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When I read Robert Deutsch's Follow-Up on Ayre Acoustics' CX-7e CD player in the January 2008 Stereophile, I was startled to read that "at least two of [my Stereophile colleagues] said that, for CD playback, they preferred the CX-7e [$2950] to Ayre's twice-as-expensive universal player, the C-5xe [$5950]."

That was a bit of audiophile buzz I hadn't heard. But, like most 'Murricans, I do love a story in which the plucky underdog bests the champion. Besides, I'm the very happy owner of a C-5xe; if what RD said…

The Ayre Acoustics C-5xe universal player ($5950) has been my primary reference for CD playback since I purchased it three years ago, I used it for my primary comparisons with the Meridian 808i.2, with the players' levels matched at 1kHz to within 0.1dB. As the Ayre's sole digital output is AES/EBU on an XLR jack and the Meridian has only coaxial and optical S/PDIF data inputs, I fed the Ayre's digital data to a dCS 972 digital format converter, set to do nothing other than pass the incoming data to its outputs. I…

About a year ago, I found myself included in an e-mail conversation in which Stereophile's John Atkinson, Wavelength Audio's Gordon Rankin, and Ayre Acoustics' Charlie Hansen were attempting to explore and create better methods of digital measurement. I felt honored to be included, but in such august company I felt rather like the waiter at a table where Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, and Robert Boyle were hashing out natural philosophy. I could follow the conversation up to a point, but I was clearly out…

Digital Source: Ayre Acoustics C-5xe universal player.
Preamplifiers: Ayre Acoustics K-1xe, VTL TL-6.5 Signature.
Power Amplifiers: VTL MB-450 SignatureSeries II monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Klipsch Palladium P-39F, YG Anat Reference II Professional.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research, Stealth Metacarbon. Speaker: Shunyata, Stealth Dream. AC: Shunyata Research Anaconda and King Cobra.
Accessories: Shunyata Research Hydra, Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks, Furutech RDP panels, RealTraps Mini & Mondo Traps.—Wes Phillips

I mean, the past couple years have seen the whole headphone trip suddenly break on through to the other side after decades of numbingly bad sound. Yeah, the high-dollar Stax electrostatics had always been there if you really wanted some quality headphones, but even they had their problems with coloration and treble steeliness. Other than that, though, it was a real teenage wasteland, with Koss, AKG, Sony, and Sennheiser all battling it out to see who could produce a less mediocre pair of headphones than the rest of the pack. If you…

The SR60 looks like an HP 2 made of black plastic, with a vinyl headband instead of the HP 2's leather one. The dynamic speaker driver appears similar to the one used in the Signature Series 'phones. As with the expensive Grados, the SR60s are adjustable to fit even…

Description: Open-air dynamic stereo headphones. Frequency range: 20Hz-20kHz. Sensitivity: 94dB/1mV. Nominal impedance: 32 ohms. Driver match: within 0.1dB.
Weight: 7 oz.
Price: $69. Approximate number of dealers: 250.
Manufacturer: Grado Labs, 4614 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Tel: (718) 435-5340. Fax: (718) 633-6941. Web: www.GradoLabs.com .

I've owned a pair of Grado HP 1 headphones for years, but I haven't used them much—I have a big house and no neighbors nearby, so I can play my music as late and as loud as I like. Anyway, you just can't drive a pair of HP 1s with the puny little headphone amps found in portable CD players.

But the SR60s, that were reviewed by Corey Greenberg last June?

Now these are 'phones I can use—in place of all the crummy headphones I've been using for years with portable CD players. The good news is that the SR60s…