CODA amp No.8, Bryston 4B3, or Ayre VX-5 Twenty


- CODA amp No.8 (version 2, 250W@8ohm)

- Bryston 4B3 (300W@8ohm)

- Ayre VX-5 Twenty (175W@8ohm)

Have you had experience with either of these amp? Can you please share your thoughts and recommendations. I’m going to buy one of them for my system:

- room: 26’ L x 18’ W x 9’ H (living room with open breakfast area)

- speakers: 2-way Human 81 DK (8ohm, 89dB, 8" woofer, 1" tweeter)

- preamp: Wyred4Sound STP-SE Stage 2 upgrades

Thanks very much!

Henry

henrynguyentx

Hi yyzsantabarbara, do you think the AHB2 has enough power to drive & shine my speakers (89dB) in the room 26'x18'x9'? My main concern is its 100W@8ohm, while my speakers manufacture recommended 200W. Thanks!

Ayre….. a VXR-Twenty if you can find one…. magical amp.

but your current amp is no slouch… better use of your $ and itch would imo be better speakers…

enjoy the journey

@henrynguyentx NO.

Getting 2 AHB2 would solve that. The AHB2 is not as bad as most amps when the stereo amp is flipped to mono. The mono is not as good at 2-Ohm (a single AHB2 is better there) but if your speakers do not go there then you are fine.

If you email Rory Rail at Benchmark and discuss with him he can give you some advice.

I have a Yamaha NS5000 and it is not that difficult to drive (not easy either). The CODA #16 is amazing on it, and I have a feeling the AHB2 mono would also be great with it but not as strong on the bass; You do not get the AHB2 to be a bass monster. If you have subs then this is not an issue if you need huge bass.

My NS5000 has a 12-inch woofer so I do not think the AHB2 would be as great down low as many other options (I do not use subs with the NS5000), but the top end of the AHB2 is just amazing. That is why I want to get the AHB2 as a second set of amps as a change of pace.

I recently looked at my sales history on USAM and I see that I have owned the AHB2 5x in the past 5 years. I also made a few hundred dollars on it, so I do not feel too bad about that.

 

 

I own the Coda #8 (V1) and it has surpassed my expectations. It's built like a tank and has massive current. Upgrades to the other versions (V1,V2,V3) are free from Coda and it has a 10-year warranty and a 5-year transferable warranty. Lucky for me I live 15 minutes away from their office. I'm driving a pair of Magnepan's with this amp and they sound amazing!

@henrynguyentx I have an Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp, VX-5 Twenty amp, along with a QB-9 Twenty DAC. For some background, I’ve used (still own) Joule Electra LAP150 tube preamp and Joule Electra VZN-80 OTL amp. Beautiful sound with the Joule gear; however, I acquired a pair of Magnepan 3.7i and needed more power. As I was a "tube guy" I watched a number of YouTube videos of the late Charlie Hansen of Ayre. He was also a "tube guy", but didn’t like the some of the other things that come along with owning tube gear. His goal was for the magic of tubes, but with solid state reliability. One thing he also mentioned, that really made me take notice, was no negative feedback... something that was a big deal with my Joule OTL amp. In my experience, the lack of feedback really adds to the musicality; however, the amp needs to be matched up properly with speakers too.

While owning the VX-5 Twenty with the 3.7i, I came across an opportunity to trade another piece of gear for a Krell FPB-300 amp (monster). It drove the 3.7i with more power... but it was thick as gravy. The magic from the Ayre was missed. Besides, the VX-5 Twenty drove the 3.7i... so there’s that. I ended up moving along the Krell unit and the Magnepan speakers. I’m now playing with Wilson Audio Duette, among other speakers. One thing remains constant... I could not be happier with the Ayre gear. Absolutely musical and "right". There is just something about it that has a rightness that I miss if I plug something else in. I will also add this, stick with the "Twenty" upgrade stuff, or look to have something upgrade to Twenty status, if it isn’t already. The "punch" the gear has from whatever they did with the Twenty upgrade is notable, compared to other gear I’ve used.

Another thing I’ll share that even some Ayre owners may not be aware of, and it’s something that can be incorporated into the VX-5 Twenty and some other pieces of Ayre gear. It’s particularly useful for using 2-way speakers with subs. Ayre has a 100Hz high pass input filter board that can be swapped in, to roll the low end off of 2-way / bookshelf speakers and let subs do that work. I have these boards, although I haven’t tried them yet. Evidently Vandersteen does this quite a bit and folks will spec Ayre gear with those boards to use with those speakers. Since my KX-5 Twenty preamp has 2 sets of balanced outputs, it will work great for sending signal to the VX-5 Twenty, let it high pass to drive the main speakers, and send full range to my dual subs and work the levels / crossover on those. See pics of the boards below.

Others have mentioned integrated from Ayre... I would definitely check those out. In fact, I’m looking at going to some 94.5dB sensitivity speakers and have thought it would be cool if they offered a lower power amp, <50 watts (just because).

In case you can’t tell... I LOVE my Ayre gear and it’s not going anywhere. The only possible way I could move it along is if I borrowed something else that I could listen to here and know for sure it was better... but I want for nothing... I just don’t see that happening.

The Ayre guys are friendly. If you haven’t already, reach out and talk to Jake.

Good luck and Have Fun.