[cygnusx]

Getting two 3.5mm adapters should do the trick. One word of advise, be patient with the break in time. The Codex needs 300+ hours to break in. It will be worth the wait. Good luck

 

[austinpop]

Waiting for my Codex to arrive, hopefully by the end of next week. I have a balanced Silver Dragon cable terminated with 2 xlr 3 pins. Can I just buy two generic xlr to 3.5 mm adaptors in order to use it with the balanced out of the Codex?

Talk to Drew at Moon Audio. They can either sell you an adapter, or you can send in your cable for retermination.

 

[cygnusx]

I haven't been active on head-fi for a while, but this new website is horrible. I can't stand using it. Very disappointing.

 

[frason]

Talk to Drew at Moon Audio. They can either sell you an adapter, or you can send in your cable for retermination.

Thanks so much for the advice, don't really want to reterminate the cable because I'm using it with other amplifiers as well. Will keep looking for an adapter.

 

[Restia]

Waiting for my Codex to arrive, hopefully by the end of next week. I have a balanced Silver Dragon cable terminated with 2 xlr 3 pins. Can I just buy two generic xlr to 3.5 mm adaptors in order to use it with the balanced out of the Codex?

Could you write something about your experience with codex?

 

[ChaseM]

Hi all, new Codex owner here. Just thought i'd jump in and say hey and give a few impressions.

My chain is MacBook running Roon -> Cardas Clear USB -> Ayre Codex -> Cardas Clear Interconnects -> Violectric V281 -> LCD-4's balanced with a silver dragon cable.

I had a chance to audition a broken in unit at home against my 2qute. I was completely satisfied with the 2qute at that point and wasn't seriously in the market for a new dac. After comparing them against each other they aren't very comparable units. The sound of the 2qute is thick and musical but misses out on a lot of detail when compared to the codex. The codex is extraordinarily detailed, especially in the presence area of cymbals. Cymbals in particular are buried deep when you are listening to the 2qute, with the Codex they are present but in no way glaring or in front of the mix. They were somewhat comparable in the mids with the Codex seeming to sound a bit more realistic with male vocals, but really thats nitpicking. They are both great in that area. The bass is presented very differently, the 2qute has some emphasis placed on mid bass, with a nice bloom present. This is not the case with the Codex, it's all very natural and in no way exaggerated. Its just right for me. The Codex integrates perfectly in my system.

I'm super happy with the Codex at this point. I just got my new unit home. Now for the long...long burn in process.

 

[frason]

Could you write something about your experience with codex?

I wish I could! Apparently there has been some delay from Ayre...still waiting for mine to arrive...

Still wondering if I can use two not expensive XLR 3 pins female to 3.5mm male to convert my balanced cables terminated with dual xlr

 

[ChaseM]

I wish I could! Apparently there has been some delay from Ayre...still waiting for mine to arrive...

Still wondering if I can use two not expensive XLR 3 pins female to 3.5mm male to convert my balanced cables terminated with dual xlr

That should work just fine.

 

[bmoregnr]

Is anyone using this with a DAP as the source? Something like a Fiio X5iii maybe. Everything I read seems to suggest maybe you need to use a computer with drivers so I was just curious if anyone had DAP experience with it.

 

[ChaseM]

Is anyone using this with a DAP as the source? Something like a Fiio X5iii maybe. Everything I read seems to suggest maybe you need to use a computer with drivers so I was just curious if anyone had DAP experience with it.

I haven't tried it with a DAP as the source. But, i have tried hooking it to my iPhone with the camera connection kit and that won't work. So i'm guessing it won't work with a dap. But i'm not 100% sure.

 

[jrfmd]

Waiting for my Codex to arrive, hopefully by the end of next week. I have a balanced Silver Dragon cable terminated with 2 xlr 3 pins. Can I just buy two generic xlr to 3.5 mm adaptors in order to use it with the balanced out of the Codex?

you can use the xlr pins on the back of the codex by getting a female to female xlr adapter (I assume your cable has male xlr pins at the termination.
when you use the codex in preamp mode (volume control active) the circuits are the same (according to codex) but the cable is much more secure in the back than in the 3.5 mm sockets in the front and banging into one of the cables doesn't fool the codex into thinking you've changed your headphones and going into low volume mode to "protect your ears"
codex sounds much better balanced than single ended
Jeff

 

[jrfmd]

you can use the xlr pins on the back of the codex by getting a female to female xlr adapter (I assume your cable has male xlr pins at the termination.
when you use the codex in preamp mode (volume control active) the circuits are the same (according to codex) but the cable is much more secure in the back than in the 3.5 mm sockets in the front and banging into one of the cables doesn't fool the codex into thinking you've changed your headphones and going into low volume mode to "protect your ears"
codex sounds much better balanced than single ended
Jeff

btw--if you decide you like the back xlr outlets you should eliminate the adapter by reterminating the cables -- the adapters I tried could all be "heard" in the chain
jrf

 

[music_man]

what Ayre does not want you to know. The codex actually has an akm chip that should blow away the qx-5 twenty. it can do dsd 2048 but i am not going to try to start reverse engineering the codex. it has a spartan fpga that holds ayre's filter curve since the akm chip is not programmable like the ess chips. the filter is actually what is important so consider this an fpga based dac in fact. it has an xmos usb receiver and it is galvanically isolated before the chip. all in all you are going to find this competing with just about anything at any price so long as you enjoy the sound. considering what they put into it, it is an absolute steal. in essence it should sound better than the qx-5 twenty and ayre certainly does not want us to know that. however the qx-5 twenty is much more than just a dac if you wish for such a device. i am feeding the totl aurender into the codex and feel it is better than the qx-5 twenty which i also own. you may be thinking this a troll post. see for yourself that i do not even know how they can sell this for less than $5000. you will see the picture but i did the electronic wizardry to figure out what is what as i just explained.

 

[cygnusx]

That's interesting since it was always my understanding that the Codex used the ESS ES9018K2M chipset. I thought I remember reading somewhere that they used the AKM in some early demo models but switch to ESS for production.

 

[music_man]

everyone just speculated it was a ess. actually for all practical purposes it is an fpga. anyways that akm is better than the 9018 or 9038pro even. that is an early unit but production. i kind of doubt they later changed to the 9018 since it would be a major rework of the pcb. you can plainly see the akm,fpga and xmos.