[yage]

My guess is K2

So the "literature" on the Ayre site is incorrect? It states ESS 9018, not the K2M. Seems like a rather big omission to me.

Source: https://www.ayre.com/codex_reviews.htm

 
My guess is that K2M or not will matter very little once most people hear it... (after the 500 hr break-in period, of course)

 

[austinpop]

  If you used balanced wire to the earphones the volume level would be about 80 (I had same problem at first) and the sound quality would have been amazing.
I don't think the usb problem is gone with a mac either. It seems you cant use any other usb device at the same time you use the codex and I find that too limiting.
On the other hand if you use a 3 foot audioquest forest optical cable (or better?) the sound is indistinguishable (I a-b tested them) from the usb input..
this seems the best way to use the codex and avoids all the usb problems
Jeffrey R Fischman

 
Good points, so let me address these in sequence.

1. Balanced mode: good to know, but hard to verify, unless you happen to have the right cables on hand.
2. Other USB devices: in my case, there were no other devices on the USB bus, other than the Aries Mini and the Codex.
3. Optical: I'm glad to hear that sound quality was good/indistinguishable from USB. However, I would still have two concerns:
   • Page 7 of the manual specifically says: The USB input provides lower levels of jitter, and is the preferred connection if a source device has both USB and TosLink outputs. So for me, using Toslink would leave me feeling I was using the product suboptimally. Not good for something you just paid $1795 for.
   • I cannot find anywhere exactly what formats are supported over Toslink? I need to stream both PCM high-res content up to 24/192, and DSD content up to DSD128. Most DACs limit Toslink to lower resolutions. Interestingly, the Codex manual on page 16 talks about supported Audio Input Signals, but does not mention which input supports these. An optimist could interpret to mean that these are supported on both USB and Toslink. I'm more of a pragmatist on this matter.
     

 
Maybe Ayre can chime in here and clarify.

 

[austinpop]

  Spoke to Alex Brinkman at Ayre this morning, who was funny and cool, and who confirmed that 1) the chip in the Codex is the ESS ES9018K2M, not the plain 9018, and that 2) it is perfectly normal that my Codex, which has about 180 hours on it currently, is still sounding steely, bright and way worse than my Pono Player's line out. He said that the unit sounds amazing out of the box and then begins sounding much worse, which mirrors my experience perfectly. He said 500 hours is required (and acknowledged how annoying this is.) Oy!
 
So if you just got the Codex, settle in for few weeks and don't succumb to despair, like I was doing. And if you're a break-in doubter or think it matters only a little, prepare to be seriously surprised. 

 
How did you contact Alex Brinkman at Ayre? I tried to PM him, with no response.

 

[foreverzer0]

  Spoke to Alex Brinkman at Ayre this morning, who was funny and cool, and who confirmed that 1) the chip in the Codex is the ESS ES9018K2M, not the plain 9018, and that 2) it is perfectly normal that my Codex, which has about 180 hours on it currently, is still sounding steely, bright and way worse than my Pono Player's line out. He said that the unit sounds amazing out of the box and then begins sounding much worse, which mirrors my experience perfectly. He said 500 hours is required (and acknowledged how annoying this is.) Oy!
 
So if you just got the Codex, settle in for few weeks and don't succumb to despair, like I was doing. And if you're a break-in doubter or think it matters only a little, prepare to be seriously surprised. 

 
I'd be upset if a manufacturer kept upping this burn-in timeframe, my Geek Pulse Infinity's recommended is at least 200 hours. I'd almost think they're telling me to keep listening until the return window is over!

 

[austinpop]

   
I'd be upset if a manufacturer kept upping this burn-in timeframe, my Geek Pulse Infinity's recommended is at least 200 hours. I'd almost think they're telling me to keep listening until the return window is over!

Yeah, they need to back up that 500 hour claim with a longer return window.
 
Although to be fair, I don't know what an Ayre dealer will allow in terms of a return window.

 

[yage]

 
Issues: Sadly, I did run into some operational glitches, having to do with the USB connection. Specifically:

• We saw this strange issue where a track could be selected, and would successfully start playing, but the Auralic Lightning DS app would show no status or progress, and there was no way to pause or otherwise control the track.
• The only way to control was to select another track in the app
• First time selecting the track, it would get an error indicating no USB device was detected, but subsequent attempt to play would succeed.

These all sound like USB handshaking issues, but since I'm already committed to the Aries Mini as my source, this does give me pause. I've alerted both Ayre and Auralic of this issue, and am waiting to hear their feedback.

 
This is from the Auralic website (http://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206602837):
 

 The USB DAC running on Wavelength USB firmware cannot use USB playback function due to a confirmed bug of Wavelength USB firmware under Linux. The known effected brands are: Ayre, Aesthetix, Berkeley Audio, Jeff Rowland and possibly others.

 
I find this quite surprising, since I used Linux with the Codex quite successfully both at 16/44.1 and 24/192 (no DSD to test). EDIT: Also wanted to mention that I've used the DragonFly v1.2 DAC with Rankin's USB implementation on Linux and encountered no problems there either.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

Probably called. The ayre telephone promt has a direct line to him

 

[jrfmd]

the balanced cable improvement isnt subtle
the a-b testing between usb and optilink was done at 16/44.1 (apple lossless) and I believe they are indistinguishable (using the short length and brand I indicated)--Higher speed would have to be tested by someone else -- I use cd quality sound for the headphones
Jeff

 

[mink70]

How did you contact Alex Brinkman at Ayre? I tried to PM him, with no response.

I called.

 

[austinpop]

Issues: Sadly, I did run into some operational glitches, having to do with the USB connection. Specifically:

• We saw this strange issue where a track could be selected, and would successfully start playing, but the Auralic Lightning DS app would show no status or progress, and there was no way to pause or otherwise control the track.
• The only way to control was to select another track in the app
• First time selecting the track, it would get an error indicating no USB device was detected, but subsequent attempt to play would succeed.

These all sound like USB handshaking issues, but since I'm already committed to the Aries Mini as my source, this does give me pause. I've alerted both Ayre and Auralic of this issue, and am waiting to hear their feedback.

 
Some positive news to report. Kudos to both Auralic and Ayre for being very responsive to my findings.
 
I got a chance to redo the experiment in my house, using my (modern) router, and I'm happy to say that operation was flawless. I saw no issues with track control, as I had seen at the dealer's.
 
The hypothesis that Auralic put forward was that this was a router issue, possibly around multicast support. Certainly in my setup, my router had UPnP and multicast enabled, and there were no issues.

 

[jrfmd]

I don't know if its of any general interest but I had to send my codex back because the usb wasn't working. They send me a new board (read "break in again") and the sound quality on the new board using the usb is now clearly better than the optical cable. (using audioquest carbon 5 footer usb cable) -- this is not in keeping with my previous post based on the original codex I received.
 
btw I find the sound can be made very enjoyable before full break-in by equalizing. --   the first 24 hours are rough though.
 
Jeff

 

[mink70]

  I don't know if its of any general interest but I had to send my codex back because the usb wasn't working. They send me a new board (read "break in again") and the sound quality on the new board using the usb is now clearly better than the optical cable. (using audioquest carbon 5 footer usb cable) -- this is not in keeping with my previous post based on the original codex I received.
 
btw I find the sound can be made very enjoyable before full break-in by equalizing. --   the first 24 hours are rough though.
 
Jeff

 
What is your impression of the unit before break in? What frequencies are you equalizing?
 
(I have found the first 200 hours pretty rough with my Codex, honestly.)

 

[jrfmd]

after the first day it sounds very good, it sounded like crap when I tried to use an optical cable longer than 1.5 feet and most music isn't very enjoyable without some equalizing
this is the setting I use for a lot of light music/jazz. it has to be changed by trial and error for lots of songs (both bass and treble). The trick is to find a setting that works for some music so you can relax and then enjoy finding settings for other music at your leisure.
 
these arent very expensive cables and Im sure others would work but generic or long cables really ruin the sound so you'd think the codex isn't working and not using balanced with the hd800 doesn't have any life in it. macbook pro itunes 16/44.1-> audioquest 2.5 foot forest optical cable/audioquest 5 foot carbon usb cable->codex->cardas balanced -> hd800
 


good luck,
jeff

 

[jrfmd]

thought I'd send another equalization in case the first one didn't work for you
this is specific to emerson string quartet recordings (very hard to my ears)
sounds great on my 48 hour burned in codex


jeff

 

[mink70]

  thought I'd send another equalization in case the first one didn't work for you
this is specific to emerson string quartet recordings (very hard to my ears)
sounds great on my 48 hour burned in codex


jeff

Thanks Jeff. I'm finding that the sound keeps changing pretty dramatically over the first 250 hours.