The Ayre is going to be brighter. Ayre overall is slightly forward of neutral. Great circuit. Wonderful imaging. Completely silent. A cliche I suppose but Ayre has "blacker blacks" than anybody. The volume control on this unit is very good.
I have not heard that specific Simaudio unit. Overall, Simaudio's house sound is a hair more neutral than Ayre. More than competent. Good imaging. Lots of detail. I find Simaudio's sound boring in the sense that nothing stands out in any way. That is probably the worst way to compliment a product I can think of, but you get my point.
The rest is probably not what you are going to want to hear...
Both are going to offer tighter bass and crisper sound at the expense of imaging and staging. IMO...Neither is a step forward. In fact, I would argue both are a small step backward in the sense that what you gain in precision will not offset what you lose in imaging. If fairness, I am an imaging junky so.... They will both offer much lower maintenance.
I feel like both the Ayre and the Simaudio are at the high end of very, very, good while your ARC is at the low end of truly great. My expectation is that you will be just a hair disappointed with both compared to your ARC.
I have not heard that specific Simaudio unit. Overall, Simaudio's house sound is a hair more neutral than Ayre. More than competent. Good imaging. Lots of detail. I find Simaudio's sound boring in the sense that nothing stands out in any way. That is probably the worst way to compliment a product I can think of, but you get my point.
The rest is probably not what you are going to want to hear...
Both are going to offer tighter bass and crisper sound at the expense of imaging and staging. IMO...Neither is a step forward. In fact, I would argue both are a small step backward in the sense that what you gain in precision will not offset what you lose in imaging. If fairness, I am an imaging junky so.... They will both offer much lower maintenance.
I feel like both the Ayre and the Simaudio are at the high end of very, very, good while your ARC is at the low end of truly great. My expectation is that you will be just a hair disappointed with both compared to your ARC.