Integrated Amps - Ayre vs Pass Labs

Gibalok, make sure you get a demo of the Ayre gear with your Neat speakers, Ayre gear tends to be very low coloration , and your Neat speakers use a Titantium tweeter which can be a bit peaky so you may prefer a warmer more colored type of presentation.

The Ayre gear is often paired with Vandys which tend to be a bit on the more recessed side of neutral which makes that pairing excellent add in AQ cabling which tends to highlight the top end and you can see why that pairing works so well.

Blokemate you should start with the speakers first and then look at electronics. 

The Pass gear tends to be warm the Ayre tends to be more netural you should demo all of the usual contenders.

We have a few clients who purchased T+A over the Pass gear similar tonality but overall even faster and cleaner. 

If I was looking for electronics I would add T+A, Gryphon, Vitus, and now Krell is comming back as well to your list. Also the Anthen STR amp and preamp dac is stupidly good for $10k. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor dealers for T+A, Anthem and incoming Krell

4425 we got the Krell K300i about two weeks ago, and it is pretty amazing sounding.  

The dac in it is surprising for a $1k dac board with MQA and Roon capability. Obviously the amp sounds even better with a more expensive dac we just got in the brand new Lumin T2 and that combo sounds fantastic. 

The new Krell XD products are much more organic sounding than any past Krell product, they sound almost like a tube amplifier, clarity is great, sound staging is great, slam is very good not as much impact as the old Krell products. 

The funny thing we have a client with an original KAV 300i and it must be close to 20+ years old and it is still working perfectly.

This will be a fascinating comparison vs the Pass stuff, the Krell is providing 150 watt Class A power for $7k with the Pass INT 60 being 60 watts for $9k.  

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ 

Nice plug Audioconnection, sure the Quattros are great, so are about a million other high end loudspeakers.

We really like the Legacy Signatures they are half the price of the Quattros at $7k,go down to 22hz in the bass and are 93db efficient, no they don’t have adjustable sub woofers but they do have tuning switches in the back, tonally Legacy is very similar to Vandersteen. warm rich and laid back in the treble.

We are not Neat dealers but have heard them for years they are very nice loudspeakers with tremendous bass punch in the models with transmission line loading.

Ayre goes well with most loudspeakers that are warmer, the Ayre stuff tends to be very low in coloration, the OP should be happy depending on cabling, and system setup.

Dave and Trou
Audio Doctor NJ

Jafant, did our first shoot out vs the Naim Uniti Nova, fascinating demo.

Both were awesome, however the demo wasn't equil, we had the Nova plugged into an Audio Magic Oracle with a Combaix Power Cord with Isoacoustics footers vs the Krell K300i on a Isotek Sigmas, with an Audioquest power cord and no footers, so it wasn't an apple to apples comparison.

However, the Krell has a more depth to the soundstage, seemed a bit clearer, the Naim sounded Naim like puncher and more dramatic in its phrasing with a bit more midrange bloom, overall felt like the Krell was even better.

The tale of the tape, Krell 150 watts  vs Naim 80 watts
                                 Krell Balanced ins  Naim None
                                 Krell MQA               Naim None
                                 Krell display ok       Naim 2.5 inch LCD
                                 Krell none               Naim Headphone amp
                                 Krell Aptx                Naim Aptx
                                 Krell None              Naim airplay
                                 Krell None              Naim Chromecast
                                 Krell app ok            Naim app better
                                 Soundstaging more depth Krell
                                 Bass control   tie
                                 Clarity a little better with the Krell
                                 Krell HDMI in and out  Naim only in
                                 Krell 3 rca in                Naim 2 rca
                                 Krell coax and opt       Naim 3coax 2 opt
                                 
Summation two early to tell, both of these integrated amplifiers are awesome in terms of both features and sound quality.

The MQA decoding, plus the extra power and clarity makes the Krell very compelling, If you use Roon as your control interface then the quality of either the Naim or Mconnect app is moot. If you choose via jus the app the Naim app is much better. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Krell and Naim dealers