Ayre owners and preamp options: seeking advice

The Twenty is the only choice.

I've never been a fan of modded electronics.  You will lose your a$$ on resale and more than likely be stuck with something that doesn't sound any better than what you started with.

Spend the money or stay with what you have until you can afford a proper upgrade.

With that said, I have heard Ayre amps with a VTL front end and it was fantastic.  What do you want to improve? 

Good advice,hk_fan.  Thanks for the suggestion of VTL.  Looking for a little more everything but resolution, separation, and pristine extended upper frequencies to flesh out lightly brushed cymbals etc. to name a few.  I do not want a wholesale change in sound.

When the engineers at Ayre mod the device and come out with a new model... then buy it.

Otherwise, you can always try a new setup.  The amplification chain is not going to improve at the same rate as a DAC.

if you just have a burning desire to tweek, then moving speakers around and room tmts can keep you busy for a looooong time.

I agree with Randy-11 et al.   All my elecronics are Ayre...they all work well together, are ultra reliable, backed by Ayre's great service department and sound great......what more could you want...

...what more could you want...

More Ayre, of course!
 Done with room and system tweaks. The suggestion to look at new DACs is reasonable too. But I'd want something with an upgrade path. 

I agree with Randy and Stringreen. Ayre will do it right, should you want to upgrade. 
Regarding upgrading your DAC, why not get a Codex? It must be the best buy of the decade.
The only other comparably priced DAC is the Schiit Gungnir of Yggy, both are upgradable.
Bob

Ayre announced a new DAC at Munich - it has a 100W amp built in

may not be an upgrade for you

and here is something on a dealer's page:
http://ciamara.com/new-ayre-8-series-components-coming-fall/

I haven't seen anything on the 5 series

Now that new 8 series looks interesting.  I will also look at the codex specs again.  It has received a lot of positive reviews.  My current dac receives a USB input from my Mac Pro as well as an optical input from an older meridian CD player which I use as a transport.  I should try a newer dac  and see where that brings me.  If not a big change then I will very likely just get a new Ayre pre.  I really do love the Ayre stuff.  It's built well,  reliable and musical.  I'll probably die before it does.  thank you all for the helpful suggestions!

I am using a VAC Renaissance Mk3 pre with phono in front of my Ayre VX-5 Twenty with excellent results.

if your DAC is several years old, I'd definitely try another one - that technology is rapidly evolving

the Ayre integrated is 80 W/ch into 8 ohms

Ayrelock analog linear power supply

Double-Diamond amp circuit

"unexpected price" is TBD

Randy-11:  Agreed.  First thing on my list.

 Drrsutliff: if you are using a mc cartridge with yours, what is its output?  Can you hear tube rush at medium loud listening levels?

jc4659, I use an Ayre C-5xeMP - K-5exMP - VX-5 Twenty balanced link in one of my setups.  When asked about inserting a balanced Bryston high-pass crossover between the preamp and amp, Charles Hansen responded in strong terms not to do it.  I can only imagine what his response might be to the notion of modding the preamp.  OTOH, he did approve of taking the single-ended outputs from the preamp to a low-pass crossover that drives the subs.

I too want to update the K-5xeMP to a KX-5 Twenty, for the additional balanced inputs in my case.

db

That there is nothing out there regarding Ayre mods speaks volumes about the quality of Hansen's designs and overall satisfaction of owners of Ayre equipment.  Guess I answered one of my own questions.

"drrsutliff: if you are using a mc cartridge with yours, what is its output? Can you hear tube rush at medium loud listening levels?"

Cadenza Black - 0.3mv output with no tube rush issues.