Amps/Preamps for Rockport Aviors

Larry,
I'm friends with Phil (philb7777) and have heard his system (in the pre Rockport days - with Avalons) and the current Cygnus' with his ARC gear. It's a stunning combo (the ARC and the Rockports (heck, so were the Avalons!)). My suggestion would be to just enjoy your new speakers for a good-while and take your time, and let your ears decide if/when upgrades are needed. They did take some time to break in, and the placement was non-trivial. On another note - keep up the discussion with Phil. He has helped me GREATLY on the strange and wonderful pathway of the high end.  

Hi Everyone,

Thanks again for all the advice.  Boneman I was planning on breaking the speakers in for about 500 hours using a borrowed bryston amp.  I was then going to test them out with the ARC 75 SE I have and see what, if anything, I feel is missing or could be better.   

So as an update, I went up to Fort Collins and was able to hear the ARC 250's and the D'Agostinos (dealer didn't have the VTL 450's yet - said they would be in next week and he'd bring them down once my speakers were broken in).  The D'Agostinos (amp and preamp) were being played on Vandersteen speakers with a boulder phono stage.  It was a very nice sound.  He had the ARC 250's hooked up to some Martin Logan speakers and was using the ARC ref 6 preamp and ARC ref 3 phono stage.  I'm not personally a huge fan of Martin Logan, so I didn't love the sound, but it did create a nice sound stage nevertheless, so I am excited to hear them on the Rockports iwth the VTL's.  I didn't get to Wheat Ridge to hear the Ayer amps, but hope to that this week. 

Speakers should be hear  this week I'm hoping according to Andy Payor. 

Thanks everyone.  Larry

I've heard two different Rockport speaker pairs at the Sound Environment in Omaha, NE  (don't laugh, this is a top shelf store.  There  is a very surprising amount of disposable income in Omaha).

They were the Lyra and Cygnus.  Lyra's were powered by D'Agostino momentum mono blocks and the Cygnus were powered by D'Agostino 2-channel momentum amp.  D'Agostino pre.  dCS DAC, etc.

Ridiculous soundstage depth and breadth.  The speakers just disappeared (hard to do as large as they are) and it was like the artists were in the room.  This with only Tidal feeds.  Hi-res stuff would likely be mind blowing (is that still a thing?).

The 2-channel momentum amp would be an excellent choice for your system in my modestly educated opinion.  

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the all the advice.  foreverworkin, I have heard rave things about the Chord DAVE dac, but don't know much about the Chord amps; you have given me something new to investigate.  Admranger I had hoped to hear the D'Agostino amps with the speakers as the dealer that had the ARC and VTL is also a D'agostino dealer, but he couldn't bring them to my house when he brought the ACR and VTL.  I did hear them at his store on a pair of Vandersteen speakers and boy was the D'Agostino a great sound. 

I thought I would give you an update.  My speakers arrived a little over 2 weeks ago and have been playing ever since -- although not fully broken in let's just say they are a very nice improvement over my Thiel 3.7's and I'm loving the new Rockport Aviors.  I have heard the ARC REF 250's with a REF 6 preamp -- unfortunately, I wasn't able to hear the ARC REF 250 SE's as the dealer didn't have them, just a used  pair of REF 250's.  He also brought the VTL 450 mono's with a VTL 6.5 preamp.  The VTL sound was nice, but I liked the ARC better -- that may be just because I'm used to the ARC sound as I have ARC gear, so not sure, but after a few hours of spinning records on both I liked the ARC sound better.  I wish I had been able to hear a REF 250 SE as the REF 250's were very nice, and I expect the 250 SE's would be even better than the 250's.  I should be able to hear the Ayre reference preamp and stereo amplifier soon and the dealer offered to let me listen to the Ayre dac because I also need a new dac -- my last one isn't working the way it was supposed to and the dealer and the manufacturer have offered me a full refund, which I thought was amazing.  I'm looking at an EMM labs dac, a Chord DAVE, the Ayre right now, but I know even less about DAC's and digital music than I do about amps and preamps. 

Thanks again everyone for all the help and taking the time to provide the great advice.  I will provide another update after I've heard the Ayre gear. 

Larry