My advice would be to save up your cash, and then send your Ayre K-1xe back to Ayre to have the phono stage boards installed. For $1,600 (I assume the price for the boards did not change with their last round of price hikes), this is a great phono stage. I upgraded from the ARC (tubed) PH-3 phono stage, and the phono boards in the Ayre are clearly much better. Much quieter, more resolution, and great frequency response throughout the entire frequency range.
FYI, I know a guy who has the Ayre phono boards and he bought a ASR Basis Exclusive phono stage, (one of the best phono stages around according to just about everyone, and one of my favorites, as my friend uses it). He told me that the ASR is better, but not a lot better. He says that for the money, the Ayre's phono boards are an incredible value.
In looking at your system, you have a pretty dang good system, and using a low price phono stage is clearly going to be the weak link in your system, IMHO. It is my opinion that having as good a phono stage as possible is one of the best upgrades you can make to your analog source. (I have been using the Ayre K-1xe (and its internal phono boards) for several years, and I have not had the urge to upgrade beyond it.)
Two things I should tell you though:
One, the good news is that by using the internal phono boards, you can eliminate the cost of the interconnect cables between the preamp and the phono preamp. (And since good cables can cost a bundle, this will help pay for the cost of the boards!)
Two, and now for the bad news, (well, probably bad news for you, but it was not for me), is that the internal phono stage of the Ayre only accepts balanced (XLR) terminations. Charles Hansen believes (and I agree with him), that running your turntable in balanced mode is the way to go. This might mean that you will need to use RCA-XLR adapters. (I did this for a couple of years, with very little sonic affect. I have since had my Vector tonearm terminated with XLRs to eliminate that additional connection.)
Those are my two cents worth anyway.
Good Luck in your search!
FYI, I know a guy who has the Ayre phono boards and he bought a ASR Basis Exclusive phono stage, (one of the best phono stages around according to just about everyone, and one of my favorites, as my friend uses it). He told me that the ASR is better, but not a lot better. He says that for the money, the Ayre's phono boards are an incredible value.
In looking at your system, you have a pretty dang good system, and using a low price phono stage is clearly going to be the weak link in your system, IMHO. It is my opinion that having as good a phono stage as possible is one of the best upgrades you can make to your analog source. (I have been using the Ayre K-1xe (and its internal phono boards) for several years, and I have not had the urge to upgrade beyond it.)
Two things I should tell you though:
One, the good news is that by using the internal phono boards, you can eliminate the cost of the interconnect cables between the preamp and the phono preamp. (And since good cables can cost a bundle, this will help pay for the cost of the boards!)
Two, and now for the bad news, (well, probably bad news for you, but it was not for me), is that the internal phono stage of the Ayre only accepts balanced (XLR) terminations. Charles Hansen believes (and I agree with him), that running your turntable in balanced mode is the way to go. This might mean that you will need to use RCA-XLR adapters. (I did this for a couple of years, with very little sonic affect. I have since had my Vector tonearm terminated with XLRs to eliminate that additional connection.)
Those are my two cents worth anyway.
Good Luck in your search!