Ayre K5 XE MP / V5 XE mini review

[Jerome W]

Hello folks,

I am using this combo in my living room system, with the Audio Note AN-J Spe / Hemp / Silver coils speakers.
I first received the K5 XE MP preamp. And used it with my Shindo CCQs monoblocks. The sound was extremely satisfying. Not as rich sounding as with a Shindo preamp, but the K5 let obviously the Shindo monoblocks express their delicious sound without coming into the way.
Then came the V5xe power amplifier.
When cold, the few hours were extremely disappointing. The sound was sterile, no weight, with terribly aggressive treble. I even wrote an advert to sell the whole combo. I could not believe the raving reviews I read about them. I could not imagine the amp sounding good when warm or hot.
As much as I love my little AX7e integrated, I was just hating this sound.
I let it play all night. The cats do love classical music and sweet pop ( Simon and Garfunkel get their full attention ) at all times.
In the morning I entered the room. What the hell ???
I never just listened to any SS gear sounding so good. It is extremely close from my 300B Western Electric monoblocks in terms of listening pleasure.
By very far the best SS set up I ever heard. No matter the price. I think that Mr. Charles Hansen ( RIP) was just a genius. Even my beloved Nagra MSA is far from this level of reproduction. The Dartzeel CTH too. Maybe that the Nagra Classic amp could be close to it but I am really not sure.
The Accuphase A65 power amp is also defeated here.
I guess that only Ayre amps / preamps higher in the line could sound better than this combo.
In a phrase it sounds rich, velvety, transparent, powerful, involving. Most of all, this combo SINGS SINGS SINGS. And makes you addicted and willing to listen to all your recordings.

Sources are Pink Triangle Anniv TT / SME V / Koetsu Rosewood into LFD MC1 phono stage and McIntosh MDA 1000.

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[joeinid]

Congratulations Jerome. I’m so happy you are loving the Ayre combo. Ayre makes great gear. The midrange and especially the treble are absolutely wonderful, smooth and sweet.

[Jerome W]

Congratulations Jerome. I’m so happy you are loving the Ayre combo. Ayre makes great gear. The midrange and especially the treble are absolutely wonderful, smooth and sweet.

Hi Joe,
Thanks a lot !!
So you were not in love with the bass ?


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[joeinid]

The bass was fine on my KX5-20/VX5-20 and KXR-20/MXR-20 combos. It’s just that I prefer a little more meat on the bone, a little more fullness. Your combo could be different. My gear was very articulate and musical but I was looking for a change.

The D’Agostino gear had the fullness and meat but the Ayre treble/mids was a little bit smoother and sweeter.

I think pairing Ayre with warmer/fuller speakers gives the best of both worlds. Of course, my opinion only.

[myrman]

That's a great looking system. I have always liked Ayre kit when I have heard it.

[Ryan Berry]

I'm really happy you gave the Ayre pieces a chance before giving up on them. Our gear can definitely be more sensitive to temperature and even being moved around than other designs tend to be. The tradeoff is that the zero-feedback design really shines once it's settled in to a level we couldn't otherwise achieve. If the unit is new, you should continue to hear improvements over the next 3-4 months of use, depending on how often you're running it, so I think you'll be even happier in time. Thank you on behalf of Ayre for being a fan and enjoy the music! If you ever have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to give us a call. We love talking audio, that's why we do it.

[Jerome W]

I'm really happy you gave the Ayre pieces a chance before giving up on them. Our gear can definitely be more sensitive to temperature and even being moved around than other designs tend to be. The tradeoff is that the zero-feedback design really shines once it's settled in to a level we couldn't otherwise achieve. If the unit is new, you should continue to hear improvements over the next 3-4 months of use, depending on how often you're running it, so I think you'll be even happier in time. Thank you on behalf of Ayre for being a fan and enjoy the music! If you ever have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to give us a call. We love talking audio, that's why we do it.

Ryan,

Thanks a lot !


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[david1111]

Hi Ryan. I've been trying to reply to the PM that you sent me, but it won't let me cuz I haven't had 10 posts yet.
So, I just wanted to thank you for the info, it was very helpful. Some more resolution and clarity is what I need, as the V-3 is a mosfet, so it's a bit soft or warm, and my PV-5 is warm; plus it's a tad dark.
So, an SS pre will probably help. In the future, I will get a K-5 and compare it to the PV-5, and I'm pretty sure the PV-5 will be leaving after that.
Anyway, thanks again for your opinions, and happy listening.
Cheers.

Dave

[david1111]

Hi Ryan, Dave here again. I still can't reply to PMs yet, as I've only posted 6-7 times so far, but this does the trick.
A guy was listing his K-5 on CAM, and the reason he gave was that it wasn't compatible with his V-3 due to the 4 db gain thru the balanced connects. The single-ended connects are 10 db gain, but either way, I don't see that it's an issue, cuz turning the volume pot up a bit more can actually improve the sound, I believe. Interestingly enough, he also had a V-5 which he sold and kept the V-3.
Anyway, I hear some pretty weird ideas on some of these forums, but I would love to have your thots on the K-5 / V-3 gain compatibility thing.
With that in mind, would it sound better, using the balanced to balanced connectors, even tho the V-3 immediately converts the single-ended signal to a balanced signal?
Thanks for your help.
Cheers.

Dave

[Ryan Berry]

Hey Dave,

Not a problem. A lot of the numbers here look wrong, so I can't really say why he'd feel the V-3 and K-5 do not work together well. There's quite a few people who use the two with one another with no problem at all, and our overall design philosophies have been pretty close to the same ideas since the start of Ayre. Number-wise, there's 4 dB of gain through the single-ended connections and the 10 dB of gain through the balanced connections. Both of these are also adjustable at the factory in cases that there's not enough gain due to a really inefficient speaker, etc., but I think we've changed the gain of about a half dozen in the 18 years we had been producing them. One of the advantages of balanced is that the amplifier uses the differential of the positive and inverted signals instead of referencing just a signal to ground, so using a balanced connection from the K-5 to the V-3 gives should be louder.

As far as cables go, the goal is to preserve balanced as much as possible. Yes, the signal is effectively made balanced again internally in the K-5 and V-3 which helps cancel out internal noise, but your interconnects can act as big antennas that pick up noise in the room. When they're single-ended, there's nothing to cancel that noise and can only rely on shielding it as much as possible, which is not as elegant of a solution. Conversely, balanced amplifiers, which measure the differential between the positive and inverted signal path, handles this for us as noise affects both signal lines the same and does not have a differential effect on the two wires. I hope that helps explain it.

Cheers,

Ryan


Hi Ryan, Dave here again. I still can't reply to PMs yet, as I've only posted 6-7 times so far, but this does the trick.
A guy was listing his K-5 on CAM, and the reason he gave was that it wasn't compatible with his V-3 due to the 4 db gain thru the balanced connects. The single-ended connects are 10 db gain, but either way, I don't see that it's an issue, cuz turning the volume pot up a bit more can actually improve the sound, I believe. Interestingly enough, he also had a V-5 which he sold and kept the V-3.
Anyway, I hear some pretty weird ideas on some of these forums, but I would love to have your thots on the K-5 / V-3 gain compatibility thing.
With that in mind, would it sound better, using the balanced to balanced connectors, even tho the V-3 immediately converts the single-ended signal to a balanced signal?
Thanks for your help.
Cheers.

Dave