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Hi Ryan, do you mind running through the controls and settings for the QB9 twenty regarding sample rates, filters, and DSD native/direct mode?? Or point me to where this info is available. thanks, George

Keith, Try comparing sound quality between different locations of identical copies of a file; for instance copy on original hd vs copy on new ext hd vs copy on your ssd. I would love to hear about your findings from an engineer's perspective. George

Jesus, follow this link from the Ayre site to set up XP OS for the Ayre QB9. http://www.ayre.com/usb-xp_setup.htm Itunes is not recommended by Wavelength or Ayre with a pc because there is no way to bypass the kmixer. Their recommended playback software; Foobar or Jriver will give your friend better results with audio quality. That being said Itunes should play once you have your XP os configured. Remember to go to the preference settings and disable the enhancements in the playback tab. See the Wavelength site for Itunes preference settings. This should be an easy process so I suspect your friend has some other problem occuring. I have been able to use Itunes and Foobar from my pc laptop with both XP and Windows 7 to the Ayre QB9.

Hi gregeasley, The QB9 has a truly balance out circuit. No volume controll and only a usb input. A pc/mac may provide additional inputs and the M-audio Fastrack pro can add a 4x4 matrix switcher with analog and spdif to your pc/mac. It is bundled with Ableton Live Lite software which will give you a high quality input gain/ output controll. Not the most convenient solution but perhaps a viable compromise for the performance levels achieved. The M-audio arrives this week and I will post my initial impressions. George

Chris I hope you get your review unit soon. Our QB9 came in Friday morning and we installed it with our Ayre KXR preamp and MXR mono amps with Wilson Sophia speakers with Transparent and Ridge Street Audio cabling. Files were served by a Mac mini and controlled by an i touch. Initial impressions were very good especially considering the lack of warm up time and time for settling in. Most audio files were ripped from CD but we had 24/96 files from Linn, Audiophile Jazz profile, and vinyl conversion from a Sumiko USB Phono. We rebooted I tunes when changing sample rates. We had an Ayre C5xemp in the system and felt it was superior on Friday. The system was left on repeat cycle onernite. By Saturday morniing dramatic changes occured. For those who have heard the MP filter update for the C5xemp, you will agree that a significant hurdle in digital sound quality has been conquered. Fleshy and visceral are the best adjectives to describe the improvements. By Saturday the QB9 was "more of everything good" than any other digital device we have ever heard. We had a continuous stream of about 40 friends and customers listening and agreeing that 'it sounded like great analog" or had "3D tube like imaging". We did structured AB testing between USB cables, Itunes 44.1 vs upsampling to 88.2 or 96, again rebooting itunes after each sample rate change, various sample rates for vinyl conversion files from a USB phono, and finally various different digital sources. We discovered that it was best to send a file in it's native sample rate to the QB9 to allow the Ayre to process the signal as opposed to the src of the computer. The expensive Ridge Street Alethias USB cable was judged to be a " no brainer" and indispensible to the pursuit of reference levels of reproduction. Current judgement on the QB9 can be summarized as a breakthrough revelation. We expect it to get better as all Ayre products need an extended break in time frame. Pictures and additional details are available upon request. I hope everyone that attended enjoyed it as much as we did hosting the event. I urge all to seek an audition whether you are in the market or not. It's just too much fun to ignore!!!! George

We are hosting a coming out party for the Ayre QB9 this Saturday at http//www.avsouth.com Peachtree is crashing the party by overnight shipment of their brand new Nova so we can demonstrate it to anyone interested. The more the merrier. I will be happy to post info for anyone interested. George

Jon, this has been a concern of mine as well. I appreciate the reason for the single usb input, to maximize performance by keeping noise pollution to a minimum, but many users will need more flexibility. I have ordered a M-audio fast track pro which provides spdif and analog audio inputs for pc or mac. It specifies 24/96 capability in a 2x2 matrix configuration. I will be happy to share my experience next week. Our QB9 arrives tomorrow and I will post my initial impressions. George

Jay, physical space between the mini and dac and the analog components would help since there is a lot of RF pollution that can eminate from all digital components. the quality of cable shielding,chassis shield and ground is important. Don't forget to address the power line. The mini is kicking a lot of noise into the ground so applying isolation and noise filtering between the ac of digital components and the analog components has yielded terrific results for me.

My experience with Itunes is it will recognize and play back high resolution files from Linn downloads in aiff format without truncation.

Hi Vortecjr, This is in Tampa, Fl 10 am to 6 pm this Saturday http://www.avsouth.com for more info. Ayre has good info on their site http://www.ayre.com/pdf/Ayre_USB_DAC_White_Paper.pdf http://www.ayre.com/pdf/Ayre_MP_White_Paper.pdf In addition we have been getting technical info from Steve at Ayre. The equilock circuit is not discussed in relation to the QB9 but the circuit has been written up by Wes in Stereophile. We will insert the QB9 into a system with their KXR,MXR, Mac Mini, Wilson speakers and Transparent cabling. I will post progress reports.

Hi everyone, I am a new member, having lurked in the corners for awhile I have decided to join the fun. I own an AV business and have championed computer music for several years now. We are expecting our first Ayre QB9 this week and will introduce it to the public this Saturday. I can post more details if it is allowed, anyone wishing to join us this weekend is welcomed. My expectations for this sweetie is sky high! Asynchronous USB for vanishing jitter, no negative feedback audio ciruitry and minimum phase digital filters are technologies discussed on Ayre's website but what has me really stoked is this will be the first source component applying their equilock circuit topology which was introduced in the MXR and KXR reference pre and power. Ultimately the true test is in the listening and we will be logging mucho hours this week. I would love to share my experiences, of course within forum guidelines.