Ayre QB-9
Synergistic Research USB
Leslie Lundin, Peter Truce and I spent a delightful few hours at Lee Mincy’s in Kentfield on Saturday, March 15. The excuse was a casual shoot-out focused on USB DACs with sidebar consideration of USB cables.
Lee had the new Chord Hugo on loan ($2395), I brought my Chord QuteHD ($1795) with Paul Hynes linear power supply ($550) and Leslie brought her Ayre QB-9 ($2750, not yet upgraded to latest DSD version). We were careful to change just one variable at a time and we made a modest effort at level matching, but there was otherwise not much rigor to our method. We listened to digital files played from a Mac Mini running Amarra, playing though Lee’s DIY Randall tube linestage (2 Telefunken EF 804S) into a newly rebuilt/cap-upgraded Threshold S-500 amp feeding floorstanding Hales Transcendence 5 loudspeakers. This is a clean, high-resolution, full-range system but with minimal tweaks, fancy cables or the like.
In Lee’s system, we all generally preferred the Ayre DAC. It sounded warm and smooth with rich tone color, dimensional images and a vivid, organic quality. The Chord DACs, which sounded quite alike, were perhaps more resolving but less complementary to the system, sounding leaner and less interesting. The Chord Hugo was disadvantaged in this comparison by not being able to use any of the upgrade USB cables (see below for why).
I will add when I was evaluating DACs a couple of years ago, I did a shoot-out between the Metric Halo ULN-8 and the original Ayre QB-9 and ended up purchasing a Metric Halo LIO-8 when it came out. I subsequently sold it when I got the Chord, which I preferred. My takeaways from this: system inter-dependencies are critical but, nevertheless, Ayre is back on my list of DACs to hear in my own system. (Lee liked the Ayre so much that he bought one after our session!)
As for the USB cables, we listened to these:
- Mapleshade Clearlink ($95)
- Synergistic Research Basik USB Active ($395)
- Synergistic Research USB Active SE ($595)
- Light Harmonic Lightspeed ($999)
No surprise, but worth mentioning that we all heard meaningful differences between these cables. The differences tended to be mainly in the areas of harmonic richness and ambient information. The better the cable, the more engaging was Lee’s system, with a greater “being there” quality. I brought both the Mapleshade, which I consider a value champ, and the Lightspeed, which has been widely and very favorably reviewed in the ne plus ultra realm. Nevertheless, the Synergistic USB Active SE won the day while the others offered varying degrees of “just okay” in this shoot-out.
The Chord Hugo, which was designed for mobile/portable use but is getting attention for other applications, could not participate in the USB cable evaluations because it only accepts a micro USB connector, not the USB B-type connector on the downstream end of all of the cables we tested.
We had a lovely time, highlighted by delicious lasagna from Comfort’s in San Anselmo and an excellent Kosta Browne Pinot Noir. I love hanging with audiophiles who have good taste!
Personally, while I very much enjoy these shoot-out sessions, I prefer longer-term evaluations when making buying decisions. I want to balance the sonic differences between components – which are highlighted in shoot-outs – with how I experience and enjoy music over the longer haul. But that’s a luxury we don’t always have.
I think it would be great if, as members of BAAS, we could get a few people to bring over components for listening sessions like this one in our own systems. Not as a formal BAAS event, which needs to accommodate a lot of us, but as an informal, personal audition with a few guests bringing along components of interest.
Dan Rubin
March 30, 2014