D’Agostino Momentum stereo vs D’Agostino Progression Stereo Amp

If you check my system page you can read a brief comparison of the momentum and the Ayre monos (should be similar to the S250, just more power).

I had multiple cases of the original Ayre (non twenty) mono main board going bad after about 1.5-2 years - it was a known issue that I don’t think they were ever able to get the bottom of. The twenty doesn’t appear to have the same issue since it doesn’t use the problematic component. I didn’t have any issues with my twenties but only had them for a year. On my M400s, one of the input boards went bad after about a year. My dealer got D’Ag to ship me a new one and they showed me how to swap it out which was pretty straightforward.

Wow, to be honest I did not expect any negative comments, 1981 and Krell is a long time ago though...but sorry to hear about that negative experience @mijostyn

@bar81 I just read your system story, omg, nice to hear other audiophiles experience the same search for the holy grail!
Great to read the m400 dags deliver the goods, but at that time I guess the progressions weren’t available for comparison?
My future budget 🤪would not allow me monos, just a secondhand momentum stereo (or a new progression stereo which is even 5k more) and both of those are really stretching it way beyond what i can afford really.
Did you get a reason why the input board failed?
Would the dags sound closed in on speakers with soft treble themselves (I have old bw800 matrixes)?

@blueskywalker The progression monos were in the shop as well, but I didn’t have the space for them so didn’t take a listen. However, during my multi-day audition of the M400s, another buyer with Alexxes I think came in who didn’t want to pay for the M400s and so took a listen (on the same setup that I heard) to the progression monos with the intent to buy them but didn’t love them and then listened to the M400s and coughed up the money for the M400s.

From what I’ve read, the Ayre MX-R Twenty and the earlier generation M300 were pretty close - some preferred the Ayre and some preferred the D’Ag (although according to my dealer, since the M300 was introduced pretty much all of his customers went with the M300 over the MX-R Twenty but he’s in Asia and in that part of the world I understand that buyers like high priced items so I’m not sure that all the purchases were due to a preference as opposed to the D’Ag being more prestigious due to it being more expensive).

So, if you can afford the S250, that’s the one you should go for based on my experience with the M400. On the other hand, if you’re only looking at the S200 (the stereo equivalent of the M300), then you should consider the Ayre MX-R Twenty as well.

No idea why the input board failed. D’Ag was quite curious and required that the failed board be sent back to them for inspection. I’m guessing that means that it was an isolated event as opposed to a common issue, but who knows.

Sorry, I haven’t heard your speakers so I couldn’t say for sure, but I would definitely try to listen to the MX-R Twenty given what you’re describing as it’s top end has more bite.

@bar81 thank you for the long explanation, exactly the info I was after. Very interesting indeed that the buyer for the progression monos ended up with the m400 s instead based on sound!
I am still wondering what exactly in the sound is so different then.

 I do realise the monentums are twice the price, but I thought initial start up of the company, and complicated engineering to get big power into a smaller jewellery like box added a lot to the cost.

My worry is that maybe the smaller sized amp will be more prone to getting problems, as a big amp allows more space and airflow for all components.

My speakers are 93 db/1m sensitivity so loudest I ever see my mcintoshes meters go is around 10 watts on big movie soundtrack cds...

 I do not need wattmonsters, however 2 12 inch woofers wich loose damping, on each speaker do need good control. Impedance does drop to 3.4 Ohms at 118Hz according to Stereophile measurements. 
From your system info bar81 II found that Ayre Mx-r doesn’t do well below 4 ohms, is that valid for MX-R20 as well? 

Is there a considerable sound difference between the Momentum S-200 and S-250 then?