With the C-5xe, Ayre has established a high-water mark for multi-format players. It’s not only consistent across all formats — it excels across all(stereo) formats by performing at or very near the current state-of-the-art. Hi-rez formats would probably be doing much better had a player of this quality come along earlier. But hey, it’s here now, and hi-rez digital badly needs a shot in the arm. Serving music lovers by eschewing video playback and multichannel audio allowed Ayre to deliver reference-quality sound at a price that, while not cheap, isn’t as lofty as the C-5xe’s performance would lead your ears to believe.