Ayon Spirit III and Klipsch Cornwalls experience?


Hello,
First off, I am relatively new to tubes and I am not an audiophile, not even close. I just know what I like and what sounds good to me. I bought my first tube amp last year (Rogue Cronus Magnum) for my seasonal place in Michigan. I felt an integrated amp rather than separates makes more sense economically, especially for the amount of time I am able to spend there. I do however, want to get the best sound for my dollar. My first experience listening to the Cronus was disappointing but and after a call to Rogue and a Telefunken preamp center 12AU7 roll and 2 RCA clear tops for the two remaining AU's, it made a huge difference. Although greatly improved, at times I am still noticing some smearing or compression during complicated passages, most noticeably in the lower to mid end. I have been running a NAD cd player (just bought a Rega Apollo) and my speakers are Cornwall II's with freshened caps and tweets. I love the horn sound. I don't want to go through the hassles/expense of rolling any more tubes (trying to fix the amp) so I plan on dumping the Rogue and moving up to a higher end, pure class A, integrated tube amp. Along with a few others, I have been looking at the Ayon Spirit III. I really like this amp, and it looks so cool! So far, I have only read up on the Spirit III and have not had the chance to give it a listen. I have read several positive reviews - all quite complimentary. I have also spoken to a few people (dealers only) and everyone says it is a great amp for the money. As for as negatives, I have read where the Spirit may be lacking in the bass department, especially in the triode mode. Can anyone comment on this? From my experience and coming from a solid state background, I think I understand this issue but I am still unclear. Listening to my Cronus Magnum - there seems to be a definite lack of low end punch at times, and other times it sounds quite good. Overall, at times, something seems to be lacking during complicated passages as the lower end sound tends to muddle together. There does appear to be a difference from what I remember hearing from my Bryston 4B and I also realize all sound is extremely subjective to each individual listener. Can I make this go away with a better integrated tube amp within my budget? Has anyone had have any experience with the Ayon Spirit III? How does it sound with regards to the bass? Anyone out there running an integrated amp with horns want to chime in? My current budget is 4 grand or less and I will definitely grab something on the used market. My music leans toward Zep, Plant, Plant/Page, 70's classic rock, CSN&Y, and new stuff too, Diana Krall, Lori McKenna, Texas Americana, or most anything in that vein, singer/songwriter stuff well recorded. Thanks
txguy50
Thanks for the follow-up! Looks like you have been at this for awhile, and I checked out your system, nice. If I choose the Spirit I will be better informed. I did hear some flaws in my system switching to tubes, especially in stuff recorded I thought sounded pretty good on my solid state stuff became really flat. Have you ever heard the Triton?
Ayon gear it is hard to beat in many ways including aesthetics and 3D sound, I own the Ayon Triton and certainly never had any thoughts on upgrades or so on, matched with acoustic zen crescendos,
Best match I ever have.
Regards
Mountainsong,
I too have AZ Crescendos and was thinking about Ayon Spirit III. Do you think I need more tube Watts than 50 to be happy? I am currently running Wired 4 Sound Class D SX-1000, which have tons of power. Have always read the Crescendos are great tube speakers. Any thoughts? Do you have Triton II or III. New Triton III is out of my price range.
Mountainsong your comment ''Ayon gear it is hard to beat in many ways including aesthetics and 3D sound''

Everything is subjective of course. I owned a nice Ayon Orion integrated for about a year. Identical family styling genes to the Spirit of course. I liked the design myself. But almost everyone ''non-audiophile'' who ever saw it thought it was pretty ugly. One of my close friends actually called it ''a mini nuclear plant'' ! It IS pretty dominating in a room and does look very industrial and should I say - masculine- in ways as to not be of a very high WAF factor.

I sold the Orion in favor of another integrated, and not because of the looks, but for sonic preferences - but that's another topic of course.

Still, the Ayon is a very nice machine.
Is the Rogue your first tube gear? You make no mention of bright sounding so I'm miffed as to why Learsfool mentioned that. I've also never heard of Rogue being referred to as bright.