Ayre MR-X monoblocks - how good are they??

I've heard the MX and KX-R combination at a very good retail location but I don't think I listened to any "crap modern recordings". Still, I simply can't give a meaningful impression of any gear until I can put into the context of my own system and room. I would highly recommend going through the difficulties it would take to do a home audition though.

Since their introduction I refused to be impressed by Avalon speaker systems because in a casual retail store comparisons they seemed to lack many of the qualities I was striving for. Five years ago I purchased a pair of Eidolons to resell but after a few weeks of listening to them at home I realized they possessed every quality I had been searching for, and then some, all these years.

The point is, I don't even trust my own ears in a store and I would certainly take any conclusion made by strangers on the internet as a simple suggestion and nothing more. There are three people in my audio world whose assessments of sound I trust. One is a musician, another is a sound engineer in the film industry. The other, who I've never meet, started a speaker company in Colorado but now produces audio electronics. I'm obviously very biased.

Your room, your music, your decision.

Vicdamone,

I could not agree more with you about auditioning the component in your environment. It beats the heck out of me how anyone can come to any conclusions in a store environment. In a store audition, what are you listening to...the electronics, the speakers, or the room ?

Pinkus , It's really quite simple....

Usually what I do is bring along recorded music that I enjoy the most and music that I am most familiar with.

Knowing what this recorded music sounds like in my home, I use my memory of it as a bench mark.

Currently I am shopping for a new pair of speakers, so far in the past three weeks I have listened to nine contenders, most at the top end of my budget.

Two of the nine pairs that I have listened to will be crated up and delivered to my home for further listening.

The pair of speakers I mentioned above is one of them, and they sell for less then half of what my budget is.

This could very well be a classic case of ,you get what you pay for , but not always.

As for the Ayre equipment in that system,I give it high marks for musicality.

Well Downunder,my friend is having his "superb" Art II pre updated to the latest series,which is SO costly due to the use of expensive teflon caps....
He has a good friend who had it done,and was very happy.I am very familiar with my friend's set-up so I will know if the mod is an improvement...

Yet,yes the ART II is a stunning pre,for sure!!Love it!!

Best.

I've now lived with the MX-Rs for just about 18 months. I will tell you that they are superb, even driving my very difficult SoundLabs. I've never had even the remote notion of parting with them.

As for the "nice to poor recordings" bit, it is true - to a degree. Nothing will make certain massively compressed, heavily equalized recordings sound either listenable or enjoyable. However, by means that are not obvious to me, they WILL make a number of previously intolerable recordings listenable. Shining examples are most of the Deutsche Grammophon recordings from the late 70s and early 80s. Yes, the orchestras are more than noticeably multi-miked, but the nails-on-the-chalkboard characteristics that I've always hated about these particular recordings are largely absent. In other words, some of those excellent performances are now accessible, whereas previously I simply could not stand to listen to them.

The MX-Rs are only the second solid state amp that I've owned during the past 20 years (the others being the Parasound JC-1s). I fully understand the appeal of good tube designs. On balance, the strengths of the MX-Rs are so glaringly obvious, and their weaknesses relative to any tube amp that I've yet heard have been so minimized, that I simply have no reason to look elsewhere.