Integrateds: Luxman vs. Ayre?

The Ayre "house-sound" is neutral to the point that some people think it's "dry/analytic."

I don’t find Ayre necessarily neutral. It has it’s own ... almost noise cancelling ... signature. It’s hard to explain it. Maybe the imaging is superior and lets you hear more into the recording as if it ignores the room?

I can’t really describe it... but I find it’s audibly different. 

Maybe it's excessively quiet?  I'm afraid words really kind of fail me to encapsulate what I've heard in the past. 

I have listened to quite a few Luxman integrated and amps. I have owned a couple of Ayre DACs that I believe reflect the house sound… I would say the Ayre sound is smoother and more well balance than Luxman. I do not find the Ayre dry, but the Luxman has more sparkle (that is not a complement in my eyes… or ears).

@ghdprentice 

Interesting. I like the 'sparkle' that Luxman has. Although I rarely listen to 'heavy' rock and roll, when I do, I have found some amps to be dull sounding. The Luxman sounds wonderful with every type of music, is what I am trying to say.

As for the OP - I don't think the Ayre DAC is going to be better then the Mytek. I have yet to hear a 'built-in" DAC that sounds as good as a stand alone one.

@ghdprentice 

Would the old word for sparkle  be bright? There has  been a trend in hifi the last number of years in my opinion  towards brightness in the equipment.