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Want to buy Ayre C-5xeMP but...

I have had the Ayre in my system for 4 days and at first I found it to be better than my CDP but after extended listening I am to the point where I don't want to let it go.

My only concern is should I go with a DAC and a server instead?

I do not want to hear a hard drive or the fan of a computer and my display is a DLP and has an annoying fan also, so I never have them on while critical listening. Even the faint noise coming out of the DVR is too much.

I know that music servers are the future of audio but I don't mind changing the CD's. If I want convenience I just burn discs with the songs that I am listening to most of the time and when my mood changes I can throw that one out and burn a new one.

I have thousands of songs on my computer and shuffling through them is great but in my system I am all about sound not convenience.

Are CD's dead and upgrading my CDP a waist of money?

2 channel part of the system consists of..

Krell Evo 707
Krell Evo 400 mono's
B&W 800D's
Meridian G08
Ps Audio PPP
Shunyata Python CX pc's
relentless

Showing 6 responses by herman

herman
2,215 posts
 
You're getting a lot of bad and/or incomplete info. One guy says he likes his CDP better than his server but doesn't tell us what DAC he's using, what software, or anything else about it so that is basically one man's opinion about one system that we can't tell anything about.

I've never heard anybody ever say anything about "distortion in the time domain" with servers. Care to clarify?

USB will easily do 24/96 which is a lot higher bandwidth than a CD so I don't see that as a limiting factor. There are many. many options when it comes to computers and DACs including pro audio firewire units that will do multichannel 24/192. You have barely scratched the surface so don't base your decision on this limited input or dismiss USB audio based on one comparison. Go hang out at the PC audio forum at Audio Asylum for awhile and you will learn a lot.
herman
2,215 posts
 
Perrew, what server are you using? How is it connected to the DAC. What software are you using (.wav are data files, not software)? Everything makes a difference.

Relentless, you are correct; at first glance it easy to assume that it is all the same, just a computer and a DAC but it is much harder than one initially thinks because there are so many variables. As I understand it HDMI has some issues as well. Ayre is USB only because they are using a form of asynchronous USB that they licensed from Gordon Rankin at Wavelength. Do a search over at Audio Asylum and visit Wavelength's website.

The bottom line is you can get superb performance going the computer route but you have to find out what works for you.
herman
2,215 posts
 
Thanks for the info Perrew. have you tried to feed the DAC some way other than wireless?

Relentless, I don't think the statement about CDs not being digital is correct but perhaps he was alluding to the fact that when ripping a CD you can do it as fast or as slow or take as many passes as it takes until you get a perfect copy whereas when playing a CD it is done in real time. This makes it much more prone to data errors as well as the problems of reading it and at the same time trying to keep feeding the data to the DAC at a constant rate.
herman
2,215 posts
 
Do you really "understand" enough to declare this a myth or have you just deemed it a myth because with your setup you prefer the CD and these co called myths fit your conclusions?

I think your assumption that even cheap players use FIFO memory buffering is a myth, and on-the-fly error correction can't compete with the solutions available when ripping.
herman
2,215 posts
 
Yes

No matter how it is done at the end of the line is a digital to analog chip which almost always is designed to accept a serial protocol called I2S. Whether the transport is in the same box or we use an external transport or we use a computer at some point there is a receiver chip which takes whatever it is being fed and converts it to I2S for the DAC chip. That "whatever" could be ethernet, Toslink, SPDIF, USB, Firewire, etc.
herman
2,215 posts
 
Depends on what you mean by "extra conversion." I don't see where taking the data and turning it into a serial stream that is compatible with ethernet devices is fundamentally different than taking the same data and turning it into a stream compatible with USB devices. Both have to convert the data. In either case the data arrives intact so I don't see the concern.

Firewire will do 24/192 and USB 2.0 is capable of doing 24/192 although I'm pretty sure you need special drivers to do the latter. Too lazy to look that up and confirm the "pretty sure" at the moment.
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