Twenty updates to 5 series

[dbarkovic]

I own the AX-5 and also had a long-ish chat with them. This was just a few weeks back. It was a very friendly conversation. Maybe you just caught them on a bad day?

[Masterlu]

dbarkovic... Welcome to AA!

[aardvarkbark]

I must say that if one of the objectives of the Twenty upgrade was to yield a cooler unit, Ayre sure has accomplished that. Breaking in my Ax5, I've run it fairly constantly from 7am to 11pm for the last couple of days, and it's throwing off hardly any heat at all. I have my amp and CD player in a wood cabinet with no back. I leave the solid wood door ajar when it's operating for improved circulation. The Classe pair that had been in there for the past few years and the Rotel pair before that really warmed the space up, so much so that I added a little fan for those times I had extended listening sessions. With this Ayre, I don't get any blast of warm air when I open the door completely to change CDs as I had with the previous electronics. I have to put my hand within a couple inches of it before I feel warm air. What a pleasant characteristic (in addition to the ever-improving sound it generates, of course).

[ctsooner]

aardvark, call Alex at Ayre to let him know about your experience. He will take care of it I'm sure. That's NOT how they do business. They DO work through their dealer network, but they love the customers. I promise you that. Let them know. Glad you are liking it. I think most folks need to also know that you MUST break in EACH input separately. I only use two of the balanced inputs and my vinyl input still isn't broken in as I haven't used the TT enough in the last year. I'm correcting that recently, lol. The bass will become awesome from 500 to 900 hours depending on your unit. Mine started to really sound it's best once we got a strong 600hrs on it. The differences aren't night and day. The bass and air just got better and better over time. Incrementally, but one day I noticed how good it did get from when I started off. I was in shock. The high end, high density caps used are the reason I believe. I may be wrong, so don't quote on that one, lol.

[will]

Hi, I'm a long-time lurker with an Ayre stack of C-5xeMP, K-5xeMP, and VX-5 Twenty feeding into Dynaudio C1s. I came across a brand-new review of the VX-5 Twenty, KX-5 Twenty combo. Par for course, the review had plenty of plaudits for the combo. Enjoy:

Ayre Acoustics KX-5 Twenty Preamplifier and VX-5 Twenty Stereo Amplifier - The Audio Beat - www.TheAudioBeat.com

[Manbient]

Originally Posted by will

Hi, I'm a long-time lurker with an Ayre stack of C-5xeMP, K-5xeMP, and VX-5 Twenty feeding into Dynaudio C1s. I came across a brand-new review of the VX-5 Twenty, KX-5 Twenty combo. Par for course, the review had plenty of plaudits for the combo. Enjoy:

Ayre Acoustics KX-5 Twenty Preamplifier and VX-5 Twenty Stereo Amplifier - The Audio Beat - www.TheAudioBeat.com

Almost the same system I used to have! (just sub in a V-5xe). Thanks for posting the review!

[enatai252]

I agree with reviewer that the KX/VX5 twenty combo punches way above its weight. I use it with dCS Rossini and Wilson Alida speakers in my study. Great combo and no significant flaws. The system really just disappears

I can go to my media room and hear the dCS Vivaldi 2.0 with KXR/MXR twenty combo with WA Alexia. Increase in dynamics, resolution and scale with this system....but I am not dissatisfied when I go back to the study system. For Me,the Ayre preamps/amps just simply deliver without calling any attention them....they just get out of the way

[ctsooner]

Thanks for sharing guys. enatai, you should get your hands on the QX5 Twenty DAC and see how it sounds vs the Rossini (do you use the external clock?). I have auditioned the Rossini with and without clock and ended up with the QX5 Twenty which I didn't think I would. Part of it was money of course, but I continue to be blown away by the Twenty series gear. The ref gear is well......reference to my ears. So many great choices now. The one take away I have from the Ayre gear is that we all hear differently. I'm not a Wilson, B&W or Magico fan. All know I love Vandersteen's right now, but I listen to all top end gear and I get to listen to most gear with Ayre as my dealers carry a ton of great speakers, but most all are carrying Ayre right now and it's always the best amps in the store regardless of cost.

Goes with my personal philosophy that if you get great gear, it will usually sound great with other well put together gear without having to tune things with cords and cables etc...

[enatai252]

CTsooner

glad you are enjoying the QX5. i have a local dealer for Ayre and do plan to listen to one soon. It would not initially be to replace the Rossini (my version is sans transport and I do have the external clock) but to replace the Naim NDS i use in my cabin. That system is a Ref40/Ref150 with Duette 2s and having a streaming DAC as only source. My NAS in primary home automatically replicates to the NAS in the cabin everytime I download new music so my library is always the same in both places I really like the Naim and I am partial to the BB 1704 DACs as compared to limited experience with the new ESS Sabre DACs. When I get a chance to take it over the mountains for a listen I will report back.

again congrats on the new DAC

[ctsooner]

Sounds good and enjoy the music. Great review by Micheal Lavorna on Audiostream.com

Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Digital Hub | AudioStream

I am in shock at how musical my Treo's are and how deep and tight the bass is with the Ayre AX5/Twenty now that I have the proper front end in place. SHOCKED and I'm not the only one. Just musical. My former DAC was an outstanding one also, but similar to many of the mega priced DAC's in that it was revealing, but a bit sterile at times. Once I got home from the hospital and got some real hours on it, the bass and high end extension just kicked in. I know that the AX5 needs to have at least 200 hours on EACH input to break in. It's just the way it is. WAs also told that it needs to be at listening volumes to really fully break in. The QX5 just needs to be connected to the preamp or integrated and you can put volume on zero or just put it in headphone out to break in the headphone amp (what I've been doing the last few weeks).

I really want to hear your thoughts on the Rossini/clock vs the QX5. The fact that they are in the same sentence says a lot to me about how good this DAC really is.