I have been making a point for the last 2 years when traveling to different conferences across the country, to find local audio dealers and stop in for a listen to equipment I might be interested in. I tell them up front I am from out of town, but when stopping in during the weekday, most places are empty and they welcome my listening.
I am usually very disappointed in their best systems, not having much of a sound-stage and presence, and realism like I have at home. They often dont carry bigger top end amps and few have maggies, let alone 20 series, so its difficult to tell.
I finally had a trip where the store, Audio Perfection in Minneaplolis, actually carried the brands & most of the high end demo units and had decent setup - Mangnepan, Wilson, Vandersteen, Martin Logan, Ayre, Audio Research, McIntosh, Bryston, Esoteric. They had biggest Wilsons, Vandy 5, Sonus Farbers.
Anyway, I have 20.1s and have been wanting to hear reference monos with them.
I started with Ayre MX-R monos, new Ayre KX-R Pre, Ayre C5-XE. WOW WOW & WOW !!! We listened to this for 1.5 hrs with a lot of bright aggressive trumpet music (small group and bigband), and for the first time in high end audio listening, I did not notice any fatigue. The soundstage was very deep and wide, realistic and the trumpets had real punch. This was way above the best realistic sound I have heard from 20s.
QUESTION: The Ayres ran the big Maggies effortlessly and I worked them hard. The preamp only would go up to 60, and we often listened at a loud, but not uncomfortable level which was at 56-58 on pre-amp. When listening to SACD, (C5xe -which is known to have a lower signal output in this format), we listened at 60. NEVER any distortion, fatigue. Could this be good for the amp in the long run ??
So in order to see if some monos with more juice would support the 20.1s better, we tried McIntosh 501s with the rest of the setup the same. Albeit they are around $10,000 new, but they could not hold there own. The soundstage depth shriveled, and the music became lifeless in comparison. The trumpets lacked punch and the realism was gone. My partner, a physician-musician, who is not into high end, looked at me after 20 secs and said what I was thinking - these are not even in same league as Ayres, not close.
So then we tried Audio Research Reference 210 Monos. While the MX-Rs where very tube like, the 210s clearly had that tube warmth and drove the 20.1s nicely, though we still had the pre-amp running around 54-58.
The Ayre was like being in first 3 rows of a live jazz event, easily picking up the location and power of each instrument, while the ARs where more like being in row 50, everything was a little more blended in comparison. Both were realistic beyond what I have heard before and not fatiguing. The AR actually made me realize the Ayre bass, though pitch and timbre perfect, was slightly light in presence in comparison. This would be the only flaw in MX-Rs.
In my dreams, I have been thinking of my next quest, actively biamped with 2 sets MX-Rs !! Audio Perfection was out of the Bryston crossover they sometimes have in stock. Maybe next time.