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Where would the DAC3 land?' Thus did JCA lay the groundwork for his review of Benchmark's DAC3 HGCthe last three letters designate this as the audiophile version, with a headphone amp and two analog inputswhich supports files up to 24/192 and DSD64, the latter as DoP (via USB). rather than USB connections, is the way forward.' Writing from his fortress of testitude, JA declared that 'Ayre's QX-R Twenty digital hub offers superb measured performance.' (Vol.40 No.9 WWW)

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And more detail,' and although the Ayre never overstepped its bounds in that respect, the combination of QX-5 Twenty plus MBL Corona C15 amps and Rockport Avior II speakers 'resulted in a slightly relentless quality,' compelling him to play music 'at a lower level than I'd been used to.' Adding to his system the Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and disabling the Ayre DAC's digital volume control ameliorated the forwardness, and contributed to JA's conclusion that 'feeding audio data over my network to the QX-5 with Roon. Used in his own domestic system, the Ayre at first impressed JA with its 'etail. The Ethernet-friendly, Roon-Ready QX-5 Twenty has at its core ESS's new ES9038PRO chip, supplemented with proprietary Ayre filters running on a Xilinx FPGA chip. We strongly recommend those interested in using a computer as a true high-end digital audio source visit our sister website which is edited by Rafe Arnott.Īyre may not be the only consumer-audio manufacturer whose digital processors have found success in pro-audio settings, but their QX-R Twentya DAC whose 100-step digital-domain volume control and 11-strong phalanx of digital inputs make it suitable for use as the hub of an all-digital domestic systemdistinguished itself by creating the analog master for the LP version of Stereophile's most recent commercial recording project (Sasha Matson's Tight Lines).

To be included in Class A+, a digital processor must be capable of handling DSD or 24/96 LPCM data. Editor's Note: The sound of any particular CD transport/digital processor combination will be dependent on the datalink used-see 'Bits is Bits?' by Christopher Dunn and Malcolm Omar Hawksford, Stereophile, March 1996, Vol.

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