Ayre Acoustics Ax7e Integrated Amp in Superior Shape w/Low $1498 Reserve

THIS AUCTION IS OPEN TO BIDDERS IN THE US AND CANADA ONLY.

IF YOU DO NOT LIVE IN THE US OR CANADA DO NOT BID.

We’re Stereo Exchange, located in New York City. We've been in business since the 1970s and are a major high-end dealer. We have all the current top brands on display in our huge showroom.

This sale is for an AYRE AX7e that is used and looks fantastic. If there are any blemishes on it I can't find them!

We have the owner's manual and remote to go with it.

How do we know it's an Ax7e, not an Ax7 even though it does not say "e" anywhere on it?

On the front logo, underneath, it says EVOLUTION. That means it is an Ax7e.

Integrated amplifiers are all about value. While individual preamps and amps give the ultimate performance, especially in the $10,000 and up price range, there is simply no way to deny the better bang-for-the-buck of an integrated amplifier at somewhat lower price points, like this.

You pay for one chassis, one faceplate, one power switch, shipping carton, etc. Typically a $4000 integrated amp gives similar performance to a $2500 preamp and a $3000 amp. That’s partly because preamps are MOSTLY chassis and power supply, both of which already exist in a power amp.

Since a power amp might have, say, an 800 Watt power supply, the 10 Watts the preamp section will draw will certainly not strain the supply!

This integrated has a precision of manufacture, quality of connectors, and metalwork that very few $5000 separates have. The way the chassis parts line up is your first clue to the craftsmanship. The internal construction is first-rate, and the overall presentation is very high-class.

The RCA input jacks are top-flight and the speaker terminals are fantastic, gripping down on spade lugs for a great connection and, therefore, better bass.

The AX-7e combines a medium-power amplifier (60 Watts per channel into 8-Ohms, 120 Watts per channel into 4-Ohm loads) with a GREAT preamp in one compact chassis (just over 13 inches deep).

It unites much of the smoothness of tubes with rock-solid reliability that AYRE products are known for.

When used with all but the most power hungry speakers speakers, it will reward the listener with a highly detailed yet extremely smooth and dynamic sound at all volumes.

The ability to hear great dynamics at low-to-moderate volumes is a trademark AYRE characteristic, and may be due to the amp’s non-use of negative feedback in their amplifier design. Whatever the reason, it’s easy to hear!

TOTALLY BALANCED CIRCUITS: This is one of the few integrated amps under $10K to take 100% advantage of BALANCED or DIFFERENTIAL circuits. To fully understand this, you will need to fully understand how Balanced (differential) cables and circuits work.

FACT #1: If you have two sound waves (they can be either music OR noise waves) and they are the same in amplitude (level) frequency (pitch) and phase (identical start and stop times) and you ADD them together, you get one bigger wave of the same shape. (like 4.1 + 4.1 = 8.2).

FACT#2: If you have two sound waves (they can be either music OR noise waves) and they are the same in amplitude and frequency but one goes the OPPOSITE direction (one goes up while the other goes down…this is called anti-phase or out-of-phase) and you ADD or COMBINE them, they CANCEL. You get nothing (like 4.1 + -4.1 = ZERO).

Regular cables have one signal wire, with an outer SHIELD around it. This shield, which is grounded, acts like an electrical umbrella to keep noise out of the inner wire; otherwise noise from other electrical sources would get into the music and contaminate it.

The better the shield, the lower the noise. The problem is this; the ideal shield would be solid copper pipe about an eighth-inch in thickness of its walls, completely encasing the inner wire. Great idea, but it does not bend! That would make installations a little tough, wouldn’t it?

So cables use a BRAID of wire that flexes, as a shield, which has tiny holes in it (especially when bent). Because the shielding can be very, very good but NEVER PERFECT because of the holes, professional studios never use these “unbalanced” cables with RCA plugs on their ends. The fact that they can pull out of their jacks is even more reason for pros to never rely on them.

Pros use BALANCED cables with high-quality, sturdy, LOCKING XLR plugs at each end. These plugs have THREE connections at each end. One is the shield. One is the signal. The third wire performs the magic.

This third wire does not carry music. It carries ANTI-PHASE-MUSIC. The music signal is INVERTED before it enters the third pin.

So we have TWO music signals traveling down the wire, picking up noise along the way. One wire carries MUSIC PLUS THE NOISE COLLECTED ALONG ROUTE DOWN THE WIRE and the other carries ANTI-PHASE-MUSIC PLUS THE NOISE COLLECTED ALONG ROUTE DOWN THE WIRE. Since these two wires are adjacent to each other, the noise that enters each along the way is nearly identical.

When we get to the other end of the cable, the next component again INVERTS the signal coming down the third wire.

So the third wire now contains MUSIC that is back IN PHASE and NOISE that is now ANTI-PHASE. Now we add the signals from both signal-carrying wires.

MUSIC + MUSIC = MORE MUSIC.
NOISE + ANTIPHASE NOISE = ZERO.

The music signal is now twice as strong, and the noise is cancelled! We still have a shield to block noise, but any that does get in is cancelled anyway. This system gives us up to 40dB of noise pick-up protection along the length of the cable. That’s a lot! Dolby noise reduction in tape decks only gave us 10dB and it made a HUGE difference.

Any amount of noise in your system wipes out your ability to hear minute details in the music if those minute details are quieter than the noise floor of the system.

Lots of amps out there have balanced ins and outs. This one takes it much further. All the circuitry is balanced, right up to the speaker terminals. This required DOUBLE the number of output transistors per channel, but AYRE has taken this important step.

The volume “control” is a long bar above the front-panel display with an UP and DOWN at the far ends. When pressed, volume is changed in tiny 1dB steps by a special circuit. Once the volume is set, the microprocessor goes back to “sleep”.

When the volume bar is pressed, a signal goes to a circuit that “wakes up” the microprocessor. The micro selects the correct precision metal-film resistor needed for the volume you want. Switching between these resistors is accomplished using FET transistors.

FETs are special transistors that provide very positive switching with low distortion. More importantly, FETs never need cleaning, unlike conventional volume controls. Best of all, this system yields perfect channel balance at all volume levels…for life.

All this would be negated if the INPUT selector switch added its own noise. In the AX-7e, input switching is ALSO done by FETS, located directly adjacent to each input jack. This way the switch is brought to the music, not the music to the switch. Like the volume control, it never wears or needs cleaning.

When you change inputs, both the SIGNAL AND THE GROUND of the unused inputs are disconnected. I have never seen this before, other than on AYRE products.

The advantage of this unusual extra switching is that any noise coming in on the ground wires of connected components never enters the preamp’s circuits. This simply HAS TO give this preamp dramatically better noise rejection than other preamps.

With this design, noise levels are, indeed, VERY low.

With this model, any signal that comes in Unbalanced is first converted to balanced so it will not pick up noise. Very cool.

If you need more Unbalanced inputs, adapters are available from AYRE to convert the balanced inputs to unbalanced.

One pair of RCA (unbalanced) recording outputs is provided. It can be turned off when not used. This would be great for running a secondary amp for speakers in another room. In this way you can share sources, switch off the other pair, yet completely isolate the AYRE amp for best performance when listening only in the main room.

Many audiophiles feel that turning off the displays on components improves the sound.

I’m not entirely sure I can hear the difference, but, for those who do, AYRE has a special feature. If you turn the display OFF, it will turn on again when controls are operated, then blank out again a few moments after any adjustment is made…the best of both worlds.

MECHANICAL DESIGN: The chassis is made of high-quality aluminum. Non-magnetic aluminum is immune to magnetic interference between circuits and the structural integrity it fantastic.

SPEAKER CONNECTORS: I love the special speaker terminals AYRE uses. There is one large knob that, when turned, reveals the PAIR of + and – speaker terminals. When you tighten the knob again, it clamps down on your connectors very strongly for the best sound.

COMBINING WITH HOME-THEATER SYSTEMS: You may wish to plug all your 2-channel inputs into this amp, but you may also have a home theater system. You can combine the two without any compromise.

There is a special mode in the setup menu that allows you to assign one input pair to be the front left and right outputs from you home theater preamp.

When this input is selected, the AYRE will automatically go to “unity gain” (volume control fixed) so the volume and processing is controlled by your home theater processor, yet your 2-channel amp and speakers do the amplification and sound production even when watching movies.

On this model, even the GROUNDS of the connected home theater processor’s audio cables are disconnected when other 2-channel inputs are being used, so there will be no added noise at all.

IMMUNITY TO AC NOISE: The transformer design and power supply design in general are “self cleaning” in that they strip off noise coming into your AC line without the need for any external line filtering.

NO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK: Conventional amps use negative feedback to keep distortion low. This involved feeding some of the output of the preamp back into the input to correct distortion. Many engineers feel that, although it helps the specifications, negative feedback hurts the sound.

On a test bench, when producing continuous tones, negative feedback is great, since the waves repeat themselves over and over, enabling the feedback to properly correct any imperfection in the amplification process.

Music, on the other hand, is NOT continuous waves, but ever-changing sounds. This makes self-correction near impossible, resulting in MORE distortion when playing real music than without feedback.

Although the debate rages on about feedback, one thing is certain; if you can design a component to have low distortion WITHOUT feedback, as AYRE has done here, then the result can only be better sound. The best correction is to not need any in the first place.

SIZE: The chassis measures 17.25” wide x just under 4 3/4” high x about 13” deep, so it’s easy to place. In the box it weighs about 33 pounds, so shipping will not be too costly since it can go by regular UPS.

NO OVERSEAS SHIPPING: We do NOT do voltage conversions and we will only ship to within the US or Canada.

PRICING: The AX7e retailed for $3500.00. At that price, it was, without a doubt, the best value in the entire Ayre lineup, as integrated amps tend to be.

We are setting the RESERVE at $1498.00 for this BEAUTIFUL CONDITION piece.

Things to know…

This amp comes with no warranty, refunds, or exchanges.It HAS been tested.

We accept PAYPAL and all major credit cards for sales to the US.

We accept Paypal ONLY for sales to Canada.

We will ship this item to the US and Canada ONLY.
We will NOT ship this item overseas.

Canadian buyers are responsible for all customs duty and UPS fees.

We ship by UPS...NOT USPS.

Sales tax will be charged if the amp is shipped to / sold to within New York State, or if it is picked up at the store. Sorry…it’s the law.

The above words are the property of KZ Consulting and are NOT to be copied.