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

Having owned the 31SE for 2 years, and heard the Calypso many times in my system and the system of its owner, and both compared directly to the Callisto Signature which I now own, the 31SE is a mighty fine product. If you want to stay in the $3000-3500 range, you need to hear the 31SE vs. the Calypso for yourself. Going by anyone's else's opinion on what is "best" is likely to leave you wondering forever if you did the "right" thing.

Compared to the Calypso, the 31SE's strengths are its portrayal of space and decays. Compared to the 31SE, the Calypso's strengths are its low-level resolution and coverage in the trebles. Both do a good job in the coverage of the frequencies. The Callisto Signature significantly destroys both of these to convey all of these strengths in a "great" way, not simply "good".

I have wanted to know how the 51SE and many others have stacked up to the Callisto Sig, but the only thing that will likely me let this magical piece go is to find a full-function preamp to make life easier than the multiple chassis Io/Callisto combination.

John

Frank: The cost to upgrade a VK30SE to a VK31SE was $1300 when I did it three years ago. The cost from VK50SE to VK51SE was a few hundred $$ more than this. The 30SE was so very muted in the trebles; this was significantly refined with the 31SE. I suspect a similar improvement was made with the transition to the 51SE. My gut feeling is that the 31SE would be the more tonally coherent product compared to the 50SE. They are both in the same price range on the used market so take your pick.

24phun: The CAT sound has "synergy"? Synergy to what?

I have a lot of experience with the CAT Ultimate II vs. the Aesthetix Callisto Signature in my own system. A CAT dealer loaned me the Ultimate three months ago and I have done much listening with both the CAT JL-3 amps and the Wolcott mono amps driving SoundLab A1s.

The CAT products are not about synergy - they are about phenomenol low-level resolution, excellent coverage at the frequency extremes and dynamic contrasts like few if any other product lines can match. One must decide if these strengths are a priority or to go with another product that perhaps has a greater presence of harmonic textures, ambience, decays, portrayal of space, etc.

My own experience has consistently been that the preamp can make or break the performance of the system far more than the amp. I would find a preamp that put a smile on my face like no other, then nail down a speaker that worked well within my room and budget, AND THEN find an amp capable to drive the speaker and provide the balance in many sonic attributes with the rest of my system. Buying a preamp to match my amp seems bass ackwards here.

John