Integrated amp: Component weight

@blisshifi  Thanks for the recommendations, but probably not a good fit.  I liked Cambridge gear when I was much younger, but this time around, I'm looking at a different level of sound quality, more along the lines of ARC, Ayre, Pass Labs.  The Edge, as good as it is at its price point, is probably not a good fit.

As for Margules, I'm hesitant.  Some years ago I bought a Margules turntable, and found the fit & finish to be so amateurish that I immediately returned it.  So I'm a bit gunshy about buying Margules gear mail-order sight-unseen at this point.

If you have other ideas for products you sell & have personal experience with, send me a private message.  Thanks.

@cundare2,

If you purchase the Ayre EX-2.0 Integrated amp, would you purchase the amp only or include it with the Digital Base (S/PDIF, AES/EBU) with USB port and with the Ethernet port?

To be honest, based on the amps recommended on this forum tread, I believe the Ayre EX-8 2.0 amp is your best choice and the amp only weighs 24 pounds.

I just sold 20K of Pass Labs ...250.8 amp which weighs 100 pounds, and an XP 22 ..2 piece preamp.

I bought a Coda Csib V1 which is suggested above multiple times.

My big Harbeth's have never sounded better. The synergy between Coda and Harbeth is absolutely amazing.

It weighs 55 pounds, but its very easy to move around.

The Coda Csib V1 should be on your short list. I have the V1- 150 watts in 8 ohms-doubles in 4-and doubles again in 2 ohms. Absolutely amazing Integrated amp.

@cundare2 Sorry, I just meant the Margules ACRH-4 only uses single ended inputs and outputs. It’s Class A/B push pull with a tube hybrid buffer stage.

I understand your concern regarding quality control and discussed this with the Margules team and the US distributor a lot this year. They have since made some really good improvements in the gear and the last shipment of product I received was on a much greater level of fit and finish than before. Let’s say I had my moments of frustration in the past.

Cambridge has a stigma of being mid-fi, but they really did something special with the EDGE line of electronics. I still stand by it, that it performs even beyond its already higher than typical pricing for them, but delivering beyond compared to the competition at the same price. I’d pick the EDGE A over the Ayre EX-8, for instance. I think the EDGE would sound more musical and engaging while still retaining the razor sharp incisive holography that Ayre typically brings  

I’m not trying to sell you on the EDGE, but rather just give it the respect it deserves when many others dismiss it because it’s associated with Cambridge’s mid-fi track record.

 @hgeifman

>If you purchase the Ayre EX-2.0 Integrated amp, would you purchase the amp only or include it with the Digital Base (S/PDIF, AES/EBU) with USB port and with the Ethernet port?

Yes, I'd go for the full package.  The EX-8's DAC is the only internal DAC on the market (at least in this price range) that I would consider buying instead of a separate.  Two trusted friends who've heard it, both of whom, would normally never consider an embedded DAC both gave it surprisingly high praise.