Thread for Ayre amps, preamps, digital hub, and DAC
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It’s been 4 days of listening now and I feel like I can finally write some impressions about my new integrated, AX-5 Twenty.
It has certainly been up and down, but things are finally starting to settle in. I had to reposition my speakers and I also found out that it takes better directly to the wall rather than my PS Audio Power Plant. This amp seems like something an engineer would appreciate. I feel like they “over-engineer” their products and a lot of thought has gone into it. I question how well they keep their value, but you cannot question its build and features.
Again, the reason for the change is to trade some lushness and weight for more room information and stage presentation and BOY did I get that.
You know the saying, it’s like a veil has been lifted? Yes, I feel that multiplied by a bunch, but not in a bad way. Here are some of the huge increases I received:
- The presentation and stage is much more enveloping and the imaging is much sharper.
- I get a lot more room information and air. The sounds dance in the air in a globe/dome way more than before.
- The dynamics are superb and they are completely consistent throughout the volume spectrum. With my old setup, I had to turn it up to get it to punch. This, I can get it to punch hard, even at whisper levels. The background is abyss-black. It feels like it sucks out all of the noise in my room.
- The clarity is quite consistent throughout the frequency as well. It’s the most neutral setup I’ve had so far. This allows the presentation to sound much more realistic, rather than an enlarged and emphasized singer’s mouth.
- Lastly, it is definitely more nimble and speedy compared to my old setup.
It’s taking me some time to get used to it, so I cannot praise it from the mountaintop or anything, but it’s excelling at the moment and I’m having fun with it.
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Damn that sounds so awesome. I love speakers. Congrats again!
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Yeah. Can’t really beat the presentation. I’ve tried going back to headphones and IEMs multiple times. Not the same.
I’ve had my eye on the AX-5 Twenty, sounds a lot like the LTA UL but I think having the additional power makes it suitable for a much larger range of speakers. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong to look at it based on your description.
So drawback because there are always negatives, if you had to note those what are they?
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Drawbacks:
- The bass doesn’t have the same amount of weight. It’s de-emphasized, but tighter and goes lower.
- The change for me was large enough that I started getting a headache, despite the volume was low. I think it was more me from sinus pressure more than anything. That, or that I was too focused on new sounds compared to the last. At the moment, I am chalking it up as a fluke, but I’m keeping attention to it. My other 3 listening sessions were great.
- It lost that lushness, seduction of midrange, but I was asking for that.
- Although the punch and dynamics is greater, it doesn’t have the same amount of thick swell that the old setup had.
- The looks department is okay, but the insides are sexy.
- Lastly, the resale value is kind of all over the place, especially after Charley Hansen died, but it’s great if you want to pick something up used. Again, they built this stuff to last forever.
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I feel like my system is a presentation and imaging demo now. Bubbles from Yosi is a mindf***
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Follow up:
I am definitely much happier with this amp after I let it burn in. It is a touch of warmth from dead neutral. Definitely the most neutral setup I’ve had so far (coming from full tubed Cary stack) and even after subbing the Cary monoblocks for SS.
I love how quiet it is. It just sucks out all of the noise of the room and keep it very engaging and immersive.
This is also an amp that would be appreciated by low-level listening such as @NickMimi and maybe @dB_Cooper . The dynamics, soundstage, and immersion is still the same at low levels as it is at live volumes. I personally top out at 75db or so.
TL;DR. Neutral amp with a touch of warmth. Very quiet. Superb staging and imaging. Over-engineered. Should be able to find cheap used.
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I wish i had pulled up this bubbles track sooner, it’s like dudes are playing ping-pong in my room 
and the bubbling sounds, i can’t keep my eyes from darting around. I wish i had known about this track sooner, Now i understand what you mean. I can’t wait to make it out that way to hear this or whatever you come up w/ next! 
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Yosi Horikawa is the GOAT
Hearing you describe your experience, these are the times in the hobby when I wish we could listen to each other’s chains and hear for ourselves. The way you describe the impact of the Ayre as part of your new chain is very similar to the things I’ve come to enjoy in my chain. Sounds like we’d be able to do a lot of comparing notes. Also shows that there are a lot of ways to skin a cat and get to a place that one can be perfectly happy with while coming at it from a different direction.
For some reason, this change feels different to the other times you’ve made changes to your system.
BTW I listened to the Bubbles track, very cool reference point. A track I use for stage spacial dimension is The Fat Shadow [Pointy Head Mix] by 808 State. Bubble had a lot of organic sound and precise spacial placement.
If you can, listen to a track called Cachao Es Mambo on the album Cuban Masters Los Originales.
It’s recorded in a peculiar way, not like typical big mambo band recordings that emphasize various percussion instruments. The recording on this track focuses on the bass, and it’s both plucked and bowed and tapped for good measure. It’s one of the most realistic presentations I’ve heard in my set up. I’d be curious to hear your impressions about. The album is available on Qobuz.
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try this as well 
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I spoke with Ayre earlier this week about using the AX-5 with headphones and iESL and the like, so I figured I would key in the forum.
Ayres official line is no HP boxes on the AX-5 and the reason for that is that some headphone adaptor boxes ground the negatives together which can cause issues. Using a direct speaker tap to 4-pin adaptor for headphones is totally fine and iESL will work as well. Other estat transformers should work as well but they didn’t look at internals to confirm (so long as its true balanced input and not dropping a pin/shorting to ground you are good to go).
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To add to this, I just asked Bryan from Zynsonix about using his converter box with a differential output amp design… Here’s our convo
Me:
Another thing that has come to my attention is that some converter boxes ground the negatives together which can cause issues with “balanced differential” output amp designs (since the outputs on these designs are all hot?). In my case, the converter you made me has two balanced XLR outputs (attenuated, and bypass). So because there are only xlr connections, I can safely use the converter with a differential output amp? Or is grounding/a dropped pin happening somewhere inside of the box regardless?
Bryan:
Given your unit does not have a 1/4" jack the grounds are not common, so you’re a-okay 
Bryan is such a responsive and helpful dude haha. Anyways, so I guess as long as you only use the XLR output on one of his speaker amp to headphone adapter boxes you should be fine to use a differential amplifier with it. The only time you may blow something up is when you switch that converter box to a 1/4" output (if you have one, I guess that’s the reason why his boxes with both XLR and 1/4" outputs have a physical switch to go between those two output options). In my case my converter box only has XLR outputs so there’s nothing to worry about.
Hope that helps anyone curious.
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