Article: Review | Ayre Acoustics QB-9 Twenty

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[AudioDoctor]

Chris, you, imo, nailed what separates a good piece of equipment from a great piece of equipment, and the same with a recording.

 

Good review.

[mr_bill]

5 of 5 now!  Makes sense. 

 

The review is great and the comparison to the other reference expensive units is fantastic .....and it’s CASH list but....,

 

....it is only 3 out of 5 stars?

 

i must not understand something

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, mr_bill said:

5 of 5 now!  Makes sense. 

 

The review is great and the comparison to the other reference expensive units is fantastic .....and it’s CASH list but....,

 

....it is only 3 out of 5 stars?

 

i must not understand something

 

 

The star ratings for this review (at the very top) are left by anyone who wants to review my review. If they don't like the review or perhaps don't like me, they just leave low star ratings. It happens and has zero to do with the product. 

 

The star ratings in our review platform Polestar are valid user reviews of only the product - 

 

[CG]

Well, you sold me!

 

You must have a time machine or something...

 

Did you use the balanced outputs or unbalanced?  Or, do my reading skills suck?

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, CG said:

Well, you sold me!

 

You must have a time machine or something...

 

Did you use the balanced outputs or unbalanced?  Or, do my reading skills suck?

People still use unbalanced? :~)

 

I used the balanced outputs and haven't had RCA cables out of my closet in years :~)

[Superdad]

Hi Chris:

At first I though you simply overlooked listing the price of the QB-9 Twenty--seeing only the $1,500 upgrade cost listed.  So I went digging and found that the QB-9 Twenty is not a model that Ayre actually offers anymore.  It is only available as an upgrade to original QB-9 and QB-9 DSD owners. You might want to make that more clear in your review.

 

Of course I applaud Ayre for offering what is essentially an all-new DAC to the many existing QB-9 owners--and at such a reasonable price. Good company. (And I miss Charlie. We were friendly over two decades and he was always insightful.)

[Account Closed]

I don't know about all this emotional attachment stuff. I mean the thought of a middle-age man crying in his beer (well tea actually) while listening to some sad song all alone and in the dark is a bit frightening. Well anyhow, Happy Quarantine 

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, bobflood said:

I don't know about all this emotional attachment stuff. I mean the thought of a middle-age man crying in his beer (well tea actually) while listening to some sad song all alone and in the dark is a bit frightening. Well anyhow, Happy Quarantine 

hope you didn’t cry too long. 

[mg8]

My QB-9 is on its way to Ayre for the upgrade.  I can't wait for its return after reading this review.  The QB-9 has always been a landmark product since the early days of computer audio.  Its return with the Twenty technology is the most exciting digital news I have heard in sometime, with a nostalgic kicker.

[CG]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

People still use unbalanced? :~)

 

I used the balanced outputs and haven't had RCA cables out of my closet in years :~)

 

There's actually a number of potential upsides to unbalanced operation.  You just need to find other ways to mitigate the real problems balanced operation tends to help with.

 

But, balanced works pretty well, too...

 

BTW, I'm VERY disappointed that the mounting screw for the power supply wasn't changed.  I feel taken advantage of.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, CG said:

 

There's actually a number of potential upsides to unbalanced operation.  You just need to find other ways to mitigate the real problems balanced operation tends to help with.

 

But, balanced works pretty well, too...

 

BTW, I'm VERY disappointed that the mounting screw for the power supply wasn't changed.  I feel taken advantage of.

I’m a big fan of a usually higher output voltage with balanced connections in addition to the noise rejection. Not sure unbalanced can counter that, but I agree both can be great. 

[Rt66indierock]

The key for me would be how does From Small Things, Viva Las Vegas and Murder Incorporated sound. I'm a fan of his back catalog.

[Ryan Berry]

5 minutes ago, CG said:

 

There's actually a number of potential upsides to unbalanced operation.  You just need to find other ways to mitigate the real problems balanced operation tends to help with.

 

But, balanced works pretty well, too...

 

BTW, I'm VERY disappointed that the mounting screw for the power supply wasn't changed.  I feel taken advantage of.

 

If it helps, I can go in and replace every lock washer with a brand new, shiny, also non-magnetic lock washer of your choosing.  Just send in your material of choice with the unit and I'll oversee it personally.

[Ryan Berry]

Hey Chris,

Thank you for the wonderful review and I'm very happy you enjoyed the product.  The QB-9 upgrade really embodies everything we've learned at Ayre over 26 years and is my personal favorite upgrade to date.  We look forward to the next project soon and will be in touch.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Berry

Ayre Acoustics, Inc.

[CG]

4 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m a big fan of a usually higher output voltage with balanced connections in addition to the noise rejection. Not sure unbalanced can counter that, but I agree both can be great. 

 

Balanced circuitry doesn't have any particular signal level advantage over unbalanced.  You can make either one low or high.  The audio biz has sorta/kinda standardized around 2 or so Vrms for unbalanced, with double that for balanced.  But, there's no reason it has to be that way.  In fact, there's no reason power amplifiers need *any* voltage gain at all!  The power amp could just as easily be a unity gain current amplifier with all the voltage gain performed in the "preamp".  You'd gain roughly 26 dB in interconnect noise immunity because of the higher levels.

 

As for noise rejection, that's a long subject to discuss on an audio forum.  You can make an argument that just twisting the words together in an interconnect (or using quad twist) is just as good as balanced circuitry at audio frequencies.  But, with commercial audio gear, we are where we are.

 

Much of the noise reduction advantage of balanced audio amplification has to do with how the power supply noise and crap is rejected by the balanced amplifier circuitry.  Again, not even for the Objectivist corner here...

[CG]

5 minutes ago, Ryan Berry said:

If it helps, I can go in and replace every lock washer with a brand new, shiny, also non-magnetic lock washer of your choosing.  Just send in your material of choice with the unit and I'll oversee it personally.

 

Nah.  Too late.  My spirit has already been crushed irredeemably.

 

I'll just live with what you sent.

 

Thanks for the offer, though.

[firedog]

Chris-

I hadn't paid any attention to the soundtrack version of the album till I read the review. Now that I've listened to it, I prefer it. It has a more open, dare I say "natural" feel to it. There is something to be said for good musicians performing live. 

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

hope you didn’t cry too long. 

everyday when I read the news

[The Computer Audiophile]

21 minutes ago, CG said:

 

Balanced circuitry doesn't have any particular signal level advantage over unbalanced.  You can make either one low or high.  The audio biz has sorta/kinda standardized around 2 or so Vrms for unbalanced, with double that for balanced.  But, there's no reason it has to be that way.  In fact, there's no reason power amplifiers need *any* voltage gain at all!  The power amp could just as easily be a unity gain current amplifier with all the voltage gain performed in the "preamp".  You'd gain roughly 26 dB in interconnect noise immunity because of the higher levels.

 

As for noise rejection, that's a long subject to discuss on an audio forum.  You can make an argument that just twisting the words together in an interconnect (or using quad twist) is just as good as balanced circuitry at audio frequencies.  But, with commercial audio gear, we are where we are.

 

Much of the noise reduction advantage of balanced audio amplification has to do with how the power supply noise and crap is rejected by the balanced amplifier circuitry.  Again, not even for the Objectivist corner here...

I certainly here you but in the real world we only can only make selections from the products available. I’ll stand by my preference for balanced and higher voltage because nothing else exists :~)

[PYP]

Chris,

 

What a helpful and original way to frame the review!  Something any audiophile could relate to.  

 

To me, the "perfected" version is what I think of as homogenized.  It may sound good, but not real.  That is a different distinction than two different perspectives -- say Hasselblad vs. Leica, or Blue Note vs. Telarc.  We most likely value both, but prefer one.  

[sockpit]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

hope you didn’t cry too long. 

“Stones” is the killer track, gents.

[AudioDoctor]

The live album, recorded in the Barn, is available on Qobuz in 24/96

[beetlemania]

Quote

Ayre's ethos of supporting and upgrading existing products "forever" is a huge benefit to its customers worldwide. 

Indeed! 
Nice review! OK, maybe I’m biased 😬 

 

Edit: streaming Qobuz Barn album thru my QB-9 Twenty now - wow! Thanks for the album recommend.

[jma2]

"The Ayre Acoustics QB-9 DAC has been around for seemingly ever and was one of the first to support asynchronous USB. The internal design has been upgraded over the years, first to the QB-9 DSD and now the QB-9 Twenty. "

 

There was even an earlier upgrade (before the upgrade to DSD) by which the USB interface was upgraded to support 192 kHz.

 

Thank you for the nice review Chris. I hope you had the chance to also experience the long period over which the Twenty evolved from "great" to "better than great" (I found it a very interesting voyage to make). Unless the Twenty you received from Ayre had a lot of hours on the clock that aspect must have been very noticeable as experienced by many owners who did the upgrade to the Twenty.

 

My appetite for changing DACs has been served extremely well by Ayre through the QB-9 ;-) and the service level in general has been stellar through all these years.

 

On the music side of things, I was never a fan of Bruce, but my wife was getting very enthusiastic when I streamed the Barn tracks from Qobuz, so she agreed completely with you.