Can't decide on Integrated Amp - Please Help

I made the decision to go fully balanced. I am even looking into going balance for my turntable/phono pre. It has made the world of difference. Just get a balanced DAC and you're all set. When you play in this range, going balanced is pretty easy. The Ayre to me just blew away all the others and I often will bring my integrated with me to shops and listen straight up. Even the sales people are blown away by the Ayre. Any shop I've gone into who sells Ayre along with others ALWAYS has demoed with the Ayre gear if I didn't ask. If you ask the workers, they all say the Ayre is what they have or want. I find that telling myself.

An Ayre AX7e mated to a Monitor Audio RX6 with wood flooring "might" make earplugs a necessity. IMO the RX6 needs a "calmer" form of amplification if natural timbre/texture is valued over hi-fi gymnastics.

Dayglow....I have no idea what you are talking about in regards to the Ayre....There is no way it's a bright amp. Please reread all the posts by those of us who have the amps from Ayre and you will notice similar words like nearly tube like...It's very detailed in a warm way...It's the opposite of bright. The problem with Monitor speakers from everything I've ever heard is that they are very bright. They aren't my cup of tea, but some people like that in their sound. To me Wilsons are also tipped up in the high end and When I've heard them with the Ayre amps they've sounded their best.

Dayglow, have you owned an AX7e? If so, what have you played it with? There is NO WAY that the Ayre are 'hi fi gymnastics'...they are the natural Timber/texture that you mention.....I'll take everyone else comments over what you have shared. I"m sure you've never own the Ayre and probably haven't even heard it based on your comments. I've shared on a few threads that I have brought my Ayre to other dealers to audition speakers as I was keeping my Ayre and wanted new speakers....even the dealers said they were shocked as what the Ayre did. One actually called Ayre to see if they could become a dealer....Glowing endorsement to say the least I'd say.

No I have never owned an Ayre product. I had a lengthy demo with the K-1/V-1 at Stereo City(Grand Blanc MI)about a dozen years ago. The source was a Sony XA-7ES with Thiel 2.3 and the Wilson Cub 2, can't recall the cables(lol). The sound with both speakers was thin, hyper and steely sounding on strings(violin/guitar). Many variables here... was the gear broke in, cable/speaker synergy, acoustics? Who knows but this demo left a poor impression regarding Ayre considering the cost. Several years later at Audio Dimensions(Royal Oak MI) I had a short demo with the AX7/CX7(not the Evolution) with MAG 1.6 speakers/Kimber Kable and this set up was better but an overall thin/dry sound still prevailed. Since most of us agree the Monitor RX6 is bright/thin, and with the addition of wood floors leads me to believe Ayre/Monitor Audio RX6 would not be a good match.

Well, Theil and Maggies can sound that way regardless of what you run them with. Set up is key. I don't know what older Ayre stuff sounded like, but the AX7 is a great match for a speaker like that. Plenty detailed, but honest in it's presentation. It's a mellow amp if you would. It's not even close to what you assert. I've heard the Ayre on so many speakers and it so many different systems and the one constant is that it's helped all of them and even store owners have noticed the same thing, even if they weren't selling it. The AX5 is probably the best integrated I've ever heard and fits into any system and makes it better. I'm saving up for that one. The problem with the net is that folks make assumptions and in your first post you stated your feelings as fact if you would and that's skews things for the original poster and the rest of who read and don't listen. I'm not flaming you, just pointing out that unless you actually hear products together and especially the newest stuff (that we are talking about in the thread) maybe it's best not to say that you may need earplugs to listen to it. Thats not fair to the Ayre folks. I"m not a shill, just a satisfied customer....I listened to the Hegel gear, Ayre gear, Sim gear and all the rest before settling on Ayre....There are major differences in all of them and that's why there are so many products out there. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Ayre before, I guess that's why your comments really threw me for a loop. Hope this isn't harsh as that's not how I intend it to be.