Thiel Owners

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!

May I offer the advice that: one should not necessarily assume that because a marque gains a reputation for robust separates that the same badge on a smaller scale integrated will perform the same as those separates. And visa versa, the performance of an integrated does not necessarily reflect what the same manufacturers separates
are capable of. It might, but more likely does not.