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Old 07-31-2019, 01:39 PM
Soundmig Soundmig is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Colorado - Western Slope
Posts: 246
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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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