JC1 upgrade to Lamm M2.2 or dartzeel 108B or Ayre?

Taoh2: I am the importer of darTZeel and am assuming you are going to be looking in the used market since you are on Audiogon and as such this is not a sales pitch that I would benefit from. It is purely to give you the input you are looking for.

darTZeel, IMHO, makes the finest sounding amplifiers built regardless of being tubes or SS. I consider myself a tube guy and since owning the NHB-108, I have not had tubes in my system other than listening to trades or for comparison purposes.

I have great familiarity with Parasound, LAMM as well as Ayre and would choose the Ayre last out of the three you were considering (sorry Ctsooner). darTZeel would be far ahead of either of the other amps you mentioned.

If you have any questions, let me know I would be happy to share with you some of my experiences.

Steve Nugent may have pertinent information regarding modifications for your well regarded JC1s.

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/about-empirical-audio/

Ayre is announcing their newly voiced "Twenty" series on page 60 of the 2015 March issue of Stereophile.

Personally, I'm in the speaker replacement camp followed by tailoring any electronics around the new speaker which is usually far less of a factor. At this level in home auditioning should be a must to fulfill your subjective taste.

03-11-15: Audiotroy
Cstooner what other brands of solid state amps have you heard and in direct comparison to Ayre?
(Troy, I've heard nearly all the major names over the last few years both in my home or in stores that I'm familiar with so I know what I'm hearing. We all like different sounds.)

The Ayre amps are indeed very good amps, but so are a lot of other top solid state designs from BAT, Electrocompaniet, Pass Labs, and many, many others.

Troy:
(The other thing he might also consider a CJ tube amplifier some of their newer tube designs are very reliable and sound fantastic. )

Yes again nice idea, but Harbeths most find are at their best with Solid state amps.
Perhaps you are better at your day job.

Cstoner, again your methodology is flawed, unless you have an Ayre in the exact same system and all you do is switch out the amp then, and only then, you will know if you like that amp better in that system, with that particular brand of ancillary gear, and in that system only, is called synergy.

As per Harbeth sounding better on solid state again that is open to opinion. Have you ever heard a pair of CJ Art amps? They don't sound like tube amps, they do have their problems and perks just like any amplifier. Johnathan Valin thought they are among the best sounding amps both tubes or solid state on the planet by the way.

I am sick of guys like you making these all are boat anchor comments, if you notice my posts I don't say "there is one brand of gear that outperforms all others."

In audio like anything else there are valid and differing opinions, there is no ultimate sports sedan in a comparison of BMW vs Mercedes vs Lexus, vs Audi etc, they are all great and you will prefer one I might prefer a different one.

Cstoner you sound like you have an agenda.

When the gentleman was discussing speakers I told him to go and listen to many different brands of speakers, you slavishly pushed him into the Vandys only.

Are Vivid or Vandys the best and only speakers on the market no way, Vandys are great if you like them,so are Magicos, Wilsons, Sonus Fabers etc, you may or may not prefer a pair of Vandys in the same system vs another pair of speakers and by the way I used to own Vandys.

I have been doing this for friends and for my self for over 30 years, and I too have had a lot of gear go in and out of my house and my day job is none of your business, I will say it deals with medicine and leave it at that.

Is Ayre a great amp yes it is, but so are many, many, others. The only way is to test them in your own house in your own system.

As per experience I have owned hundred of thousands of dollars worth of gear I have owned, Vandys, Maggies, Wilsons, B&W, Monitor Audio, Quads, Martin Logans, and many, many more.

I have owned amps from Audio Research, CJ, BAT, Spectral, Chord, and many, many others.

In Audio as in life it is all about synergy.

Troy, I hope you feel better now that you've gotten that off your chest. No agenda other than having fun on the boards :). I actually questioned YOUR agenda after you trashed Vandy's in that other thread. I'm sure that you have heard my system and what I was hearing. Found it interesting that to many others posted that they disagreed with your negative comments.

Moving on, I have been told by two Harbeth dealers that they are better with SS gear. Not being an engineer, I don't remember why. I guess I was just parroting like so many do when they reference reviewers.