Pre amp for Ayre

jasbirnandra

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2012
260
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923
Just replaced the Dartzeel 8550 with the ayre mono blocks but looking for a matching Pre the options I am looking at are robert koda takumi K10,ypsilon pst100 passive,ayres KX R,Dart NS 18 all used can anyone suggest which will be the best in the sound deprtment
 

joeinid

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2011
1,543
12
400
NY
Congratulations!

I love Ayre, it's my destination gear. I moved up from the 5 series to MX-R Twenty monos. I am currently saving for the KX-R Twenty preamp. I am currently using a Wyred 4 Sound stp-se after having sold my Ayre KX-5 Twenty. The Wyred does a great job but the Ayre KX-5 Twenty was superb. I feel a slightly more open and forward preamp like an ARC Ref 6 will mate well. I prefer Ayre's own offerings first but I honestly have not heard the Ypsilon or Takumi offerings.
 

jfrech

VIP/Donor
Sep 3, 2012
2,152
749
1,160
Austin
So I owned MXR's for about 5 years and recently sold them vs upgrading to MXR-20's. While the 20's while technical better, they were missing that magic I loved about my MXR's.

I ran 2 preamps with the MXR's. A Nagra PLL and now a Koda K10. The Ayre KXR is also a very good preamp...I got to AB the Nagra and the Ayre in my home. The Nagra added a touch of sweetness to the notes, the KXR was a lil bit more quiet and more resolute. The current Nagra preamps (Jazz and Classic Pre I suspect are just killer good-I'll get to demo a Nagra Classic preamp hopefully over the holidays)

The Koda K10 is just a wonderful piece. Beautiful colors, textures, just totally get's out of the way. I've now had it for ~4 years.

Good luck !
 

KeithR

VIP/Donor
May 7, 2010
5,144
2,812
1,898
Encino, CA
just curious - why did you switch from Dart to Ayre?

as far as preamps, the Ayre amps have very high input impedance so any preamp on earth should work. I haven't heard the recent Ayre 20 series, but in my audition of the KX5/VX5 I much preferred a VTL tubed preamp the dealer tried. I found the full Ayre stack a bit dry.
 

jasbirnandra

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2012
260
22
923
just curious - why did you switch from Dart to Ayre?

as far as preamps, the Ayre amps have very high input impedance so any preamp on earth should work. I haven't heard the recent Ayre 20 series, but in my audition of the KX5/VX5 I much preferred a VTL tubed preamp the dealer tried. I found the full Ayre stack a bit dry.

I changed as the only upgrade I could think better than the Dart integrated could be the AYRE monos as the pre power of the dart was beyond my reach.
 

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