Chord Dave or Ayre QX5 Twenty DAC???

And for many of us, it's just better tonally. Dave is nice as you said, but from top to bottom, the QX5/20 is a better DAC and not just for cost savings.  I do like and have owned Chord products, so I'm in no way putting them down at all.  All companies have strengths and weaknesses. they all have to make compromises when designing. 

We all just need to figure out what he can compromise on, lol.  Thanks for sharing.

@jymc +1
@ctsooner Got your Memory Player yet?  How's compare to QX5/20?

Not yet as I wanted a different DAC and Stealth caps as well as a few other things.  As for TMP, I've heard it in a few systems now and it's crazy good as a server alone.  Just very relaxed with incredible timing.  It's by far the best digital I've heard to date.  

The DAC is not a quad DAC and it will have special power supplies etc...  All components will be within very tight tolerance's for sound staging etc...  I'll be using HRS Nimbus footers and the Audioquest Hurricane and possibly upgrading to Dragon as the Dragon upgrade on a source is the biggest bang for the buck.  We are shooting for the second week in Sept as I'm not in a hurry.  

@ctsooner What DAC are you talking about?

On Oct 10th, I'll be taking delivery of an all in one The Memory Player by Sam Laufer's company.  www.thememoryplayer.net   He has updated his DAC offering in the player and souped it up big time.  It's the best server I've ever heard by far and they upgrade it remotely on a constant basis as they learn more and more.  Lowest Jitter of any that I've ever seen.