Ayre QB-9 Twenty upgrade

[jma2]

Hi all,

 

I recently discovered an upcoming upgrade for my Ayre QB-9 (which took already the DSD upgrade in 2013).

I was slowly starting to think about upgrading my QB-9 to another DAC, but now decided to pre-order the upgrade which supposedly comes in September (trust-based decision I have to admit). The upgrade supposedly covers the following features:

Diamond output circuit improves musicality and bass response.
A new JFET differential stage lowers the noise floor.
AyreLock power supply regulation for better rendering of fine musical detail.
New AC noise filtering for improved resolution.
Custom Ayre Asynchronous USB technology further reducing electrical noise in the system.
New ESS DAC chip for improved signal to noise ratio and spacial detail.
Six layer board design for optimal circuit isolation.
Proprietary reclocking to eliminate USB domain jitter.
PCM play back up to 384 kHz
Native DSD capability up to DSD256 (4x)
HDCD decoding

 

Doesn't look like a "Minor Quality Arte-fact"-upgrade to me ;-)

I couldn't find the announcement on the Ayre website, but there was an announcement by the importer (here in The Netherlands).

 

I still enjoy the QB-9 on a daily basis I have to say, and the previous upgrade was definitely worth the money. I appreciate very much the way Ayre keeps on supporting this QB-9 which at the time landed with lots of praise and attention.

 

Kind regards,

Jan

 

 

 

[jma2]

Yes, I looked with interest at the QX-5 Twenty... lots of (I'm sure, justified) enthusiasm by those who have it. I was held back by the price and scared of by the  law of diminishing returns. I was curious lately for the Denafrips DACs but since there are no dealers here, a listening session or comparison with the QB-9 did not look very easy to establish.

 

A huge advantage of other DACs in general is that you can hook up multiple sources while the QB-9 is single USB only. I added a Shiit Bitfrost for the TV, which works fine, but is an extra box in the rack.

 

At least with the upcoming QB-9 upgrade on pre-order I can stop "worrying" 😀

 

Jan

 

[jma2]

I sincerely hope you do not have to send your DAC before they have the board... otherwise you risk missing your DAC for a long time. Here in The Netherlands at least my new board is pre-ordered and when it arrives I will get notified to hand in my DAC with the local dealer. Then it should be a matter of days, as it happened with the previous upgrade.

 

I have no clue when the board will arrive but at least I can still enjoy using the QB9 as it is now.

 

[jma2]

Hi all,

My upgraded QB-9 Twenty arrived this morning and I also bumped into the USB-power issue/feature.

 

My setup includes a Squeezebox Touch connected via an Uptone USB Regen to the QB-9.

 

Direct connection with the Squeezebox Touch doesn't work and it seems the USB Regen also doesn't pass clean 5V output when there is no 5V input available, because it also doesn't work via the Regen USB.

Direct connection with the laptop works fine, but that's not what I want in the end.

I suppose I will need some kind of USB power injector solution to convert the powerless USB signal coming from the Squeezebox Touch to include 5V power. If anyone has a good reference to such device feel free to let me know.

Another solution would be to force the Regen to output the clean 5V even though no input 5V is available.

 

Any further ideas?

 

Kind regards,

Jan

 

[jma2]

Thank you for your reaction desbiss. I have indeed also this loop you describe. And every time the green standby LED appears there is an "Err" message displayed (no specific code) in a blink.

 

I contacted the Ayre importer in The Netherlands to see how to proceed. I also send a message to Uptone to verify if the Regen USB does or does not output clean 5V when no 5V available on the USB input.

 

I initially had music playback when I hooked up my laptop (Lenovo X220 running Ubuntu 19.10) directly but now playback is also interrupted repeatedly about every 20 seconds.

 

[jma2]

One further information:

I checked on the Squeezebox Touch in the Advanced Settings where you can select the Digital Output.

I see that the Ayre QB-9 Twenty is appearing in the list of interfaces for a few seconds after which it disappears again. I'm not entirely sure this continuous appear/disappear cycle corresponds with the Err Loop.

 

For now I'm in touch with the importer who performed the upgrade and who has tested it with a Mac Book Pro/Pure Music 3 combi without problems (I have no Apple HW to play with though). Of course if Ayre reacts here (or via PM) it will be much appreciated.

 

Jan

 

[jma2]

36 minutes ago, desbiss said:

Your scenario certainly appears to be the same issue I had. 

I also had the same appear / disappear of my QB-9 in Roon. When the QB-9 display showed three bars I could see the QB-9 in Roon, and as the ERR and standby light appeared, the QB-9 was not visible/available in Roon.

 

If that is the case, you should be able to do the firmware upgrade yourself when it is available for download from Ayre. My dealer indicated it was very straight forward. I guess the self install aspect remains up to the folks at Ayre.

 

It was worth the wait. I’m hopeful for the Native DSD capability soon.

 

It would be nice if I could do the firmware update myself (if that's what it boils down to). Otherwise the sending back and forth may take quite some time (again).

 

If the Native DSD comes in a future firmware update I hope we won't have to send in the DAC again.

[jma2]

34 minutes ago, AB835 said:

jma2

I am 99% sure both the REGEN and ISO REGEN generate its own clean 5v for usb output.

 

That is also what I would assume, but I'll let you know to make it 100% 😉

 

Jan

 

[jma2]

3 hours ago, jma2 said:

 

That is also what I would assume, but I'll let you know to make it 100% 😉

 

Jan

 

 

I received a mail from Alex and I can confirm the 100%!

Jan

[jma2]

Hi all,

 

As desbiss assumed correctly, a firmware update managed to get the initial problem solved. I am able to play music via the Squeezebox Touch and the Uptone USB REGEN. I haven't done too much listening with respect to the quality of the sound as I want it to break in over the week and further because it's a bit hectic with work now.

 

One thing I tried was to verify the PCM claims (up to 384kHz). I used the 2L test bench and in particular the first track (the Hoff Ensemble (nice track by the way!)). When I played back the 24bit/352.8kHz version of it, either I ran into problems or the Ayre ran into problems (could somebody verify if this track plays with you? It would be very much appreciated). I unexpectedly heard an irregular very low-frequency rumble in stead of the nice track. The rest of the PCM tracks worked fine and since I couldn't find any 384kHz track, I couldn't test the max rating.

 

 

I will try DSD later.

 

Dear Ryan, is there a way for us to determine which firmware version we are running? If more versions of it get into circulation it may be difficult to pinpoint issues or to compare. And how will we find out if a new version becomes available?

 

Kind regards,

Jan

 

[jma2]

You will have lots of enjoyment Chris, but you will also need patience...

 

When I had my QB-9 Twenty started (that was November), I immediately heard a different QB-9 compared to my QB-9 DSD. I heard a lot more detail in the music right from the start and a background that was way deeper/darker. During the first days I missed the low frequencies in my setup but that may be subjective because the rest changed so much. In the meantime the bass has returned quite a bit and I keep replaying certain albums every day to hear the evolution (which is more subtle now but hasn't finished yet) and I can agree with the others here that the sound gets better even after many hours of playback.

 

I also have to agree with the other people here that Ayre did a very impressive job with the QB-9 Twenty, and I am personally extremely pleased with the trust they had in me for performing the necessary firmware upgrade to solve my initial boot-loop problem which was acknowledged and solved promptly. Exemplary long-term service, no question about that!

[jma2]

With the latest update of SonicOrbiter 2.8 as announced on the Sonore forum, native DSD for at least the Ayre QB9 Twenty is working on my Sonore opticalRendu. I tested DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 files (.dsf) using Squeezelite and LMS (on the oRendu).