With Ayre QX-5 Twenty/my microRendu?

[shaq]

Is my recently purchased microRendu rendered useless if I buy an Ayre Qx5-Twenty?

 

I bought the the Rendu to use with my Berkely DAC and get Roon access and now I'm beginning to think I need a newer DAC.

 

Shaq

[stumil]

Tried it myself 2 weeks ago. Both the QX-5 Twenty and Codex sound and work great with the microRendu.

 

 

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[ctsooner]

Stumil. How's it going? Sorry I haven't been in touch but I had surgery wed and am still in hospital. The QX was cooking in but Brenda has ms to turn it off and I don't want to ask her to turn it all back on. Not sure if she'd know how to lol. Call if you want.

 

 

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[Ultrarunner]

Tried it myself 2 weeks ago. Both the QX-5 Twenty and Codex sound and work great with the microRendu.

 

 

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Do you mean that Ethernet into the microRendu (then USB to the QX-5) sounds better than Ethernet into the QX-5?

 

It's not a big deal, but I was hoping to simplify and not need the extra device, plus JS-2 power supply.

[ctsooner]

Ultra, with all the different cables and connections and room/grid differences, can we really tell what sounds best in any situation? I think it's becoming a crap shoot and each of us may get different results in our own systems. To me, the norm would be to just get a clean ethernet connection going into the Ayre QX5 Twenty. Use a decent Cat 8 cable and maybe even the optical converter with a nice LPS on the business end of things and it's a go. Will any of these smaller micro computers clean up the ethernet signal? I just thought they were all USB converters, but most feel that ethernet connections will ask to resend a broken package, no? I'm starting to learn too much to be dangerous and overthink....HELP!!!! lol.

 

Do you mean that Ethernet into the microRendu (then USB to the QX-5) sounds better than Ethernet into the QX-5?

 

It's not a big deal, but I was hoping to simplify and not need the extra device, plus JS-2 power supply.

[stumil]

John Rutan from Audio Connections came over to do a tune-up to my Vandersteen 5a's. He just happened to have a QX-5 in the front seat of his car (John is a shrewd one) to compare to my Codex. We listened to my Codex first which is fed by the microRendu. We switched out the Codex and plugged the USB (not the CAT5 cable) microRendu into the Codex. Worked and sounded great. My microRendu is powered by a linear power supply.

 

 

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[wwaldmanfan]

John Rutan from Audio Connections came over to do a tune-up to my Vandersteen 5a's.

 

An arcane quesion, I suppose, but your post caught my eye since John Rutan is my audio dealer also. What is a "tune-up" on a pair of speakers?

[ctsooner]

Guess many of us use johnny lol. He probably just helped place them better and redid the bass EQ

 

 

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[ctsooner]

Stu, how did the QX 5 sound in your system.

 

 

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[stumil]

An arcane quesion, I suppose, but your post caught my eye since John Rutan is my audio dealer also. What is a "tune-up" on a pair of speakers?

 

As Sooner said above, the Vandys have adjustable tailorable eq settings for the bass and the internal 400w subwoofers. See page 12 of the Vandersteen 5a manual at this link: http://vandersteen.com//media/files/Manuals/5amanual.pdf

[stumil]

Stu, how did the QX 5 sound in your system.

 

 

The QX-5 sounded great! But so did the Codex. Of course you have more inputs and flexibility with the QX-5 as well as the better chipset. I'd say you can't go wrong with either DAC, just depends on how big your wallet is.

[ctsooner]

Thanks Stu. The irony is that I've told folks for a long time what a great buy that Codex is. It was designed to be a much more expensive unit. Based on the components in there, I don't know how they are able to sell it at the price it's at. They really need to move a lot of them, but it was the digital basis for the QX5 Twenty as well as their other units that will most probably come in the future. I can't wait to get the QX fully broken in to see what it will do. I will say that it does need to be warm (i.e. at least 12 hours on standby or in use) to sound it's best. I have yet to have anything digital sound close to it's best without at least being on or on standby for at least 12 hours (this is why they have standby mode). I even used to leave my small Music Hall 25.3 DAC/headphone amp on 24/7. It didn't draw much power and the sound was SOOO different on both extremes. This is in no way an apology or anything on the sound of either products as they do sound similar. I have heard a huge difference in the bass and the extension and size of the music, but unless it's side by side, it's so difficult. I know that Johnny LOVES the Codex, but is enamored with the QX, lol.... I also know what they did with the upgrade on the headphone amp of the QX and I do listen to headphones. Most won't care or know, but if someone is a headphone person, they probably want to audition the QX along side which you should be able to do at most stores as I assume they will have both and the Codex can easily be brought over to the larger system the QX is bound to be on.

 

Stu, how did the QX 5 sound in your system.

 

 

The QX-5 sounded great! But so did the Codex. Of course you have more inputs and flexibility with the QX-5 as well as the better chipset. I'd say you can't go wrong with either DAC, just depends on how big your wallet is.