Article: Review | Ayre Acoustics QB-9 Twenty

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[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 - 

 

[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 :~)

[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. 

[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. 

[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 :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, Doak said:

https://www.ayre.com/categories/digital/

No version of the QB-9 DAC is currently listed of Ayre's digital product page.

Did I miss something?

The QB-9 isn't currently available as a new product. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

It should also be noted that people can buy an older one on the used market and send that into Ayre for the upgrade. They get the upgrade and a new two year warranty for $1,500.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, shum3s said:

Do we know how long will this upgraded be available? I ask because I have the DSD version, but not currently able to do the current upgrade.  

Paging @Ryan Berry

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, beetlemania said:

 

Some of my college friends were into Springsteen but I was, like, meh. Then about 20 years ago I picked up the Woody Guthrie tribute “til we outnumber them”. Springsteen performs a couple of the tracks. I thought “wow, this guy is far more talented than I ever gave him credit.” I might buy the file for the barn album rather than just rent it from Qobuz.

 

 

Also curious if Mr. Connaker experienced this. Fresh off the cold UPS truck in December my unit sounded vaguely rough out of the box even if it was immediately apparent that it bettered the DSD version in most every way. I thought it was mostly settled after 100-200 hours but it seemed like I heard subtle improvements even after 500 hours.

I hooked up the two QB-9s to music as soon as I received them and let the music play for weeks before I even listened. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, JoshM said:

I’d be curious to know if someone in the US could buy a 220v version and send it in for the upgrade as 120v? Seems like there are lots more QB-9s on the European used market. 

Let’s ask @Ryan Berry