PS Audio or Ayre?

PS Audio likes to totally changes designs which turns people off.  I have the Perfect wave DAC.  6 Years ago it was perfect.  Now it's a red headed step child.  Direct stream is now more perfect than perfect wave.

Ayre builds on the previous models instead of kicking them to the curb.  With Charles Hansen gone, however, this may change :(

The guy who made the comment about the McIntosh sounding better than Ayre sounds like a PS Audio dealer or a McIntosh dealer. Either that or he is tone deaf. Go audition one and see for yourself. I knows guys who have $30,000 monoblocks being driven by that pre amp and it really shines.

If you are going fully balanced I can’t recommend it enough. If not Ayre is not the last word in single ended design. If you are going single ended I highly, highly recommend the Belles Aria Pre Amp. It’s not expensive, is hand made, dead quite and extremely neutral. I almost bought one for myself and I’ve been listening to Ayre electronics for 14 years. You can even get it with phono.

I own both PS Audio and Ayre products. Note that PS Audio offers an upgrade path from the PerfectWave DAC to DirectStream; it is even user-installable, albeit not cheap. But still a lot less than a new DAC. With the Directstream the upgrade path is much easier as it is done via software to their FPGA chip.  Can't beat that!  Yeah it would have been nice if they had an interim-step to upgrade the PerfectWave, but a small company needs to make tough choices sometimes about where to focus their limited resources.

I own BHK pre. I can find no faults. Destination pre for me. Responds well to tube rolling. Very happy. Now looking for a phono pre....