D'Agostino vs. Ayre

I would not considered Vandies dark.  The Treo CT is in my opinion mostly neutral with a touch of warmth..smooth.  With that said, the Ayre, just makes my Vandy Treo CT sing  :).  It just makes it sound musical and natural.  I can listen to the combo for hours at a time. The AX5/20 gives me a feeling that I'm listening to a tube amp but they are not.  Each note is separated and can be heard clearly. The bass is clean, tight and solid.  Lastly, the soundstage and imaging is one of the best I've heard, in this price range.    

Four More Weeks til I get my D'Agostino S-250. In the mean time, I just heard the best stereo experience of my lifetime. PS Audio Perfectwave transport sending bits to a Berkeley Alpha Reference 2 DAC. The Berkeley is driving directly a pair of Ayre MX- R Twenties. Speakers are Wilson Alexia's. Orchid, Audioquest, and Synergistic cables. Wow. Two stand outs here. Berkeley DAC. Might be the best on the planet. Wilson speakers. Expensive. Ya. Bang for the buck. Yeah. 

Im an Arye fan in fact I have the QX 5 Twenty and love it but please don't take me wrong, I kind of chuckle when I read the Arye AX 5 Integrated is so great and competes with most separates, The AX 5 Twenty cant compete with the MX R or R Twenty series of separates and yes I have heard them both" let alone most separates, yes its good but its not separates or ref gear.

Sorry guys for going off topic. @tecknik, I’m not sure if you were referring to my comments but I did say most separates (asumming also that we are talking about components in the same price range). Btw, I would not include the higher in the line Ayre reference R series separates in my comments. The MX-R series are indeed better sounding, especially if you pair its with the KX-R/20 pre-amp (this combo is almost triple the price). I'm talking in the $12-13k range. 

Imgoodwithtools I had a similar revelation a while ago that caused me to sell almost all of my existing equipment and convert to "the dark side" as some might feel.

I now use a Synology DS1815+ NAS (32TB) fronting a dCS Vivaldi 2.0 Upsampler, Clock, and DAC which drives my S-250 directly all through Transparent XL Gen V to the YG Sonja 1.2s and I've never looked back. Big fan of Roon and Tidal also. 

The Berkeley Alpha Ref is an amazing unit and certainly one of the best values. I really appreciate MSB's DACs as well.

As before I look forward to your comparisons. You might prefer the MX-Rs on your Alexias but the D'agostino worked magic with my YGs. I wish I had never listened to that Boulder 2160 however🔊🎶