[music_man]

correct. i am not currently sure the price. as i said you can get rhem used working for $300-$500 but count on the batteries being gone. if you get them at battery junction or batteries plusthey are like $600. you will need to wire in the batteries then because hey are not oem. there are two problems with that though. first it is very easy but if you don't know what you are doing and make a mistake it could prove instantly fatal! second there is a setting for the battery ah. if the new batteries have a different ah which they should not it will cause the ups to instantly permanently die. it is not much of a gamble though. they should be the same ah and wiring it is pretty straight forward. i am just warning you if you accidentally reverse the polarity it can explode with huge force probably killing someone.   the oem batteries make it pointless to buy a used one. they last 2-5 years but honestly i usually get 7 years. i do get non oem batteries but i know what i am doing. if it is a 1500 watt+ unit absolutely do not get higher ah batteries than what is in it. anyways as i said i am not sure what it costs now but if it is under $1,000 i would highly suggest buying it new. plus the oem batteries are always in your best interest. i am an expert at that stuff so i buy them from batteries plus where we have a corporate account and they are considerably less money. just please do not do that if you have no clue about what to do. actually if you bring it in a batteries plus store they should do it for you but the problem of it locking up is still a slight possibility. you have no waranty if you buy it used anyways. depending on the cost my best suggestion would be to buy it new and get the replacement batery program with it.
 
now, as i said you will not even believe the transformation of your sound. so long as you have good components. if you have a codex or qx-5 i imagine you do. the whole problem is ac. really anywhere in he us or europe. even if you do not have blackouts or brown outs. if you think cables make a difference you would not imagine what this will do. anyways if you do not like it and buy a new one you can always return it. although shipping must be a lot. i imagine a 1500+ watt unti with the batteries installed weighs at least 90 pounds.
 
here:https://www.amazon.com/TRIPP-SU2200XLCD-2200VA-1800W-Online/dp/B00CBQNBYI
 
the only thing is this has a fan. i am pretty sure if you play over 70db it will have no effect on your listening. especially if you are using headphones. even fully open back. speakers will easily over power it at 70db. it will not interfer with the music at that decibel level which is not much. most people listen over 80db. i listen at only 60db and don't hear it. unless you really load it hard. the problem is ones without a fan from apc are over 4 grand.
 
you see the description. it completely isolates your equipment form the line ac. this is a huge deal and will completely transform any good system. i mean i would not get it if i juts had  a sound bar lol. this is the one that is here right now running over six figures of equipment. downstairs there is an apc symetra but that is something completely different and serious money plus need three phase power. this is perfect for most systems which do not draw more than 7 amps. you would be surprised that 7 amps is a whole lot. with the ax-5 twenty and pc everything else i have never been above 6 amps even at 100db. which i do not regularly do anyways. that is very bad for your hearing. if you have 600 watt mono blocks this one is not for you. you need a bigger one which they certainly have but twice the price.
 
i am just telling everyone you would be amazed what this does. forget all the audiophile power conditioning. this is the real deal. you cannot get better power into your equipment than this period. isolation transformers and such like ps audio and richard gray do not hold a candle to t his. anyways it is amazon. if you do not like it just return it. i think it is actually free to return it too. at this price i would not buy a used one. you should have at least 5 years on the batteries if you do not pul more than 6 amps.
 
edit: this is less money probably okay but doe snot have the reputation of tripp lite. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FEM34M?psc=1
 
i have been to tripp lite many times and it is a top notch operation. they once replaced a 20 year old component for free because they deemed it unsafe.

 

[yage]

Yeah, I know the Tripp Lite SU series well - we've had the rackmount version in our server rooms for a few years now. Only one failure under warranty and they shipped out a replacement quickly. Great customer service.
 
Do you have the tower version? Is the fan always on or does it only kick in when you have a black out?
 
EDIT: Should've read your post more carefully - plus the online specs say noise is 45 dB @ 1 m as measured from the front panel for the tower version.

 

[music_man]

do you think 45db from the fan is too much? some people think it has a high pitch but i can hardly hear it even when the music is off plus it is in a corner due to 6 foot power cords. i really can't even hear it. it ramps up if you pull the plug but online it is hardly noticeable to me and if music is playing at 60db it vanishes. at 80db you would have no problem whatsoever imo. people think ambient noise has an effect but this is honestly so low it doe snot make any difference. most people probably have more nolise coming from outside their building. i can hear the birds more. of course there are ones without a fan but they are big money. you can look at the other one too but i doubt it has tripp lites reputation. i mean cyberpower is like $450 but that is not what i would use to power this system.

 

[yage]

I think it depends on how silent your listening environment is and how loudly you like to listen to music. My stereo is in the basement and if I turn off the HVAC completely, I can hear the AX-5 Twenty's and C-5xeMP's transformers hum from about 3' away. I can just barely hear it from my listening position. The Bryston BIT-15, even with its massive toroid, by comparison is completely silent.

 

[music_man]

geez your hearing is better than mine.. of course i used my ears professionally for years so they may be worn out.plus i am just an old man now. anyways i put my head on the ax-5 twenty and heard nothing. given that, i am sure you would hear the fan in the tripp lite ups. however i am not sure it would make a difference when the music is playing just as the ax-5 transformer does not. of course it is louder than that too but it really is not very loud. i will not turn off my hvac and it is loud. so it overcomes everything. the room downstairs is completely isolated though. it is plenty hot in there with all the equipment. i mainly listen to my new "little" system in the bedroom and at only 60db the hvac does not even bother me. i am not you though. you obviously have much better hearing than i do. i am not really sure if it would bother you or not.

 

[cygnusx]

I've really been enjoying the upgraded sound for the last few days with the upgrade cables but I did notice some funny business going on with my Codex when listening with headphones (tested with two different headphones in both balanced and single-end modes).  This is the first time, I've done extensive listening on headphones so I didn't really notice earlier.  I noticed that when I was flipping through a list of songs, I would hear either some crackling or a pop on either side of my headphones.  I thought maybe it was the Aurender at first, but even after changing the source to the OPPO (via optical) and connecting a USB drive, the same thing was happening when I was flipping through different songs on the OPPO.  I would hear a slight crackle or a loud pop.  Anybody experiencing anything similar?  Once the song starts playing, doesn't seem to impact the sound at all.  Thx 
 

 

[KmanChu]

I have a click sometimes when the sample rate switches. Does that sound right? Especially when going into or out of DSD.

 

[cygnusx]

  I have a click sometimes when the sample rate switches. Does that sound right? Especially when going into or out of DSD.

Exactly!  Is this normal?  It seem to happen with I flip through different sample rates per your comment.  

 

[KmanChu]

Mine does it, usually nothing that makes me jump up and notice though. If yours is enough to be truely bothersome then I would check with Alex at Ayre. It shouldn't be enough to make you fear for your speakers or headphones.
 
It is annoying though, it should seem like there should be a little bit of mute when switching rates to eliminate those noises. In Roon or JRiver there is a resych delay which plays some silence at the beginning of a track when a sample rate changes. It seems to reduce the problem for me. 

 

[cygnusx]

Thanks.  I will check with Alex.  I'll have to see, if the Aurender has a resych option.  

 

[music_man]

the thing is most aftermarket usb cables do not meet usb spec. i had some that would not even communicate. use a stock cable and i bet your problems are gone. small price to pay. i am sure this is the usb cable going on here. i got rid of the problem by using the ifi power supply which is odd because the codex doe snot use +5v but on  a long run i guess the cables do. which would not make any sense but it works. no more pops. i also ust the ipurfier and a jitterbug. overkill anyone?

 

[cygnusx]

the thing is most aftermarket usb cables do not meet usb spec. i had some that would not even communicate. use a stock cable and i bet your problems are gone. small price to pay. i am sure this is the usb cable going on here. i got rid of the problem by using the ifi power supply which is odd because the codex doe snot use +5v but on  a long run i guess the cables do. which would not make any sense but it works. no more pops. i also ust the ipurfier and a jitterbug. overkill anyone?

I wonder if switching sampling rates introduces a electronic charge down the cable. I will need to test a little longer but when I put back the stock cable last night, it wasn't entirely clean. I heard some crackling and popping, maybe not as loud.

 

[cygnusx]

music_man I wonder if I would get the same benefit that you're getting with the ifi power supply, if I add in a Uptone Regen or Wyred Recovery. Any ideas? Thx

 

[austinpop]

What a coincidence that the discussion turned to pops and crackles on DSD!
 
With the family out of town, I settled down to an uninterrupted listen to Mahler's 2nd Symphony, the Kaplan/Vienna version from DG (http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4743802). This is one of my all time favorite interpretations of the 2nd, but it also has some attributes that make it germane to the "pop" discusstion - i.e. it has 42 separate index points, which I had ripped into 42 distinct DSF files.
 
As I was listening, I realized I was getting gapless playback, but the pop at each track boundary was quite audible. Note - this was on my Aries Mini -> Codex -> HD800 setup.
 
Now - some history: based on this discussion (http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/sacd_extract-dsf-output-problem-18114/) and several others like it (google is your friend), there used to exist a problem in sacd_extract that created bad DSF files. However, that has been fixed, and there always existed an alternate method to avoid this by going ISO-to-DFF-to-DSF.
 
I had previously ripped this album using the Sonore iso2dsd tool described here (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=129913.0). Based on my pop=filled listening session last night, I tried a few experiments today:

1. Ripped the ISO to DSF files using the latest version of Sonore's iso2dsd and sacd_extract.exe
2. Used the alternative method using the latest ISO2DSF tool that does ISO-DFF-DSF conversions
3. Ripped the ISO to a single DFF file with an associated CUE sheet.

 
Bottom line - I am still hearing pops at track boundaries. What is most interesting is that I hear them even with dff files! The only time I have no pops is with the single DFF rip (DSDiff Edit Master), but that's not a solution for me, as my setup relies on a UPnP media server, and I'm not aware of any UPnP servers that support CUE - certainly, minimServer does not.
 
Which brings me - finally - to the tie in with the Codex. I am speculating that even with the Aries Mini delivering a gapless stream, the track boundary is causing the Codex to switch momentarily from DSD to PCM and back, due to the use of the DoP protocol. I've sent Alex a note asking him to comment and/or check with the Ayre dev team.
 
I also plan to post on the CA thread to see if people with other DACs that require DoP have this issue.
 
Finally, I looked for a streamer setting on the Aries Mini that might improve buffering, thinking it could mitigate this. The Mini does have a DAC Output Delay setting that can be set from 1 to 5 seconds, but I found no impact from that change.

 

[cygnusx]

austinpopThanks for the write up. Considering that I was hearing the noise via the optical input as well, I wasn't convinced that the sounds were purely being caused by the USB. I'm curious to know what Alex says.