I need to call them because both they and Music Direct used to carry it and both no longer have it on their websites. It was one I was really excited about as it is fully balanced.

Btw...I did go listen to the Audio Research preamp you suggested. It sounded great but I could not pass up the deal I got on their floor model of the Ayre Acoustics as it also sounded great.

That PHO-8 is awesome and I am extremely pleased with it but my long term plan for it is to be paired with P3-24 in my home theatre. That was my intent when I bought it and I am using it in my main music system until I get a balanced unit. I plan on having this Vincent for a very, very long time.

Every unit has its pros and cons on that list and the Parasound's price tag at $3k is a major con. I am going to see if I can hunt down an M1 VINL. That is the best value, though It is tougher to find than it used to be.

I called Audio Advisor and the M1 ViNL was discontinued last year. It looks like it is still available in the UK but here in the U.S. we are out of luck.

It was high on my list originally and when I was hunting down dealers one had an M8. I may try and get a demo set up to hear the M8 with the Rogue. I can get one for $3300 and with Ayre's price increase, can probably get full value back for it. Might be worth a few hours of my time.

So few dealers are actually displaying dealers of their equipment its impossible to hear anything in advance of a purchase. One of my local dealers said they changed importers a few years ago and the new importer took them on line which annoyed the existing dealer network.

I have an appointment to hear the M8 later today. We shall see how it sounds.

Three of the four had built in phono stages. Additionally, I took my Rogue Power Amp and my Ayre preamp with me. The dealer sells Revels and had my speakers so I used that to set my baseline.

The M8 did not sound bad, but it wasn't as good of a match sonically as the Ayre. After listening a bunch of other preamps, the dealer and I both agreed on the outcome which is the Ayre is a fabulous sonic match for the Rogue and his suggestion was to accept my good fortune in saving $2600 on the Rogue and Ayre units and get a darn nice phono stage. He suggested the JC 3+ since that is what he sells and incidentally, I will buy it from him if that is the direction I go in.

So, I am back to my list above. I talked to a different dealer today and his perspective was the Parasound and the Ayre units are head and shoulders better than the others. He also sells Simaudio. Because of the potential synergies in sound and matching circuitry, the Ayre unit is the way to go. Alternatively, if I had a different preamp, then they would suggest the JC 3+.

Agree? Disagree? Anyone have any thoughts?

Now that I have decided and I think I am going to go with the Ayre, I know this sounds odd, but the lack of an on/off switch is really appealing. It is one fewer thing for my wife to deal with. I'm the end, I am very cheap and hate paying reatail so I am going to wait for a used unit or demo to come available. I may break down and pay full price eventually, but I have only done that twice and there were extenuating circumstances.

There are no displaying dealers of the P-5xe in NYC metro though I have heard the JC-3+.

The words quiet and detailed don't really do the JC-3+ justice. The Vincent is noisy and muddy relative to the Vincent and you own the Vincent and know how quiet and detailed it is.

There is a dealer on Long Island that carries both Parasound and Ayre and said they are very comparable. They recommend the JC-3+ because it is $250 less if you have a non Parasound or Ayre preamp. Evidently, if you have Parasound, they always recco Parasound and Ayre with Ayre. They used to recommend the Ayre over the JC-3+ when it was $500 less.

The price increase Ayre took in March was monstrous and it was accross the board. The P-5xe went from $2500 to $3250, the V-5xe went from $5k to $6K and the K-5xeMP went from $3500 to $4350. I don't know how much the other prices moved but evidently most things went up in Ayres line.

Since it doesn't seem like anyone out here has any firsthand experience with the two units, I have to trust the dealers who have first hand experience along with reviews. The quote from Fremer on the P-5xe is so complimentary, it makes me feel safe. See it here.

http://www.ayre.com/src_p5xe.htm

"The P-5xe lets you forget it is even there"

That combined with high praise from dealers is going to have to be good enough.

My expectation is that this is going to be the last phono stage I buy for a very, very long time so the $250 difference is not a concern. In a perfect world, I might find one on Audiogone and when I travel, I will call dealers to see if they have a floor madel for sale. Otherwise, this one will wait till bonus time.

This will likely be my St Patricks day gift to myself. Now, onto plotting my digital purchases.

Here is what I need:

1 Balanced DAC with XLR outputs
2 Must support ALAC & FLAC (my NA7004 doesn't support ALAC)
3 Apply AirPlay or a Simple Aplle based app
4 Can't depend on any sort on screen service since there is no TV near this system
5 Collectively needs to be under 9" with adequate space for cooling

I also want to keep my total spend under about $4500 including CD and Headphone Amp. For a CD transport I am planning on a Cambridge CXC at $499. I will move my Marantz CD player down to my home theatre where it will likely get more use.

For the DAC, I am thinking about a few units:

1. Cambridge Audio Azur 851n - obviously I don't need the preamp functionality which seems a waste but the 851D gets an A rating by Stereophile, it is fully balanced, has built in Apple AirPlay, Spotify and has an apple based ap and at $1799 seems like a stuipidly good value and with the CXC is only 7.5" in total thickness.

2. Marantz NA-11s1 - Gets an A+ rating from Stereophile, is fully balaced, has AirPlay built in, streams Spotify and Pandora and has an interface my wife and I are both used to since it is replacing a Marantz NA7004.

3. An Aurender N100H for $2600. It has a built in 1TB HD and an ap that is supposed to work flawlessly. My MAC is on 100% of the time and I might use it or an external as a NAS. It lacks Airplay but is has Tidal built in and I could add a bluetooth dongle to a DAC that would deal with streaming. For DAC, it is then a bit tougher.

Ayre just introduced a $1500 DAC called the Codex that has a built in headphone amp and has a USB and Optical input. The downside is, it would not be possible to listen to a record via headphones then. I can see several other options for DACs that are superb and I can get a deal on; Bryston, Musical Fidelity, Benchmark, Bel Canto, etc...

Although I think the Aurender is the best streaming unit and I like the idea of it, however it is going to be the most expensive option by far. Additionally, if I really want it I could add it to the Marantz or Cambridge after the fact.

My hunch is, that if I find an open box or a demo on the Marantz, I will order it. If not, I will end up trying the Cambridge. The reality is, I am not sure if it is going to be that much better than my exisitng Marantz unit. That NA7004 was a $1000 DAC when it was new and received a 5 star rating from WhatHiFi for a reason. It sounds really, really good for a single ended unit. If the Cambridge is not much better, I would have the option to return it and then go with the Marantz regardless.

I looked into both the Bryston units and although they are highly regarded for sound, the feature set stinks.

NADs M50 is actually pretty sweet and might have the best feature set I have seen. That is rising in my interest and the M51 DAC gets an A+ Rating. Although expensive, I feel like this might really be worth it at $4500.

Two other units have actually sprouted as very interesting. The Simaudio Moon Neo 280D with the Optional MIND Module at $3K. With the cambridge CD Transport, it would be $3500. Nicely placed between the $2300 for all Cambridge and $4000 for Marantz/Cambridge.

I listened to the 260D with DAC and external MIND module when I demo'd the Rogue Audio RP5 and was impressed though that is a $4300 combo.

Then there is the Primare NP30. Audistream gives it an A rating but the irritating thing is the Bryston, Simaudio and Primare lack screens to tell me what is playing at the moment.

Marantz, NAD and Cambridge all have effective displays.

That is helpful.

I do agree that the older BDP and BDA-1s would be a superb value. I am sure I could find them for about $3K which would put them in the meaty part of this range. Honestly, the BDP and BDA-2's with a combined cost of over $5K don't actually feel like a great value compared to the other units. Check out the feature set on the NAD

http://nadelectronics.com/products/masters-series/M50-Digital-Music-Player

The Bryston is Tidal enabled. The NAD has a stupid number of services and gets an A+ rating as well. I do use Spotify, Apple Radio and Pandora. The Bryston is nice and if I was simply streaming audio off of a NAS or my PC via USB, it would be a super unit. I currently do neither of those. This is partially because the Marantz I currently have is not able to read ALAC files unless they are sent via AirPlay and I am very lazy.

I have not listened to Brystons media server and DAC. I have listened to their preamps, power amps and CD players and my experience has been that Bryston sounds very good. It is a bit short of extraordinary for the money. Bryston is just expensive. For instance, the BDP2 would be priced right at $2500 to $2600 relative to its peers, yet it is $3K.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with all Bryston items from my perspective. There is always one or two items that are as good or better at lower price.

I have a nice repository of music on my Mac in the room and can run it with the Remote app on my iPhone and iPad. The apple is super quiet and the only noise that I ever hear from it is the tiny bit of access noise from the 3TB external hard drive.

The issue is, that room is getting cramped and I simply don't have room for incremental equipment. I think I have made my decision on my next components:

DAC/Streamer - Cambridge Azur 851N - it has all the features I want like AirPlay, is an A rated DAC be Stereophile, is fully balanced and only 4.5" high. The key thing for me is that my wife will not need to adjust as she uses this system.

CD Player - Cambridge CXC - It looks great and is a super value as a standalone CD transport. At only 3", the 851N will sit on top of it and the 851N will have enough room to cool.

Phono Stage - Ayre P-5xe - My wife is excited about it because it lacks an on/off switch. That is the primary feature that interests her and I am willing to ride that.

The best part of the Cambridge units is that I can get them from Crutchfield and if I don't like it, I can return them. This seems like the best path for me moving forward based on my space constraints and desired feature set.

I started divorce proceeding three months later and never was able to buy this unit. Turns out that was a good choice as that divorce cost 7x what I was expecting which has negatively impacted my budget for stereo equipment.

That being said, I spent a fair amount of time listening to this unit in a retailer. It sounds amazing in an all Ayre system. I listened to it attached to a K-5xeMP (my preamp) and V-5xe. The thing that stands out is just how quiet all Ayre gear is and the complete absence of sound when it is called for. A track like So What from Miles Davis is just amazing on it.

I recently added a PS Audio Directstream DAC. My CD player is circling the drain so I need to deal with it and then I will be turning my attention back to vinyl rig. I am looking seriously at 5 units, the P-5xe, the Parasound Halo JC3+, the Manley Chinook and the Rogue Ares Magnum or if I decide to go cheap, the Wyred4Sound PH-1. I have absolutely no idea which one I will end up with but am biased toward the Ayre or Rogue for aesthetics given I have an Ayre preamp and Rogue Power Amp.

No worries about that. I am quite happy with the divorce, just not the legal bill.

I heard the old Simaudio 310 and it was great. The price was outstanding for a fully balanced unit and the sound profile was really good. It is a unit I have been watching for in the used market but they never seem to come available. With the discontinuation I was hoping to get a good deal on it. Haven't heard the new one but I would guess it is excellent.

Good luck to you and enjoy your system.