Ayre Acoustics

Ayre's emphasis is on the digital, with offerings that include amplifiers, preamps, digital hubs and DACs. The Ayre QB-9 DAC (no longer in production) utilized a simple USB connection to engage the asynchronous transfer mode, ensuring accurately timed music with jitter levels over a hundred times lower than previous USB solutions. It earned raves upon its release as one of the best digital-to-analog converters available. More recently, Ayre provided the audio output circuitry for Neil Young's PonoPlayer project.