Stereophile: Ayre's Mighty Mite Power Amplifiers

What did us in was the combination of Ayre's spanking new reference loudspeakers, the incredible JBL K2 S9800se ($30,000/pair) and Ayre's new 300W MX-R mono power amplifiers (price TBA). Small the MX-Rs may be, but light they ain't—the chassis is milled out of a solid billet of aluminum and, as Steve Silberman put it, "the whole darn thing acts as a heat sink." The amp sports three paralleled transformers and operates in A/B—and it doubles its output into 4 ohms.

I had them insert the Marvin Sewell Group's The Worker's Dance into the Ayre C-5xe player and that's when the words escaped me. I'll try anyway: The sound was open and driving and rhythmic and dynamic—very dynamic. It was . . . it was . . . you had to be there. I'm sure glad I was.

We shall speak of this no more.

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Reader Comments

Posted 1/7/2006 at 20:18 — By Monty

Oh, great! Now i'm sure they will increase the price ever so much out of my budget! You could have said something like "these lil amps could be a real giant killer if they price them low enough." Somebody take Wes' keyboard away from him until he forces the prices out of the distributors first. Haggle, Wes, haggle!

Posted 1/7/2006 at 21:000 — By John Atkinson

Don't quote me Wes but I could have sworn Steve Silbermann said "$15k/pair" when I asked the price of the MX-R mono. But Steve then played the live Alicia Keyes "Unplugged" CD, which pretty much reduced me to incoherence on the big JBLs. (Art Dudley is scheduled to be reviewing these in the late spring, BTW, once we can solve the problem of getting the ginormous crates up the trail to his rustic abode.)

Posted 1/7/2006 at 23:21 — By Artie

I'll be looking forward to Art Dudley's review of the JBL's, but JA, can you arrange it so he doesn't just use his wimpy SET amplifiers with them? Please!

Posted 1/8/2006 at 16:21 — By Wes Phillips

Yep, JA, Steve Silberman confirmed that price of $15,ooo/pair at the Stereophile cocktail party last night. I'd asked if the prices were on the product sheet he'd given me and he said yes. The MX-Rs were listed as TBD, but they had come up with a price by showtime. That'll teach me to be more direct and ask "How much they is?"

Posted Tue Jan17, 2006, 8:30 PM — By Frank

Great news. Hopefully they will now concentrate on developping a bigger integrated eg. AX-5e and a universal player with digital volume control.

Posted Wed Jan18, 2006, 11:01 AM — By Hans

Comment of a happy owner of a V-1x: If the sound of mono's is on a full extend of the V-1x, like you are looking through a bigger lens, then I have to buy them.

Posted Fri Feb24, 2006, 11:40 PM — By Kirk

Yes, yes, I second the motion for Ayre to bring to market a more powerful integrated amp--one with pre-amp outs and pwr-amp section inputs.

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