Dartzeel 108 vs Ayre Mr-X

You've asked about using these amps with a Nagra PLL.

I had the combination of the Ayre MX-R for about a year until I replaced the Nagra with the KX-R. The combination worked fine, and I was able to hear the advantages of Ayres over my previous Audio Research VTM 200's. I had learned to live with what I thought we congested tweeters on my WP 7's, but once the MX-R's were broken in there was a substantial improvement on the top end, particularly with female voices and solo piano. I had thought that the talk about "making poor recordings sound good" was probably marketing hype, but I do find that it's much easier to listen to recordings that used to be tough on the ears, without giving anything away in terms of detail. Maybe it's the higher power rating, or the zero feedback, but somethings different and it's better.

Replacing the Nagra with the KX-R was initially disappointing, but once broken in the soundstage really opened up, and became effortless in terms of
placing the instruments in space. The combination of the two is amazing.

My experience with the Ayre units has been extremely positive. I have not heard the Dartzeels, but given the value of the US dollar and the fact that Ayre provides excellent customer support and is a stable US company, I had no trouble deciding on the MX-Rs

MJF

MJF,

Thank you for confirming that there is a substantial break-in time on the Ayre "R" series components. I wish that this weren't so, as it would greatly simplify the purchase decision making process. Unfortunately, this is one of the drawbacks to using that particular PCB material.

As a manufacturer, there is always the choice either to build products that make a great impression in the short- term or to make products that provide great satisfaction in the long term. We at Ayre have always chosen the latter.

Best regards,
Charles Hansen

In reflecting back on the comments by the Rockport Antares owner with Dart....I have Rockport Merak/Sheritan II combo with Ayre MX-R...works very nicely...while I have not heard Dart in my home I suspect that the Rockport speakers would do well on the deeper power reserves of the Ayre/MX-R...at least from what I can hear...I suspect the amp's head room contributes to the particularly musical/relaxed/natural sound with the Ayre/Rockport combo...I found no objectionable elements to the sound...wonderful low level detail...great image stability...able to handle shifts from quiet passages to loud passages without any sense that the power bandwidth of the system was changing...which to me is a common issue with many combo of tube amps and relatively inefficient speakers....

Charles, regarding the issue of break-in; the darts have the same issue as the MR-X. i have had 5 different darTZeel NHB-108 stereo amps in my system; three of which i had when brand new.

when i was first loaned a brand new dart amp to try i still had my Tenor 300 watt Hybrid monos. i put the dart in my system for a week......it was very good but not super....so i took it out and went back to my Tenors. a few weeks later one Tenor amp had a problem....so i went back to the dart amp. at about 400 hours the dart came alive almost overnight. it openned up, refinement improved, and the dynamics dramatically increased. a huge difference. the two already broken in darts needed about 12 hours to warm up and they were good to go. then i purchased a brand new set for myself and went thru the 400+ hour break-in again.

if i would not have ever spent the time with break-in i would never had heard what the dart was capable of.

btw; most times the dart dealer offers home demos....i agree that is ideal if possible.

Mike,

You make a good point. I don't think that anybody can get the full measure of any component unless they live with it for several months. First it needs to break in fully. Then you need to try different racks/shelves, footers, power cords, interconnects, et cetera to make sure you're getting the most out of it.

Obviously this is impossible for most people before they make a purchasing decision. So you have to do the best you can, visiting dealers, reading reviews, et cetera. But no matter what you still have to make a leap of faith at some point and choose. It's kind of like getting married. You can't date all the women in the world, let alone live with them for a year or two. So at some point you just have to make that leap of faith and make a commitment.

Luckily, some of the other important factors can be found out more quickly than the sound quality. Like the looks. It doesn't take a four month in-home trial to figure out if you like the way it looks. Or features. If you need 8 inputs on a preamp, you can rule out a lot of products right away.

Some stuff takes a bit more work, but still less than an exhaustive in-home audition. For example, you can search the on-line forums and get a pretty good idea about customer support or resale value or reliability, or the ability to drive difficult loads.

There's no "right" or "wrong" choices in this hobby. If you come home from work, put some music on and it sounds good to you, then you're ahead of the game. If you find yourself listening to more music (and more kinds of music) than you used to, then you're pretty much done.

Charles Hansen
Ayre Acoustics, Inc.