Pass Labs has terrific customer service. Even Nelson picked up the phone and spent 20 minutes with me describing the new .8 series. I haven't had any issues with Ayre's customer service other than the long queue to get my QB-9 upgraded. I ended up selling it instead but not for that reason.

Ayre has always been adamant that phone calls are the best way to reach them; I'd be surprised if an issue was not sorted where a person actually called Ayre. Having said that, I notice that they now have an e-mail form on their website and if they are not responding to e-mail, then that form shouldn't be there and they should revert to their phone only approach.

With regard to upgrades/repairs, I've had nothing but good experiences. My KX-R upgrade turnaround time was 2-3 weeks and Ayre replaced both logic boards in a problematic MX-R outside the warranty period at no charge. It doesn't get much better than that.

From what I was told by my dealer, there was quite a wait for the upgrade just after the first of the year. In fact, I was told that it would be September before mine would be upgraded. I know they were a bit overwhelmed by the number of people that wanted the upgrade and they did hire at least one person that does nothing else, he upgrades QB-9s day in and day out.

Since the rest of my office gear is black, I decided to buy a new QB-9 DSD in black and sell the silver model. It took about 4-5 weeks to get the new DAC. The new model is quite an improvement over the previous one which was no slouch itself. It's still breaking in, but I'm very happy with it... FWIW, I went from a Teac UD-501 to a Benchmark DAC2 HGC to the QB-9 (used) then to the QB- 9 DSD and it is the best of the bunch. Highly recommended. :music:

I went on the list in June of 2013. I JUST got called to send my unit in. 10 months later! And they are keeping it for six weeks! But, my audio gurus say it is worth the wait. Full review to follow when unit comes back.

That's a pretty crazy backlog. Thank goodness the backlog for the Twenty series doesn't appear to exist. I guess it makes sense given the price differential of the two upgrades - the line for the QB-9 upgrade is probably many multiples longer.

I was excited about the upgrade but because I seen this coming I decided to just go in a different direction. I wonder if the long turnaround hurts them in that respect.

Given the apparent jump in performance in relation to the cost, I doubt it. It would typically be more expensive to sell/trade in a QB-9 and go with a different unit of comparable performance as the upgraded unit. Plus, for some people the wait might be a benefit as it allows them to save up. For example, I'm actually happy that Ayre delayed the introduction of the MX-R Twenty as it means that I will likely be able to get on it upon introduction whereas if there was no delay, I wouldn't.

You are right... It ended up costing 10x what the upgrade would have trading it in but I ended up with something I can not find a flaw with as hard as I try. I wish the best to you all and hope you guys will feel the same about the upgrade.

I have my upgraded DAC and it kills the old DAC. It is a huge step up. You MUST break it in. to evaluate. 120 hours. Out of the box it was harsh. I just ran it 120 hours with music, brown noise, pink noise and glide tones and listened again. It is profoundly better you'd probably have to spend $12k+ to beat this. It is smoother sounding AND more detailed. That is NOT easily done. Very musical and involving. Lots of punch but it never assaults your ears. Less congested. Probably not even fully broken in yet. Amazing! Why is Stereophile not raving about this?

I just picked up my upgraded QB-9 and it is burning in now. I'm looking forward to listening after some burn-in.

However, the reason I am writing now is to shed light on how long the upgrade process has taken: it's been over 14 MONTHS since I signed up for an upgrade. In my opinion, Ayre totally dropped the ball on these upgrades. Not only has it been more than 14 months of waiting, but it took 10 full weeks for Ayre to actually perform the upgrade and get it back to me. This is simply unacceptable customer service. During those 14 months, I received "updates" indicating that my number would probably come up in the queue as soon as last March. This was followed by numerous other predictions (June, September, October, etc.).

Don't get me wrong -- I think the $500 upgrade price is probably a good deal for the performance upgrade (based on reviews). And I have nothing but admiration for Ayre's engineering chops. But 14 months is just crappy customer service.