Thiel Owners

Frankly, I’ve thrown a lot of different amp/preamp combinations at my Thiels over the past few years, none of which sounded bad through them. Class d amps mated as well as class a/b amps managed;  every combo offered something different but to say I could tell class d from a/b would be something of a stretch.  

Through it all I always had a tubed preamp, just a holdover thing and my fondness for tubes in general. 
While I’m again currently pondering a return to separates, my integrated hasn’t had me missing anything I could readily detect. The BAT is pretty sweet. 

I have not heard the AX-5 but I use the Ayre VX-5 Twenty with my 2.4s with exceptional results. Cables are Audience AU24SE.   Recently did a speaker repositioning using the instructions for the “master set” and the system has never sounded better. I highly recommend reading the instructions and give it a try.  Strongly recommend Ayre and IMHO the measurements in Stereophile may be worth revisiting.  

Good to see you- oblgny
you are my "go to" guy for all things integrated amp(s). Factually speaking, I was thinking about you during my STR audition. Agreed, the demo was excellent and did not have me wanting more outside  of this amp's capability.  Hopefully Anthem will provde us with an answer regarding current(A) ratings soon.

Happy Listening!

Good to see you again- drrsutliff

there are certainly many owners of Ayre gear reporting excellent results.
In fact, I do not believe that I have ever read a poor review. A fellow audiophile and CS 2.4 owner, over on a different audio forum, used the Ayre AX-7e in his system.
Happy Listening!