Ayre KX-5 Twenty/ VX-5 Twenty experience?

Kuoppis

Active Member
Mar 27, 2015
4
0
31
Düsseldorf/Germany
Hi,

I completed my VX-5 Twenty upgrade recently and switched from the already good K-5 xe MP to the KX-5 Twenty and would be interested in anyone else's experiences.

Here's what I heard:

I received the upgraded VX-5 Twenty back from Ayre sometime ago and the results are very, very good. While both Twenties are not even fully played-in yet I am already enjoying them a lots. Having owned a bit of gear in the past and heard a lots of it, I can now wholeheartedly recommend the Ayre Five Series Twenties. The difference compared to pre-upgrade is rather significant.

What happened to me, was that I upgraded my preamp first from the mellifluous K-5 xe MP to the bigger brother KX-5 Twenty, running it with the VX-5 in a first step. As a matter of fact, I was not entirely happy with the pairing. I felt the slightly warmer K-5 xe MP was a better pairing with VX-5.

Then over summer I got the upgrade slot from Ayre and was able to send in my power amp for the Twenty treatment as well. I received it back some time ago and it has not yet ran the 500 hours break-in you need with Ayre gear. Results are however already kicking in, big time.

I have a pair of pretty neutral Magico S3s I run with the Ayres and never thought any amp would ellicit such a pallette of colours, solid bass and wonderful tonality from the Magicos. While details were good pre-upgrade, paired with a stronger and deeper bass, richer tonality and the microdetails both the amps and speakers can do I am pretty much blown away. It is now so clear that the speakers just pass through how good your amplification is or even insn't. This is now a very strong match.

I am pretty much a Jazz and Rock guy and like small ensemble, artistic voices etc. But with the Twenty upgrades in da house, I just cannot stop listening to classic, as the set really amazes me. The richness of piano and violins are just mind blowing. I am now able to take full advantage of the speakers' potential, which in hindsight, earlier I was obviously not. The Twenty upgrade also provides the VX-5 with a significant bass improvement (heft, depth).

Coming back to my pre-upgrade experience, I now understand and hear the KX-5 Twenty being a significant step-up from the still 'Stereophile Recommended Component' rated K-5 xe MP preamp, in terms of micro details, airiness and, microdetail and resolution. Pre-upgrade the the VX-5 was just not able to get the most out of it I think.

I think I have said this before, but talking about the VX-5 Twenty, in a summary, I feel like I sent in some hi-fi for upgrade to Ayre and got some hi-end back.

Any similar or other experiences?
 

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