Classe vs Moon audio vs Ayre vs Pass


These all seem to be highly regarded amps. Does anyone have an opinion about the strengths and weaknesses of these amps and your reasons for choosing one of them if you decided to buy one.
Thanks
ecka

Showing 1 response by mniquet

I own a Classé CA-2100 feeding a pair of Oskar Kithara (4 ohms with Heil tweeters). When I bought it in 2006, the other amp in the room to compare with was the Ayre v5xe which costs 1000$ more (at the time). I found that the Ayre was an easy listening unit but did not feel anything special about it. Overall it sounded good but no single voices or instruments were ever coming through the bulk. I remember that it showed confusion on some heavy orchestral music like Beethoven 10th.

On that same music, the Classé resolution was clearly superior. The sound was a touch more forward but I found the focus on solo parts very interesting. Also noticable, from one CD to the next, it was like replacing the whole sound system. That amp is neutral.