Integrated amp suggestion for Sonus Faber Olympica 2

@deon3 ... sorry somehow I completely skipped over your post. I have always heard good things about Ayre, although never had a chance to listen to it in person. The EX8 looks to be a great piece of equipment, although it comes with additional features - DAC, Streamer, that I don't need. But you had me looking at other integrated amps from the company that were previously not on my radar. Thanks for the suggestion.

@mesch  I have a feeling that you are probably right :(
I am actually going to listen to the Osprey when I get around to visiting his place.

@arafiq you can get the Ayre EX-8 as a "plain integrated amp" also.  However, the DAC is very good and unless you have a very good DAC it is worth getting it with the amp.

While it was not my explicit goal when I bought it (I was totally open to buying a stand-alone streamer/DAC), the Ayre EX-8 has been an outstanding one-box solution (streamer, DAC, Integrated)

@arafiq Yes, The Osprey also looks interesting. 50% more power I believe. I remain interested in your take, once auditioned. I am going to look that one up again.

Hi @mesch ... so I was able to visit James’ house yesterday. It was an interesting visit. First off, James is a gracious host, he took his time to answer all my questions and let me listen to music for a fairly long time. At no time I felt pressured to make a decision. His enthusiasm, passion and knowledge about his craft is commendable.

Having said that, there were a few reasons why I thought the experience was not enough to let me reach a definitive conclusion. First, he didn’t have the Blackhawk or Osprey at his house, so we ended up listening to one of the higher end amps from the Reflection series, I think it was around $14K. As per James, other than the power and chassis, the circuit topology is the same so the sound characteristics should be fairly similar between all their amps. I don’t know, but I’m somewhat skeptical about the claim, not that I have any reason to distrust his opinion. It would have been nice if I had a chance to listen to the Avian series (and I had mentioned about it explicitly before visiting). It will be too much of a leap of faith for me to purchase the Osprey based on my impressions of a much more expensive amp.

Secondly, we used their CeLest’ speakers for the demo. I think they are very competitive within their respective price bracket ($4000) - neutral, transparent, above average resolution, and well controlled base. The big surprise was how well they projected vocals. Reminded me of my Harbeths, which is a huge compliment! However, I felt they lacked just a bit in refinement and tonality which is important for me. I wish they had more higher end speakers for the demo to allow a customer to assess the full potential of the amp. But for $4000 a pair, these speakers definitely deliver the goods. I understand that comparing them to my more expensive Olympicas is not fair.

I was expecting to be blown away based on what I’ve read on the internet, but I wasn’t. The Reflection amp was certainly better than my Cronus Magnum II; it had a bigger (width and depth) soundstage, definitely a richer and fuller sound, but IMO not enough to justify the huge gap in price. To be fair, James has offered to inform me if he gets the Osprey at his house. I might take my Cronus to his house to do a direct comparison. Until then, please feel free to take my impressions with a grain of salt :)

And lastly, the trial period is not entirely risk free. There is of course the return shipment cost, but also a 7% restocking fee. Given all this, I will hold off and continue to search for other alternatives. Of course, if I ever get to hear the Osprey in person, and compare it directly with my Cronus Magnum, I might change my mind. But for now, the search continues.