What Does Ayre Sound Like?

Ayre make nice gear.   Have not heard many negative remarks ‘bout them. 
Enjoy. 

I am a huge Ayre fan.  Excellent aesthetics and build quality and I consistently rate them among the best amps I would buy if I was looking.  Especially with their headphone section of the DAC's.  The Pono with the Ayre designed output stage was amazing.

However!!

I do think they have a kind of unique sound to them alone.  They are neutral to warm and powerful but what distinguishes Ayre from every other electronics brand I've ever heard is how pitch black absolutely quiet they sound.  It is as if they suck noise out off your room and music emerges from a new place in your room you didn't know existed.

So, highly recommended, but also, to my ears, quite special and unique.

I really liked my Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp. It had that solid sound of a well built design.
Although, looking at the innards show large open real estate with very few components.

ozzy

Ayre is good sounding and would mesh better with the harbeth but would have too lean of a sound for the proac because the ayre sound is detailed with a lightweight lean bass. Think of the sound as airy and lightweight, but natural and non fatiguing.

I have the ayre ex-8 and love it.  I got my ex-8 upgraded to 2.0 and since that upgrade I do not feel that the base is lean anymore (but did feel that it was lean before the upgrade).