Since I have the new Rx and CDM, how the Cv5 fit into these?
Sounds of Cv5 vs CDM? Can you point out same and differences in sound signature? Tx.
Yeah, I have the Rx and the CDM as well, and as Ken pointed out I was lucky enough to be able to spend some quality time recently with a pre-production CV5.
In my experience the CV5 is essentially the excellent amp portion from the CDM put into a package that is the size (or very close to the size) of the Rx. The amp is excellent, bringing over all the tube-goodness and warmth/emotion/musicality of the CDM but being small enough to really make it portable (I'd consider the CDM more trans-portable). I couldn't say I would prefer one over the other consistently in sound (which is high praise given how good I find the CDM to be), the real difference is the use-case.
The CV5 doesn't have the balanced architecture of the CDM, but I didn't find it any worse for it. Also the fact that it uses one tube versus two also helps with the battery life and keeps it cooler (it runs much cooler than the CDM). I didn't have the chance to put one of my highly-prized Mullard tubes from my CDM into the CV5 before I had to (sadly) send it back to Ken for a show, but it was still great and I know that the Mullard tube might make it just incrementally even better, although tube preferences are highly specific to the individual. And at the $699 intro price the CV5 is less than half the price of the CDM, and even at the regular $799 it's still a good value for its sound quality in my opinion. True you don't get the DAC portion, but even with the CDM I usually default to the Chord Mojo for DAC duty (sorry Ken, personal preference here!).
My main issue with the CV5 is the same one I have with the CDM, specifically in my experience they're both pretty susceptible to interference (EMI) from things like cellphones. Think this might be due to either the architecture of the system and/or the tubes. However, I found that if you're careful in how you use and place the units you can remedy this.
So big thumbs up to the CV5 and hope to add one (or add one back) to my gear collection soon! Cheers