Ayre V-5xe best tube pre-amp to match with?

Have you any experience with Ayre K-5xe pre amp? When it comes down to soundstage depth, focus/ imaging, air around instruments, speed, clarity and detail, low lever and high lever resolution which one was to your ears better VK-31 SE or Calypso (or probably Ayre K-5xe)?

Frankpiet--not at all. The 31SE is a great preamp at prices on this website. It just isn't a 51SE---just looking at the build quality alone, its quite obvious. I spoke to BAT on this, and they think the 31SE perhaps is the great bargain---though it definitely isn't the 51SE. The 51SE is even more transparent, liquid, and forceful in the bass. It exudes a "blackness" to the background that needs to be heard to be believed. Good luck!

Keithr: any experience with VK-50 ? I heard its better than VK-31 SE and can be upgraded to VK-51 SE status anytime.. ?

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on a CAT with the V-5xe. Marvelous! No the CAT is not "fully balanced". But the sound has that, how you say - Synergy?
Bob at the analogshop has succesfully paired these two many times. Use the sound, Luke, use the sound. It will guide you.

Frank: The cost to upgrade a VK30SE to a VK31SE was $1300 when I did it three years ago. The cost from VK50SE to VK51SE was a few hundred $$ more than this. The 30SE was so very muted in the trebles; this was significantly refined with the 31SE. I suspect a similar improvement was made with the transition to the 51SE. My gut feeling is that the 31SE would be the more tonally coherent product compared to the 50SE. They are both in the same price range on the used market so take your pick.

24phun: The CAT sound has "synergy"? Synergy to what?

I have a lot of experience with the CAT Ultimate II vs. the Aesthetix Callisto Signature in my own system. A CAT dealer loaned me the Ultimate three months ago and I have done much listening with both the CAT JL-3 amps and the Wolcott mono amps driving SoundLab A1s.

The CAT products are not about synergy - they are about phenomenol low-level resolution, excellent coverage at the frequency extremes and dynamic contrasts like few if any other product lines can match. One must decide if these strengths are a priority or to go with another product that perhaps has a greater presence of harmonic textures, ambience, decays, portrayal of space, etc.

My own experience has consistently been that the preamp can make or break the performance of the system far more than the amp. I would find a preamp that put a smile on my face like no other, then nail down a speaker that worked well within my room and budget, AND THEN find an amp capable to drive the speaker and provide the balance in many sonic attributes with the rest of my system. Buying a preamp to match my amp seems bass ackwards here.

John