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Ayre A new dimension of musical enjoyment

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  #1  
Old 11-01-2016, 10:36 PM
tima tima is offline
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Default Review: KX-5 Twenty Preamplifier and VX-5 Twenty Stereo Amplifier

Ayre Acoustics • KX-5 Twenty Preamplifier and VX-5 Twenty Stereo Amplifier on The Audio Beat.
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  #2  
Old 11-02-2016, 10:30 AM
ctsooner ctsooner is offline
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Thanks for sharing. Yes, this is a great review.
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Old 11-03-2016, 10:03 PM
RLF RLF is offline
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Yes, a great review and inspired me to put my VX-5 Twenty back in my system.
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Old 11-04-2016, 09:28 AM
Blackstone Blackstone is offline
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Default Review: KX-5 Twenty Preamplifier and VX-5 Twenty Stereo Amplifier

Loved it.

Last edited by Blackstone; 11-04-2016 at 01:36 PM.
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  #5  
Old 11-05-2016, 10:14 AM
ctsooner ctsooner is offline
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RLF, very cool. RLF, have you ever had the Audioquest or Cardas cables in the system with the Ayre gear? Personally, I've found them to be the most neutral cables and have taken my Ayre gear to a different level. I've had some of the cables that you have in your system in mine and chose the AQ castlerock and balanced Niagara cables for SQ. I had some of the more expensive cables in the system and I had top of the line MIT (with the 770 speaker wire and the 350 interconnect wire) and these cables came out as the most musical. I am using the AQ Diamond on loan from a good friend for my USB connection from the rebuilt mac mini to my QX5 Twenty and it's so much better than all the other USB cables I've been running in and out of the system over the last two weeks.
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Old 08-23-2017, 10:01 PM
RLF RLF is offline
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^

@ctsooner,

My absolute apologies for not seeing your comment until now. Yes, I have auditioned Cardas Clear Relection in my system and found it quite good. Charles Hansen likes Cardas and had in fact recommended the Cardas Clear to me which I never got a chance to audition. I recently upgraded all my interconnects and speaker cables to the new Shunyata Research Sigma line which trounced my previous Shunyata Anacondas. Shunyata has worked well in my system as my speakers tend to be on the laid back side and I've found Shunyata to be a good fit for them; at least in context of my system.

I also continue to love my VX-5 Twenty in my system, but for curiosity sake and for potential upgrade my dealer is going to bring their demo MX-R Twenty to my home for me to audition in my system. However, I can't imagine the R being all that better than the VX-5 Twenty, but one never knows until one tries something in their own system. If I were to go for th R series, I would go for the VX-R Twenty stereo amp which would physically fit better in my system with my cable arrangement, etc. and I don't need the extra power of the monoblocks.

Last edited by RLF; 08-23-2017 at 10:05 PM.
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Old 09-24-2017, 06:27 PM
dbphd dbphd is offline
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For reasons that probably involve magical thinking I replaced my Blue Jean cables with Cardas Clear Light cables. Last night I played Waltz for Debby, Love in Vain, and Take Five using the C-5xeMP to the KX-5 Twenty and VX-5 Twenty chain. I sensed, or imagined, that the sound had more depth and detail with tighter bass. I'm always skeptical of those who spend money then hear improved sonics, but it seemed as though I did. Well, at least all those fat blue cables look nice!
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  #8  
Old 09-29-2017, 08:25 PM
will will is offline
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Cool. Cardas improved my sound too.

Just read the new Stereophile RC list. KX-5 is Class K.
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  #9  
Old 10-01-2017, 05:25 PM
ctsooner ctsooner is offline
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Cardas makes a nice cable. They actually sell the wire to many major brands. I personally like the Audioquest cables. I just switched from the AQ Niagara balanced interconnect to the AQ WEL as an older pair that was rarely used fell into my lap. What a difference. It just gets out of the way better than anything I've ever auditioned. It was a holy cow moment in my system. The Vandersteen Quatro's (new ) are just starting to settle in. They kept getting incrementally better up to over 1k hours on it. Crazy to think, but that's what happens when you use silver wire and components that havce solid silver leads. That's one reason that AQ actually burns in all their silver capacitors for their Niagara 7000/5000/1000 units.

I have found that there are only a few cables that I like with Ayre as many have sounded way too sterile for my tastes.
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  #10  
Old 11-10-2017, 06:29 AM
Blackstone Blackstone is offline
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I use Take Five a lot to test soundstage width among other things. Slam as well. Great drum solo. Exceptional recording.
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