hardware.

 

[austinpop]

  On a different note,  has anybody tried using the Curious USB cable with the Codex?  Thx

 
Nope - although I too would be "curious."
 
I got a great price on a Cardas Clear USB 1m cable, and found it gave me a very nice improvement over the cheap printer cable I had lying around.

 

[cygnusx]

   
Nope - although I too would be "curious."
 
I got a great price on a Cardas Clear USB 1m cable, and found it gave me a very nice improvement over the cheap printer cable I had lying around.

Working on the Curious Cables I got myself a nice father's day gift, with the family's blessing...I welcome a new device to the family, it's the Aurender N100H.  What an absolutely fantastic device, especially in combination with the Codex, even with the standard USB cable that came with the Codex and an AQ Jitterbug, the sound that I'm getting is wonderful.  Beats the pants off my OPPO CD Player transport easily.  Anybody try using the Wyred Recovery?  I've been hearing tons of good things about the Wyred Recovery, apparently it's better than the Uptone Regen.  A upgraded USB cable and either the Wyred or Uptone is next on my list.  The misery of an audiophile.  I think need a second job!!!!!

 

[music_man]

jitterbug and cardas clear are great. a good dac/pc/music server does beat the sq of a very high end cd transport imo. don't know why but i hear it. i have much better dacs too so i can certainly tell. plus the convenience.
 
128 dsd "dealer" option? i do not understand what the dealer would have to do with that. i certainly hope they would enable it. that is strange i never heard of the dealer deciding that before.