Ayre owners and preamp options: seeking advice

jc4659, I use an Ayre C-5xeMP - K-5exMP - VX-5 Twenty balanced link in one of my setups.  When asked about inserting a balanced Bryston high-pass crossover between the preamp and amp, Charles Hansen responded in strong terms not to do it.  I can only imagine what his response might be to the notion of modding the preamp.  OTOH, he did approve of taking the single-ended outputs from the preamp to a low-pass crossover that drives the subs.

I too want to update the K-5xeMP to a KX-5 Twenty, for the additional balanced inputs in my case.

db

That there is nothing out there regarding Ayre mods speaks volumes about the quality of Hansen's designs and overall satisfaction of owners of Ayre equipment.  Guess I answered one of my own questions.

"drrsutliff: if you are using a mc cartridge with yours, what is its output? Can you hear tube rush at medium loud listening levels?"

Cadenza Black - 0.3mv output with no tube rush issues.

This is a followup to an ancient thread, but FWIW, having owned a lot of Ayre gear, including using an Ayre K-3x preamp with first a VX5E and then a VX-5 (over a period of about a decade), I've now had an Aesthetix Janus Signature (linestage/phono stage) fronting my VX-5 for some years now, and I find that the Aesthetix/Ayre combo has been even more satisfying to me. But there are two caveats here - A) the comparison between the K-3x and Janus Signature is not a fully symmetrical one; perhaps the stock Janus would be a better comparison there; and B) the Janus has had issues with tube noise that I've satisfactorily resolved over time with careful tube selection, but it will never be as hassle-free (or have as low a noise floor) as an Ayre preamp. While the Aesthetix gear has a bit less high-end detail in comparison with the Ayre, I find it a bit tonally richer. But the Ayre gear is very fine gear indeed. And Charles Hansen and Jim White, the founder/owner of Aesthetix, did a bit of work together and were friends, and shared similar design philosophies- the gear has mated very well for me, and I see the house sounds falling just modestly on either side of a very neutral line, and of course also be dependent upon the balance of the rest of one's system.

One last point- the Aesthetix gear (and certain other tube gear) really goes even farther with good NOS tubes to suit one's personal tastes than when used with stock tubes, though it's not night and day to my ears, and of course it entails potentially substantial additional costs.

aubullience

 

What other gear is in your System? Do you still own Thiel Audio CS 2.3 speaker?

 

Happy Listening!