Ayre amps seem to darken the room, as if they could suck the noise out of it and leave you with less of your room and more of the music. It’s a very distinct feeling.
to what erik said, i would expand with following points on the ayre ’sound’...
1) the blackness of the background is so distinct... it allows more detail to come through, but without throwing it at you, thus there is a lovely delicacy and finesse to the sound, there is detail and ’hearing into the music’ but without even a trace of harshness or aggressiveness
2) the delicate treble emanating the deep dark background couples with a smooth, dimensional midrange that falls just short of tubey fleshiness but is clean without being lean -- once again there is texture and microdetail but without any forwardness or full-fat feeling from tubes... similar to the better pass amps’ sound in this regard
3) the bass is NOT thundering... it is impactful and tight, but not to the depths of the best krells, d’agostinos, levinsons... but sufficient and in proportion to the upper ranges... no bloat less thunder minimal overhang
as such, i value the ayre sound most in my phono stage (p5xe)... the deep dark background and clean gain with minimal edification and lovely finesse is so key, imho, for first stage phono amplification from which to drive forward from...
others may add to the above as they fit... it is my 2 cents, hope i have captured it fairly accurately