Integrated amp: Component weight

@cundare2, I agree with @blisshifi that it would be best to hear the amp with your speakers in your room before making a purchase.  Is this possible?  If not, you need an option to return the amp if you do not like it. 

@geof3

Yes, you’re right. I was thinking of the Hegel. The EX-8 would probably spec at about 130-140wpc (nominal, of course) for my 6-ohm Harbeths.  Thanks for catching that.

Harbeth recommends a nominal 25wpc, but also released a video in which the designer/owner of the company powered them with a high-end amp that offered VU meters.  You could see that the Harbeths drew upwards of 300 watts on peaks, and the final recommendation was that, although you could get decent dynamics with a lower-powered amp, the entire Harbeth line would do its best with amplification that had plenty of raw power, especially overhead.  That's one area where Ayre is outclassed by Hegel, at least in my application.

Harbeths have relatively low sensitivity, but other than that, they were deliberately designed to present an easy load. See JA’s measurements in Stereophile. Rememeber that these are thin-walled critters with roots going back to the BBC designs. As an old LS3/5A fan, that was one thing that originally caught my attention many years ago, when I first started thinking about them when I was forced to sell my Quad 57s.

@hgeifman

>I agree with @blisshifi that it would be best to hear the amp with your speakers in your room before making a purchase. Is this possible?

Again, no, Howard, absolutely impossible. The fact that that’s not an option is the biggest reason why I started this thread.

> If not, you need an option to return the amp if you do not like it.

Yup. You do realize that you’re mansplaining now, right? 😉 I’ve been involved with high-end gear since the 1970s and was actually a frequently published audio reviewer in mainstream magazines throughout the 1990s & 2000s. So I understand the logistics.

And tbh, in the case of Ayre in 2024, that may be easier said than done. I’m finding that dealers who have handled Ayre in the past are finding it hard to even obtain product these days -- something not often mentioned on dealership Web sites but made clear when you speak to a dealer on the phone.  Perhaps the recent rave reviews of the VX-8 & EX-8 in high-profile venues like Stereophile have increased demand beyond what this small company can keep up with.

Anybody got a used EX-8 they'd like to part with?  I thought so.  Ayre owners seem to want to hang onto their gear for a long time.

Check out The Music Room. They currently have a 590 for around 5800.00. They are also Benchmark dealers. You’ll see a many other potentials as well. They have a great return policy which would allow you to sample some of these pieces. You might even talk to them and tell them what you are doing and they may have you buy an amp or three and give you some sort of discount on return shipping or something for what you don’t like.

@geof3

Thanks, that’s good info.

I also found a dealer -- one that I’ve had good experiences with it in the past -- that has a no-questions-asked 60-day return policy that includes the Devialet. The Devialet is so impressive in so many ways, but is so tersely documented, possessed of such bizarre configuration options, and based on such unusual circuitry, that, with no chance to hear the thing before buying, I couldn’t consider dropping $10K without a generous return policy. And since I’d have to combine it with an analog front end (and maybe a streamer) of some kind, I’d give the Expert Pro 220 maybe a 50% chance of being a good fit.

Nonetheless, it’s such an interesting product with so much potential that I’m sorely tempted.  If the 22lb Pass Labs XP-12 preamp only offered a little more connectivity, I'd love to hear what that particular odd-bedfellows pairing would sound like.