Amp upgrade from Ayre V-5xe

Any opinions on Plinius SA-103?

It is rated lower at 125 watts at 8 Ohms, but in switchable A / AB operation

The Plinius 103 is at its best in RCA not Balanced
 You have a zero feedback balanced Dac front end and Pre
 To optimize the system as mentioned above the continuation of that design would make sense.
A preowned or new Zero Feedback Balanced Ayre VX5, VXR or MXRs would be a more musically engaging overall improvement.
 Best JohnnyR

Sorry Audioconnection, the Plinus gear is known for being very musical and mimic a tube amplifier’s sound, Ayre gear has never been known for a warm sound, rather than a clean sound without alot of bloom.

Running XLR vs RCA into a Plinus doesn’t make a difference, We have a Plinius Odeon a $18k multi channel version of the SA 201 and it sounds fantastic being run in XLR.

The very fact that you don’t endorse brand mixing is a shame, we have found that many times mixing a tube preamp from company x with amp y makes a better match. A similar approach by mixing this gentleman's system with a differently voiced amplifier may be just what he is needing.

Both the Pass gear and the Plinius gear are warmer than the Ayre sound.

And we don’t sell Plinius nor Pass so we got 0 skin in this game.

Techno dude we agree with you, the top tier brands Gryphon, T+A, Vitus, are in another class then the Pass, Ayre, class of product.

When was the last time that you say a Pass Labs or Ayre integrated at any price, compared to $120k worth of separates, or a $23k integrated compared to a $45k one and the reviewer picking the T+A gear?

OP you should borrow a bunch of different amplifiers and see for yourself what amplifier makes your system sing.


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Thanks @audioconnection  JohhnyR. I think you nailed it. I should stop messing around and either:

1 - Stay with my Ayre V-5xe, or

2 - Upgrade to Ayre VX-5 Twenty

Thyme often the path less traveled will get you the results you are after, 

Borrow all the amps that you can and see if switching out the amp does what you want it to.

Many times we have seen a better match occuring with brand mixing than keeping all the same brand obviously it does depend on the gear. 

It all comes down to what you are trying to accheive sonically.

Don't be cowed into thinking that an all anything system is going to necessarily be the ticket. Audio allows for experimentation and sometimes chaning one item, cable, power conditioning, cables etc will do it.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ