Ayon CD2 is AMAZING

I own an Ayon CD-1s in a system with an Ayon Spirit II integrated and a pair of PBN Montana EPS2 speakers. I purchased the CD-1s new for $2400. The CD-1s is a fine piece of equipment. I compared it to the $1650 Cambridge CD player , a Bryston player at $2,300, a Naim player at, I think $3,000 and to several DACs (using my old CD player as a transport. In direct comparison, in my system... the CD 1s was the clear winner.

Attributes? Good imaging --- wide and large. Good presence, full-bodied, rich sounding. Engaging? yes.

Weaknesses? can be bright on some recordings and is especially problematic with certain piano and clarinet recordings. That said, the boldness of the player lends well to more recordings that otherwise would be non-engaging --- more than making up for having problems with some strident piano and/or clarinet recordings.

Overall impression of the Ayon gear? I'd say that the gear is definitely not the Bugatti of Audio and probably not gear that is among the very best value/performance ratio out there... but is as well by no means a dog either. I'd say the Ayon gear is a fair to pretty good value/performance product across the board.

Hi Robster, you've got a nice system there. I never found a cd player at the price point you mentioned which I found either "the Bugatti" of audio or even a high end bargain..I always wanted a better player.

As far as high end bargains go, design and build quality & amazing sound, i've been blown away by the CD-5/5s. The fact you're getting a full Skylla tube dac, high end transport & tube pre-amp done very well for under $12k is amazing. Ayon's lower end players (in fact i'd say up to the CD-2s) though good, don't create any magic for me. The CD-5 certainly did.

I agree, the Ayon players stock can sound a bit bright at times because they are uncompromising & don't use chokes, filters or feedback which detract from the sound, however th

Guys,
I am sure what TAS meant by Ayon, the Bugatti of Audio - well it was not a CD-1s and a Spirit II. More akin to the top line Orthos, Vulcan II, Polaris III products that Ayon has. You know the $50k amps. That is what TAS is taking about, not the entry level ayon gear, that by the way is better than most other comparable gear out there at the entry level price point. Spending $2400 for a CD player or an amp is entry level high end.

Mlb: Agreed they had in view the top Ayon gear. My comments about the lower end of the Ayon gear was intended to be extrapolated out. That is, at the entry-level the Ayon gear has very good to very, very good performance/value --- but not off the scales performance/value. If that applies across the board for the Ayon gear, then it is reasonable to assert that the Bugatti thing is hyperbole. Of course the performance/value relative to equal cost alternatives might get better as cost goes up for Ayon... who knows. Maybe some of you do...

My point is that, generally, in this thread we have two camps... the Ayon is awesome and the Ayon is a rip-off/sham product. I'm arguing that Ayon appears to be neither --- rather it is solid gear at fair prices like a vast array of other gear... quite a bit closer I'd think to the top of the performance/value end of the continuum than it is to the rip-off/sham end. But not at the top. The Bugatti thing is to sell magazines and prime the system more than anything else.

Robsker, have you heard any of Ayon's top components in a good system to be able to comment with authority? When 6 moons rate the CD-5 close to the Accuphase DP-700 (which is more than twice the price), that strikes me as off the scales cost/performance). Add to that exemplary build quality, components & topology, the ability tube roll & a very good pre-amp thrown in...If that is not off the scales value, i'd hate to see what is!