Quote:
Originally Posted by Soundmig
Auditioning an Ayre V-5xe for a few days. Nice amp. Not quite as "liquid" in the mid-range as are the mono Aegir's and highs not quite as "warm", but everything else is substantially better. Stage is more 3D, more low level detail (room reverb, etc) and better overall accuracy of timbre. The frequency extremes are better with the Ayre also. Of course, there is a significant price difference so its really no surprise. One disclaimer I have to put on this is that I'm using spade to banana adaptors at the amp end of the speaker cables, and that may be introducing some hash that I'm hearing in the high end. I plan to re-terminate my CV-6's to eliminate this "situation".
Incidentally, I'm also auditioning a JC2 pre-amp. To say that it is better than the Freya with NOS tubes is an understatement! While I like the Freya, everything through the JC2 is warmer, bigger, fatter, better. The 3D soundstage is a lot bigger (especially deeper) and the clarity (with warmth) is more than I had expected it to be. I thought that the Freya was giving me a great soundstage, but the JC2 tramples the Freya in every performance criteria I can think of to listen for. Of course, the JC2 is 5x the price so it should be better, but I didn't expect it to be that much better! Wow.
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Just realized that I never updated this thread! Anyway, getting rid of the Spade/Banana adapters made a huge difference. The Ayre V-5xe sounded incredible without them. I never thought a speaker cable adaptor could mess things up that badly, but the high frequency "hash" disappeared and the mid's smoothed out. The Ayre is a great amp revealing layer upon layer of information and sounding as "natural" as any amp I've heard in my system. At the end of the day, I didn't want to spend "that much" money on an amp - although it was worth every penny.
That having been said and even though the Aegir mono's didn't "work out" (shut down on bass peaks), the midrange liquidity on the Aegir was in the same echelon with the V-5xe, although it didn't quite peel back as many layers. As a mono-block, I was quite impressed by Aegir and liked it a touch better than the amp I ultimately chose to go with in my room/system - the Parasound A-23+. As a stereo amp I felt the Aegir was very good but maybe a bit thin sounding compared to other amps like the A23+.
The A23+ "rounds off" things a bit, but it sounds warm and musical which is a good fit the the F228Be's in my very small listening room. I never heard the older A23, but I understand there is a difference in Bass drive and overall character with the + version being better balanced? Overall the A23+ is a great performer at under $1500!!!