Ayre v Hegel sound

dbphd

An AYRE AX-5 Twenty will give you 90% presentation and sound of the KX-5 twenty/VX-5 twenty combo. Specifically, DX-5 (DSD) and AX-5 Twenty makes for a superb combination.

Happy Listening!

If Ayre added streaming to the AX-5 I'd be a buyer.  I really like the Ayre sound.  All my Ayre gear except the amp fits in a single Salamander rack and the amp sits between the speakers, so I think I'll forget about downsizing for now.

I will agree with  the other Hegel owners.  I really like the amp, but the DAC is not as good. So I am using one that sounds more natural.

I have the kef blades and the dealer I bought the h590 from also had some hi end Ayre components on the floor. The ayre had a more open soundstage and nice top end. The H590 in comparison was tight. On its own I find the presentation from the h590 to be all I could ask for, but compared to the $40k ayre separates the ayre just sounded a touch more relaxed. I bought the hegel because the price was about a third of the Ayre and the control the 590 has is impressive. The H590 does a great job with Kef ref and the dac in the 590 is much more capable than the h360 which I also have, 

@dbphd 

I can only speak about the Hegel H390 that I’ve had for almost 2 years. I’m running the KEF Reference 5’s and I am still very pleased with the sound, but I upgraded the streamer Node N130 streamer because I use Amazon HD music and the Hegel doesn’t.  There’s nothing really wrong with the DAC, but you can do much better, so I did with a Denafrips Pontus ll.

All the best.