Ayre V-5xe best tube pre-amp to match with?

Larryi, yes you are right. The next upgrade will be either a bigger Ayre pre-amp (hopefully Charles will design a more appealing (to the eye) successor to his sonically very good but designwise very poor K-1xe or I will upgrade to the forthcoming Boulder Series 800 integrated and get rid of my Ayre Series 5 pre-power combo.

Frankpiet,

I've heard the top-of-the-line Boulder linestage and phono stage in a system with other components which I have some familiarity. The system sounded very smooth, pure and sweet, but it also seemed to lack the dynamics and liveliness that are the hallmarks of the rest of the components. Because systems are tricky to evaluate, I cannot say that this is an inherent characteristic of the Boulder components. I am just bringing this up for you to consider when evaluating the Boulder integrated.

By the way, the flexibility, controllability and ease of use with the Boulder gear was up there at the very top (similar to Levinson, BAT and the VTL 7.5).

Larryi: a friend of mine owns a Boulder 2008, 2010, 2020, 2050 set-up connected with TaraLabs Zero and Omega cords to a pair of Acapella Sphäron Excalibur speakers, cd-drive is Barclay X-1, turntable is Micro Seiki SX 8000 MK II - never ever heard music reproduction like this. Better than life like - o.k. the set-up is worth € 550.000,- but o.k. If the 865 integrated is at least able to reach 75% of the top-components - I´m very very happy.

I have had problems with four different pieces of Audio Research gear, so after 10 years of struggling with it, I changed to the Ayre-K1xe and I absolutely love it. to me the Ayre K-1xe sounds better than the ARC Ref II MkII preamp I traded in. And I am relieved to be rid of trouble. Try to listen to an Ayre K-1xe with your system. I think you will be glad you did. Tube woes can drive one nuts!

Frankpiet: I too am looking for a tube preamp to match the v-5xe and am looking to spend no more than $3K used. I have narrowed it down to 3: CJ LS 17 mark 2; Aesthetix calypso; and Hovland HP 100. I know that good results have been had with the Aesthetix and Hovland but has anyone mated the V-5xe with the CJ?