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Ayre AX7e vs Hegel H160

Buying a small system for my daughter and son-in-law's house warming gift.  The both use Pono's which can be used in balanced mode with amps that have a balanced input.  The best integrateds I can find with a balanced input  in my price range are the above mentioned ones.  No tube amp recommendations-- too fussy for these folks.

Speakers are Dynaudio Focus 160's.  Room is 12 x 15 and they listen mostly to acoustic Americana music at moderate volumes. Both are well reviewed -- the Ayre particularly so.

Is the Ayre at 60 watts/8 ohms and 120 / 4 ohms  enough to drive the relative inefficient speakers? The Hegel at 150 watts is clearly more powerful but I am worried about the DAC becoming out of date. The Ayre is slightly cheaper but with a couple hundred of the Hegel. 

Help me decide please.  I need to pull the trigger tomorrow.
teeshot

Showing 1 response by audiotroy

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,603 posts
 
Personally we think you can do better for not that much more money.

Look at the Micromega M100 which offers similar connectivity to the Hegel with an even wider feature set.

The Micromega has a better dac that supports all high res files, has a built in phono stage, offers room correction option, warm in tonality, Airplay.

The M100 is a class A/B amplifier and offers a very engaging sound that is very musical in a stunning form factor.,

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
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