Ayre amps take a little while to warm up so if you are not one to leave music playing all day, fire up the system an hour or so before any serious listening. I felt that even after a few hours, the system sounded better. Ayre has superb treble and mids with articulate bass.
Ayre KX-5 Twenty and VX-5 Twenty
- Thread starter Mike
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I have had my Ayre Kx-5 and Vx-5 combo for about 6 months now... am very happy with them both, despite really being a tube guy at heart (decided to stick with SS because I am away from home for long periods of time and my wife likes to use the system all day, so didn't want her to have to deal with tube issues.)
Zero problems with the Ayre gear and all who hear it LOVE what they are hearing. Question: What are people using for power cables? I have a Cardas Clear M on the pre, have been playing with Shunyata Venom HC, Zu Event, and now a Sablon Petit Corona on the power. I may be able to bag one of the Ayre signature cords at a good price, anybody try one? One issue is that I would need it ti make a fairly tight bend, say about a 4-inch bend radius. TIA!
Zero problems with the Ayre gear and all who hear it LOVE what they are hearing. Question: What are people using for power cables? I have a Cardas Clear M on the pre, have been playing with Shunyata Venom HC, Zu Event, and now a Sablon Petit Corona on the power. I may be able to bag one of the Ayre signature cords at a good price, anybody try one? One issue is that I would need it ti make a fairly tight bend, say about a 4-inch bend radius. TIA!
Hi Jay. What power cable(s) did you end up trying? I finally got a KX-5 Twenty to go with my VX-5 Twenty. And man, what a huge upgrade over the K5xeMP. The only minor issue I'm having is it runs out of steam. When volume is wide open, transients rarely hit 90dBs (I have 97dB efficient speakers). I'm used to having preamps that easily go over 100dBs+ with volume to spare. But this thing does sound dynamite.
Kuoppis
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I used to have the same combo a couple years back, but never ran into that issue.
Don’t remember whether that is the case, but have you checked, whether the pre has a gain setting? It could be that there is one, and it is set on a very low level.
If not, you’ve probably fried your amp. The thing is, the VX-5 Twenty is wired hot. That means, there is current on some of the the XLR pins when the amp is switched on. Therefore, if changing or adjusting cables when the amp is switched on, you’ll fry the power output stages.
I was using the combo with 88 db efficient Magico S3’s, and never came even close to running out of steam.
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Thanks for your response. Today I hooked up my Tascam DA-3000 recorder and ripped some vinyl via the XLR tape outs. I actually had to raise the input gain by +7dBs on the Tascam even though I was using single ended inputs with my prior preamp. I should have had to subtract ~6dBs. So I know it's the KX-5 output. I emailed Ryan because I'm fairly certain a prior owner must have lowered the overall gain of the preamp. I'll just order new resistors from Ayre and install them.
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Kuoppis
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It might make sense to check with Ayre. My suspicion is that it’s the power stages of the VX-5 Twenty.
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Thanks, I will. I'd be very pissed if that's the case because I got my amp back from Ayre in early January when I had it reconditioned.
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I finally had some time to hook up my backup amp over the weekend. Its a high powered Class D model. It didn't churn out any more power than the VX-5. In fact was slightly less SPLs even though it has the same gain as the VX-5. I've ordered the resistor(s) from Ryan to increase overall gain on the KX-5. Guess it's about all I can do from here. I think the added 6dBs will do the trick though.
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The resistors did the trick! It wasn't just an overall lack of volume level. I had suspected that the FR felt skewed just a bit toward highs/mids. Not thin perse but it just seemed like some bass impact was lacking. After installing the 3k resistors, everything sounds balanced and can get as loud as I would ever need it. Such an amazing combo to go with my Legacy Focus SE speakers. Thank you Ryan for always being there and picking up the phone (even after hours!). Ayre customer service is top-notch indeed!
One issue recently with my KX-5 Twenty was a noisy pop in the volume control. It wasn't noisy at first but it was getting worse and worse with time. Dreading the infamous repair trip, I put off calling Ayre. But alas, I finally called them yesterday and was told that it is not only common, it can be avoided AND remedied once it starts occurring. I was told to mute it (I muted both KX and VX to be certain) and cycle the volume from 0 to 46 and back to 0. I did this about 8 times. The volume control is said to be silver on silver contact and essentially 'self cleaning' when this process is performed. I guess I wasn't utilizing the volume range enough, so it built up some oxidation. Needless to say, I was extremely stoked with the results. No more loud static pops through my Legacy Focus SEs! Moral: Don't procrastinate like me. And work the full volume range from time to time as preventative maintenance. Ayre gear still continues to impress me!
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