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Ayre's Mighty Mite Power Amplifiers

Posted Sat Jan 7, 2006, 3:03 PM ET — By Wes Phillips/Jon Iverson

John Atkinson was speechless. Not merely speechless, but incoherent as well as inarticulate.

"You have to go by the Ayre room," He gushed. "It was . . . it was . . . I mean . . . Ohhhhhh! You just have to go."

So we took his, um, word for it.

It was . . . it was . . . you really should have been there."

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.

Posted Tue Jun24, 2008, 2:15 AM — By wer

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Posted Wed Jun25, 2008, 12:44 AM — By Jennifer

Gary Winnick took Global Crossing public in August, 1998, at a split-adjusted $9.50 a share, and barely seven months later, it had soared to $64. Its market cap, at $47 billion, exceeded that of General Motors Corp. (GM ) Gary Winnick's secretary became a millionaire, and Winnick paid what is believed to be the highest price ever for a single-family home in the U.S., more than $60 million, for an estate in Los Angeles' Bel Air neighborhood. "Money's no fun unless you spread it around," Winnick told BusinessWeek last year.

Posted Tue Jul 1, 2008, 6:46 AM — By Jennifer

Since President Kennedy placed an embargo on Cuba in 1963, Cuban Cigars have been illegal to import. One little known fact is that JFK had one of his assistants go to Cuba and bring back a large supply of the Cubans before the embargo took effect so that he would have them for his own personal use. Swords Partly because they are the best and partly because they are forbidden, the Cubans are highly desired by cigar aficionados. The only way that one can legally bring back cigars from Cuba is if you go there on an officially licensed trip, but even then you are only allowed one hundred dollars worth. You need to know that buying, selling, and trading Cuban cigars in the United States is against the law and you can be fined over $50,000 for doing so.

Posted Mon Jul14, 2008, 5:22 AM — By hzqdby

简而言之,气体采样泵只能带小负载(即:泵抽气端阻力不能太大),但价格便宜;严格意义上的微型真空泵可以带大负载(抽气端允许大阻 力,甚至完全堵塞),但价格稍贵。二者具体区别可以详见文章《关于微型真空泵与气体采样泵的区别》,不再复述。
离心泵换热器 气体采样泵有:PM系列(具体型号如:PM950.2、PM850.5、PM8001、PM7002、PM6503);微型真空泵有: VM系列、VAA系列、PK系列、 PC系列、VCA系列、VCC系列、VCH系列、PH系列、FM系列、FAA系列、PCF系列,这些系列下的所有规格都是真正的微型真空泵,如VM7002、 VAA6005、PC3025等

Posted Mon Jul21, 2008, 6:40 AM — By Mark

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Posted Tue Aug26, 2008, 3:49 AM — By Sara

Nice Power Amplifiers. lol :) play the songs and give love messages

Posted Tue Sep 2, 2008, 7:12 AM — By IT service management

Rightstarsystems is the leading company for IT service management, providing the services of ITIL, Help Desk, BMC Software and Service Desk.

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