Musical fidelity Nu Vista M3 vs Ayre AX-7e


Dear AGon fellows,

I am going to upgrade my MF M1 DAC/V-Link to Ayre QB-9 24/96 soon. I am currently having Nuvista M3 connected to M1 DAC via unblanced RCAs. As I heard Ayre QB-9 will perform the best only if unblanced XLR is used. So I am not considering let my M3 and get a matching AX-7e. My question is, is it definitely worth doing, please share some of your advices on Ayre vs MF integrated. I know the power handling are totally different, but considering all the factores, which set up can give me the best SQ for classical/jazz music.

Many thanks!
dancingking

Showing 1 response by grimace

I had an M3 and found it to be a little dry into Spendor S8e speakers, and didn't provide nearly the bass it should have given its power. I also didn't think it had especially good resolution, although I understand it improves with a dedicated 20amp line. Of course it just might not have been a good match with my speakers. The guy I sold it to was running it into B&W 802s and he loved it.

For jazz and classical I definitely prefer tubes, but if you're looking for a solid state amp with some tubey qualities look up Wells Audio. The Akasha is a great sounding amp for a pretty reasonable price. I had one in my system for a few weeks as a review sample for StereoTimes and was very impressed.