Ayre QB-9

[Stretch]

And don't forget to mail in your registration within 30 days. This bumps your warranty coverage just slightly, from 90 days to five years.

 

[Stretch]

They liked it and, of more immediate interest to QB-9 owners/eyeballers, John Atkinson confirmed that its asynchronous-mode USB implementation (which the Ayre also employs) showed the lowest level of jitter he'd ever measured from a DAC fed through that interface.

 

[labjr]

I realize this is Ayre and it's probably very good. Maybe even a little more refined sound because because of the digital filtering used. However there's probably gonna be a flood of Asynch USB converters, copycat products and "asynch cables"(which is laughable) coming down the pike because of this review and other ones forthcoming. I wouldn't make general assumptions abut any product that uses the word "asynchronous" as a feature. Wavelength and Ayre pay close attention to the small details right down the power supply design and layout and thousands of hours listening which make their products superior.

 

[Dennis L Jacob]

Having owned Ayre products and friendship of insiders, I would feel very comfortable in a blanket recommendation of any Arye product. I too wonder how the QB9 will fit into the entire form of computer supplied/sourced audio with asynch USB and Firewire DACs. Most of my friends are interested in replacement of standalone CD/transport/DAC products without giving up the highest-end of performance. I know that is what I'm looking for. I don't need another source of average performance. So with Weiss, Wavelength and now Ayre providing what may be world class performance without any reservation, is the key to their success. That's what I'm looking for - world class performance. Then hopefully something I can afford.

 

[Stretch]

labjr, I couldn't agree with you more about the coming bandwagon. The reason I pointed out the Cosecant review was that Ayre has actually licensed Wavelength's asynchronous mode software for use in the QB-9, so its jitter performance should be similarly good.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hey guys - I just received this high resolution photo of the QB-9. Looks real nice.

 

Ayre QB-9 High Resolution click to enlarge

 

[bottlerocket]

I'd like to see a 96 in the photo. Its not rational, but its what I want to see.

 

 

 

[rydenfan]

Chris, when might we get an update? or possibly your review?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Rydenfan - I listened to the QB-9 review unit for the first time on Friday. My first impression of the DAC was pretty good, but according to Ayre it needs to break-in for awhile before it starts to really sing. I will be using the QB-9 at the Symposium and my review will be a few weeks after the event.

 

[znorter]

...any (good) news?

 

 

[rydenfan]

Chris, any updates on when we may see your review?

 

[pwhinson]

"The Bryston and the Ayre are very different DACs. Make sure you think about your main use and what interfaces you'll use most etc... They have vastly different features and technologies."

 

Apart from the asynchronous and the clock carried on the signal(?) feature, how do these two differ? (apart from the input/output features obviously which I can ascertain. Any info you could provide would be helpful. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Ayre but it still hasn't shown up in Atlanta yet....

 

And the Bryston is available for 30 day review/purchase at the dreaded Audio Adviser (tongue in cheek; I like Audio Adviser).

 

Thanks. Again - any info would be helpful Chris.

 

- Paul

 

[vortecjr]

Does anyone know if i-tunes windows xp and the Ayre QB-9 will work together? I am trying to help a friend and can't seem to configure it in i-tunes or select the Ayre QB-9. I am not really use to working with I-tunes and think I have the xp side ok. Also, can't find any info in the Wavelength and Ayre site:(

 

[AVSGSLIU]

Jesus,

follow this link from the Ayre site to set up XP OS for the Ayre QB9.

http://www.ayre.com/usb-xp_setup.htm

Itunes is not recommended by Wavelength or Ayre with a pc because there is no way to bypass the kmixer. Their recommended playback software; Foobar or Jriver will give your friend better results with audio quality. That being said Itunes should play once you have your XP os configured. Remember to go to the preference settings and disable the enhancements in the playback tab. See the Wavelength site for Itunes preference settings. This should be an easy process so I suspect your friend has some other problem occuring. I have been able to use Itunes and Foobar from my pc laptop with both XP and Windows 7 to the Ayre QB9.

 

[vortecjr]

I might have to pay a visit and see whats up! This way I get to here it again:) Its hard to do this because I don't have the Ayre or I-tunes in front of me. Does installing i-tunes also install quicktime and does it also need some kind of setting for all this to work.

Anyway, I was able to talk him through the foobar2000....so at least he can enjoy some tunes.

 

[Charles Hansen]

iTunes for the Mac is quite a good program. It is not perfect and if you read the setup guide at the Ayre website, it lists the three main weaknesses of iTunes.

 

For Windows it is a different story. It is a bloated resource hog that tries to take over you computer.

 

>> Does installing i-tunes also install quicktime?

[Charles Hansen]

>> I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Ayre but it still hasn't shown up in Atlanta yet....

[cfmsp]

 

 

Charles,

 

Just wanted to compliment you on your Apple Setup Guide.

 

Very well done.

Clay

 

 

[Andrew S.]

+1

 

[vortecjr]

Thank You! I sent him a beta foobar2k and he had it working before I had a chance to call him back.

 

[Charles Hansen]

We spent a lot of time on the setup guides. They aren't perfect, but we will continue to expand and improve them.

 

Regarding Foobar, I find the basic setup to be quite simple. It has some nice advantages over J.River for the Apple user. J.River depends upon Apple QuickTime to play back Apple Lossless files. But QuickTime for Windows has the same flaw as QuickTime for Mac -- you have to manually change sample rates if you want to listen to a music file at its native resolution.

 

On the other hand Foobar has a very nice ALAC decoder plug-in that works great and allows for automatic sample rate switching. That's the great thing about Windows -- there are lots of choices for music players. For Mac, you are pretty much limited to iTunes. It's not a bad choice, but if it doesn't fit your needs then there aren't many other options. Songbird is improving, but I've heard reports that the sonics aren't there yet....

 

[pwhinson]

We do in fact have an Ayre in town and I'm set to give it a shot to displace the Bryston BDA-1 which I have been tremendously impressed with. Sorry for the confusion. I'm old and my memory chips are bad.

 

[Charles Hansen]

Hey, have fun with the QB-9. Just remember that everything always makes a difference, even the things that have no business making a difference.

 

So be sure to let it warm up for a day or two on repeat. You can just leave the rest of your stereo off while it is doing this. Then it is good to have it on a USB controller that doesn't have a lot of other stuff on it. Figuring this out is somewhat different for Mac versus Windows. The USB cable makes a difference. We send it with a generic one, but if the dealer has a better one, you may want to borrow it at the same time and see for yourself what you think.

 

There is a ton of other stuff you can do, but a lot of it costs money so I won't get into that. But the one thing you should do is make sure that all of the DIP switches on the back are in the "up" position. This ensures that the digital filter is in the "Listen" position, which has better time resolution and sounds better in most systems.

 

Enjoy!

 

[Charles Hansen]

Hey, have fun with the QB-9. Just remember that everything always makes a difference, even the things that have no business making a difference.

 

So be sure to let it warm up for a day or two on repeat. You can just leave the rest of your stereo off while it is doing this. Then it is good to have it on a USB controller that doesn't have a lot of other stuff on it. Figuring this out is somewhat different for Mac versus Windows. The USB cable makes a difference. We send it with a generic one, but if the dealer has a better one, you may want to borrow it at the same time and see for yourself what you think.

 

There is a ton of other stuff you can do, but a lot of it costs money so I won't get into that. But the one thing you should do is make sure that all of the DIP switches on the back are in the "up" position. This ensures that the digital filter is in the "Listen" position, which has better time resolution and sounds better in most systems.

 

Enjoy!

 

[Dan1970]

Hello Charles,

 

I received my qb-9 last saturday and up till now I am very pleased with it!

 

I was just wondering what is the quickest and best way to let the dac burn in?

 

Can I leave the dac running continuously over an extended period? I am asking because I read a post from Gorden Rankin about a wavelength cosecant v3 stating it is not a good idea to do this.

 

(in this topic: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/New-Wavelength-Cosecant-V3)

 

Thanks,

Dan.