Ayre C-5xe(mp)

[allenh]

Just took delivery of a used Ayre C-5xe(mp) machine purchased on Agon. It was time to upgrade my Denon 1920 player.

Any Ayre C-5xemp users here on the forum? I thought I saw a forum member or two with this unit in their sig. I had a few questions to ask if there are.

Unit is nice. The SACD playing is much nicer than the Denon's. But still, it almost seems veiled when compared to UHQCD.


The unit gives me great hope for their new 'digital hub', the QX-5!

[dan31]

I have owned a C5xe since it was introduced. I had it upgraded to MP about 8 years ago. It has been steady. I'm still on the original transport. I'm more of an analog lp guy so I'm happy to keep on spinning silver discs with the Ayre. One of its key strengths is it's analog output stage. It has excellent sound, don't let anyone trick you into thinking otherwise just because it's not the latest. It's PCM playback is it's strength. SACD is nice, but a bit rolled off as Sony wanted it to be from design. I find DVD-A hi res to be excellent, CD's are fine. If I ever went to new digital it would be the latest Spectral CD player for CD's.

[Guest]

Raising hand - I use the C5xe^MP

I can claim no membership among the digerati, but I can tell you about the unit in my system..

[bmoura]

SACD is nice, but a bit rolled off as Sony wanted it to be from design.

Hmm, sounds like a bad player. The SACDs I've heard aren't rolled off.

[allenh]

I have owned a C5xe since it was introduced. I had it upgraded to MP about 8 years ago. It has been steady. I'm still on the original transport. I'm more of an analog lp guy so I'm happy to keep on spinning silver discs with the Ayre. One of its key strengths is it's analog output stage. It has excellent sound, don't let anyone trick you into thinking otherwise just because it's not the latest. It's PCM playback is it's strength. SACD is nice, but a bit rolled off as Sony wanted it to be from design. I find DVD-A hi res to be excellent, CD's are fine. If I ever went to new digital it would be the latest Spectral CD player for CD's.

Dan, first thank you for joining AN. A great forum for sharing info/stories on gear and music.

Tim, I thought I remember seeing at least one other forum member with a C5xe. ..

Well, my I didn't get a reply here so I called Ayre who was extremely helpful. Their website actually encourages you to call vs. email them a question. Very refreshing!

My unit had the original all alu remote, which suggested it was purchased as a C5xe but it was sold to me as a C5xeMP machine. I wanted to see if there was a way to tell this was upgraded. It was, but it doesn't sound like there is a way to tell just by looking at the unit. And the other thing is the pretty dark display. Ayre said that was normal, given the blue overlay glass they put on the Pioneer electronics to hide some things. Are your displays pretty dark?

I do have one other question though: is there a way to make the unit read the CD layer of a hybrid SACD disc? I was able to do this with most of my other players, but can't seem to do this with the Ayre.

Enjoying the spinner thus far!

[dan31]

You can dim the display or turn it off using the remote. When the display is off only LEDs indicate the format being played.

You can enter a code with remote to play the CD layer of a hybrid SACD disc. Just give Ayre a call and ask.

Note that SACD's are played at half the output of the PCM. 4v for PCM and 2v for SACD using the balanced outputs. This is what most listeners notice when playing SACD's. Ayre chose this as they preferred the sound.

[allenh]

Thanks, Dan, will call Ayre this week.

re: dim light. Even at its highest setting, the light seems very dim compared to other electronics I have, from Ayre or other. Seems like they put a blue glass on top of Pioneer display to hide some options not used, hence the darker than normal display.