Ayre Acoustics Debuts New VX-8 Stereo Power Amplifier

Colorado's Ayre Acoustics jammed a big system into a small room at APXONA, wall-to-wall attendees barely leaving space for Ayre's president, designer, and Chief Ayre-Head Ariel Brown to press the flesh and discuss the gear.

Ariel brought Ayre's CX-8 CD player ($5450), Aurender N30SA Reference Network Transport ($25,000), and Ayre QX-5 Twenty "digital hub" ($15,000), connected to Ayre's KX-R Twenty Reference Series line preamplifier ($40,000), into Ayre MX-R Twenty Reference Series monoblock amplifiers (300Wpc into 8 ohms, 600Wpc into 4 ohms, $48,000/pair).

Loudspeakers were provided by Seoul Korea's Seawave Acoustic, a company with an interesting story. Taken by sound quality, Seawave Acoustic's CEO Bo San, a practicing Korean Buddhist monk, initially recorded his teacher, grand master Gu-san, and circulated the teachings to his followers.

Fond of, but seeking to refine, the horn-loaded loudspeaker approach, "Seawave Acoustic has had to invent special technologies and harness the industrial might of South Korea to bring them to fruition," states the brand's website. "These innovations include our HDMT (High Damping Metal Technology) for vibration control, the elimination of harmful solder from all electrical connections through NST (Non-Soldering Technology), and our unique enclosures featuring Unicast AC4C Aluminum."

Seawave Acoustic's shapely AM45 floorstanders ($150,000/pair) were accompanied by Seawave's AM23 standmounts ($20,000/pair).

Ayre's QX-8 DAC/preamplifier/headphone amp ($6950), new VX-8 Stereo power amplifier (100Wpc into 8 ohms/170Wpc into 4 ohms, $6800), and Seawave Acoustic's Aletheia III standmounts ($16,000/pair) occupied an adjacent cabinet.

"Cables were custom Seawave Acoustics-made cables for the large system, and custom Ayre Acoustics/Cardas signature cables and Clear Beyond for the bookshelf system, that we only ran a couple times," wrote Ayre's Jake Forsyth, via email.

COMMENTS
remlab's picture

Crimps?:-) Anyway, the speakers look beautiful

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