Specifications

©DAGOGO 2010 – special reprint by permission. Page 14
achieved, it becomes easier to see why some enthusiasts prefer some monitors even when they
could own certain floor standing speakers.
While it can be fairly easy to set up monitors to pull off this “disappearing act”, it is not so easy
for larger speakers, especially panel speakers. Prior to using the CD-5, I had not heard larger
panel speakers disappear so convincingly in my room. One reason is that it is not a larger space,
being 23’ x 13’. However, the Ayon is so good at enlarging the acoustic envelope that this helps
in the creation of this effect. With the Kingsound King I was able to set up a fairly convincing
example of larger speakers disappearing. In this case, the Kings were approximately 8 feet apart
from each other’s inside edges, and four feet from the head wall. Considering the King is a
speaker 6 feet all and 28” wide, they were quite adept at getting out of the way when playing live
recordings in a fashion I would say was a semi-disappearing act. What made this experience so
special was the ability of the CD-5 to, convincingly, not only set the vocalist deep into the center
phantom image, but to fool my ears into thinking they were hearing spatial clues of reflections of
a venue as if the sound was emanating from a distance. While I have heard other CD player’s
move a voice forward or back in relation to the plane of the speakers, I have never heard one so
thoroughly fill in the space between it and the speaker plane to create such a 3-D “acoustic
hologram” of a performance. I have never heard any player, nor transport/DAC combo, come
this close to sounding convincing. It makes players like the Cambrige Audio Azur 840C, the
Rega Saturn, and yes, truthfully, even the Ayon CD-2 to a lesser degree, sound flat and two-
dimensional.
Compared To PS Audio Perfect Wave
Transport and DAC
A few weeks prior to the arrival of the CD-5, I had developed
a keen curiosity to hear PS Audio’s hot new product, the
Perfect Wave Transport and Perfect Wave DAC. It seemed
every reviewer covering digital products wanted a set and
there were few to be had. Dave Kackenmaster of PS Audio
had initially estimated delivery time for a review set in
November of 2009, but the date kept getting pushed back
further due to demand for them. I was interested in hearing
them sooner rather than later, so when Brian Tucker of Pro
Audio Ltd. in Barrington, Illinois was leaving town for a
week, I arranged to hear his set in my room. It was a fine
demonstration of the outer limits of Redbook capabilities.
When I had to return the combo I was disappointed and
thought that I would likely not hear such a nuanced
performance again in my room any time soon.