Amp upgrade from Ayre V-5xe

You have to read between the lines... Ayre was always about long duration version of its units. This time with the non twenty versions, they did something that was totally unusual for this company, they rushed an update ( the twenty version) of the 5 séries. You have to think... why they did not go with the twenty version in the first place if it was so much better than the non 20. Single diamond output vs double diamond output, don’t make me beleive they did not compare and test those before releasing the X5 series...

The thing is there was owner reports of the non 20 version shutting down on heat protection.

Hey @techno dude. Where do you the VX-5 on sale? Are you talking about the general Ayre moving sale they are offering on all their products?

reports of the non 20 version shutting down on heat protection.

Well, that’s compelling evidence of a problem that needed to be fixed but the Twenty version is so much more than addressing excess heat. And it’s obvious on face value that they did not have the original and the Twenty versions to compare when they introduced the series. It appears that the Twenty came at a time of rapid advances in their circuit design. Being upgradeable, why wait if a substantial performance gain can be had? IIRC, the R series was soon thereafter updated to Twenty series because the “affordable” 5s had nearly closed the gap sonically.  

thyname, there is a used VX-5 twenty for sale on audigon as we speak.

beetlemania, the Diamond output stage exist since the 1960s and was patented by professor H. Baker of MIT. Ayre did not invent anything.

They suposedly perfected it in the first X5 series , and then they supposedly perfected it again in the 20 version.....well because it seems it was not perfected good enough in the first version! 🙄 .........

Ayre has been candid about the origins of the diamond circuit. Not sure your point about “perfected” but my snarkmeter is ringing.