Hopstretch

Warren Zevon -- Warren Zevon I was sitting in the CanJam Hilton Hotel/I was staring in my empty coffee cup/I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lying/All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles -- I'm gonna drink 'em up!

One thing that was not fun today was my son suddenly manifesting a wicked seasonal allergic reaction, something he has shown no sign of in the past. Eyes just about swollen shut, nose running like a tap etc. etc. The tree pollen is all over everything like gold dust right now, so I guess the cause isn't much of a mystery, but it's just miserable to see him so miserable. No one else in the family has any allergies at all, so I was kind of hoping we'd dodged that bullet. Zyrtec seems to be helping, but I have to say it's a kick in the crotch to make it through the New England winter -- when everyone is constantly sniffling and cranky -- only to now run into exactly the same thing in the longed-for Spring.

Tears For Fears -- The Seeds Of Love

Internet bad or human being bad?

You haven't saved a cent, because I'm going to get you drunk and then sell them to you.

Poor, sad little Staxen.

Well, it's done. I'm keeping it. My wallet is walking like a cowboy. One little wrinkle for those of you who don't read your owner's manuals. The standard warranty is a somewhat risible 90 days, but if -- and only if -- you submit the registration card within 30 days of purchase it bumps up just a smidge to a full five years. All of Ayre's other warranties are also transferable, but the QB-9 manual is silent on this issue.

Well, it's a flexible and extremely tunable DAC at minimum. Then you can add a separate transport and a separate music server if you choose. I think it's a very interesting and potentially mold-breaking product. But how will it sound?

A new source.

Depeche Mode -- Ultra

Caramelized onion marmalade!

Send all your stuff to me from now on and I will. You can thank me later.

Dead Can Dance -- Into The Labyrinth

I am so looking forward to CanJam.

Thanks for the best unexpected belly laugh I've had in a while!

Looks like Audible Elegance are the dealer in your neck of the woods. Maybe they'll let you demo one against the AA. Dat I like read.

$2,500.

There's a very unfunny story behind that picture.

Mike Scott -- Still Burning Silly glasses. Good album!

I think it's just "manualese".

OK a couple of answers to some of the, um, more substantive questions. The rear panel controls do the following, according to Ayre: Listen/Measure -- Selects digital filter algorithms. Listen "produces greater accuracy in the time domain." Measure "produces greater accuracy in the frequency domain" and provides "additional high-frequency energy". Power Mode -- A turns the DAC on when the computer is turned on. When the computer is off or asleep, the DAC enters standby mode. B keeps the DAC in standby mode even when the computer is turned on and only wakes it when it receives data from a music player. Disp On/Off -- Front panel display control. Rsrv A/B -- Reserved for future updates. As for USB-only aspect, I get the impression this was chosen for two main reasons. As an attempt to demonstrate that USB, properly implemented, can be the equal of any other digital audio interface. And to meet a price point well below most of Ayre's other gear. As Hansen put it over on AA: Lil' Knight -- Ayre only sell through their dealer network. It's on their Web site here.

Someone asked for a photo of the back panel. Not all that much to see.

After several hours of going back and forth, I doubt my opinion is going to change much from here on out. First, a very important proviso: I have no experience with other comparable high-end sources! So this is not intended to be a qualitative review of the Ayre DAC, but rather a straight comparison with the Duet, which I know that others here have also come to rate fairly highly in its class. I ran both through the GS-1, which apart from being an admirably neutral conduit also allows for simple switching of two inputs, and roughly volume matched each individual track with an SPL meter. Material was a selection of 24/96 needledrops and Red Book, all in ALAC format. Bit rate adjustments were made in Audio Midi Setup and were consistent for both sources. ICs and Duet breakout were identical, fine Nugget Audio products. Anyway, the first and clearest impression going to the Ayre for me was the soundstage just blowing outward. I have never thought of the Duet as closed-in, but by comparison it surely is. Not even close. Boom! (Out-of-)head shot! Second would be detail retrieval -- there was immediately a lot more "there" there, with both hi-resolution material and standard CDs. This threw me initially, as the Duet seemed to have punchier bass, but after listening to the same upright bass lines and kick drums over and over, I came to conclusion that what I was hearing was a more one-note response making an impression over better-delineated and more-realistic impact and decay. The Ayre seems to me to do much better with transients in general and at higher frequencies it isn't even close. Other than that, as I said, general operation is trouble free. Truly plug and play, at least with my Mac. And of course everyone loves the new new thing so take this with the requisite big pinch of salt, but I absolutely want to own one of these. It makes the Duet sound congested and slow, and if there's a front rank of Duet fanboys I believe I've been in it! Big gear sale and ritual spousal ripping of new asshole to follow shortly. Watch this space.

No problems on that front, with a dozen browser tabs all doing bandwidth-intensive things. Sorry, I'm not going to open it up but here's the answer on the internals from Charles Hansen himself.

Thanks. I'll pull the ethernet cable and switch over to wireless and see how it holds up.