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Ayon Spirit-1 compared to Ayon Orion

I am helping a friend select between an Ayon Spirit-1 and an Orion and have a few questions with which I hope someone on this forum can help:

1. Does the Orion operate in Class-A like the Spirit? The Ayon website lists Class-A spec for the Spirit but not the Orion, but I didn't know if that was just an error on the website.

2. Are some of the parts in the Orion sourced from China?

Thanks for any help.
reynolds853
sionlim
56 posts
 
I asked and posted that question to usatubeaudio and they assured me the orion was built in austria, but in my current audio experience , nothing that weighs that substantial with all those features go for below 4k nowadays unless there are somekind of make no money advert going. Anyways i hope your hunt is fruitfull as i am going to be an owner of the spirit 3 and hopefully that will be made in austria.
PS someone i met in shanghai recently told me there is a town in China called made in USA. i dont think he was joking.
facten
2,947 posts
 
I have the Spirit 2 , the amp is extremely well built, no mechanical issues , and very musical. Reynolds853, I'm guessing the Orion comes with Gold Lion Reissue KT88s, the Spirit 2 did; the Spirit 3 comes with Shuguang Black Treasures. The Gold Lions to my ears are better than other new issues, except the Black Treasures, I swapped in a quad and they improved the amp's musicality. Might be something to consider at some point.

Anyway, I don't think you'll be disappointed in Ayon.
facten
2,947 posts
 
Reynolds853 - in the event you haven't come across this review of the Orion with comments about the Spirit 1

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue50/ayon_orion.htm
sionlim
56 posts
 
Oppo , well as I was searching around for more info on ayon I came across this polish magazine company high fidelity where they tested all kinds if ayon stuff and a interview with the man himself vert. He confirmed a few things. Pub boards for all lower models come from Taiwan. That includes the Orion , sprit 3 amps and the cd 07 player. This is the only way to keep prices down. So I think that your question has been answered.
But he does state in the interview that all the ayon products from entry to top of the line all run in pure class A
reynolds853 OP
388 posts
 
I wanted to thank everyone for their responses to this thread. The guy I was helping with this decision ended up getting a Spirit-III to pair with some Quad-57 speakers. Another friend has a Spirit-1 that he paired with Silverline SR17.5 speakers in which we installed a Duelund crossover. Also, on the Spirit-1 rig, he is using Gold Lion KT-88's and Telefunken ribbed plate 12AU7s. Both systems sound quite nice!

Thanks again, everyone, for your responses!

JBS
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