quadlover wrote:

Did the unit that Michael Fremer review go to anyone else?

Kal Rubinson had a different sample of the DX-5, which he will be reviewing in a multichannel context in the January 2011 issue.

quadlover wrote:

The reason I asked is Mr. Fremer's "cool" comments about the DX-5 as a SACD player. Ayre's response seemed to infer that it was not set up through the menu system correctly.

It was set-up correctly. Michael just wasn't as impressed by its performance with SACD as he was with hi-rez PCM material.

quadlover wrote:

Since Ayre products seldom get less than a stellar review in Stereophile and most other reviews I was curious if any follow up is necessary or is planned.

I have just received a third sample of the DX-5, which has been updated to work correctly with 174.6kHz and 192kHz PCM data via USB2.0. I will be reporting on how it functions in that role, as well as comparing its SACD performance with that of the Ayre C-5xeMP that I purchased 5 years ago, in a spring 2011 follow-up report.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile