Definitive Audio Events

A Discussion with Steve Silberman of Ayre Acoustics and His Experience at Music Matters III

Hopefully, those of you who attended February’s Music Matters event had the opportunity to attend the seminar given jointly by Wilson Audio and Ayre Acoustics. If you did, you heard what is certainly one of the finest music reproduction systems in existence.

After the event, we gave a call to Steve Silberman, of Ayre Acoustics, for his take on Music Matters and the latest from Ayre.

DA: Ayre has been around since 1993, but is new at Definitive Audio. What were the main messages you wanted Seattle music lovers to hear about Ayre?

SS: Well, of course we wanted people to know about our newest product, the KX-R preamplifier. We had it feeding a pair of our “statement” MX-R monoblocks, into those magnificent Wilson Alexandrias. But the message I was hoping people were getting is just how obsessed we are–here at Ayre–about music. It genuinely is our greatest passion. Many of us at Ayre don’t even own a television. Everything we do is directed toward revealing more of music’s beauty and emotion. We think that passion is reflected in our products and that owners of Ayre products share our enthusiasm.

DA: What did you make of the Music Matters event?

SS: I was greatly impressed. Definitive Audio is, without question, among the finest audio dealers in the world. Before the event, speaking with the sales consultants, I was consistently impressed by their level of knowledge and the enthusiasm. It was the highest caliber of salespeople I’ve ever encountered. Later, during the public event, it was apparent that everyone there was having a great time, and eager to learn more about something they truly loved. It was beautifully organized. I had a great time.

DA: Tell us more about the KX-R. It’s gorgeous.

SS: Thank you. We worked very hard on it, with every design change checked with blind listening tests. It’s inspired by, of course, and derived from the MX-R power amplifier, from which we learned a great deal. Both components are carved from a single block of aluminum. Both benefit from remarkable discoveries we made in development. We always new that there are sonic advantages to certain resistors or board materials etc.but the KX-R allowed us the freedom to experiment with new components that were just too expensive for our past products. We were blown away when we listened to the resistors chosen for the gain stage in the KX-R. They simply provided a transparency that was beyond anything else we had to choose from regardless of price!

Almost all preamplifier's today have a fixed amount of gain ( as do all amplifiers ). In order to adjust the volume an attenuator either adds or subtracts resistors that are in series with the input signal. More resistors in series lower the volume while less resistors in series raise the volume. The limitation to this design is that while the signal (Volume) may change level the noise floor of the gain circuit remains fixed. So, as you lower the volume you decrease the signal to noise ratio. This in turn limits detail and dynamic contrast.

The KX-R on the other hand has no volume control in the traditional sense. Instead of employing a fixed gain with a variable attenuator the KX-R uses two pairs of steppers that choose individual resistors in the gain circuit itself. This allows us to choose the amount of gain (variable) and leave the input signal itself alone. The advantage is that as the gain lowers the floor noise lowers in proportion. The listener is then always getting the maximum signal at any volume and therefore the maximum amount of music.

DA: The MX-R and KX-R are your flagship products. What can music lovers find with other Ayre products?

SS: You’re correct, we designed the MX-R and KX-R as “statement” products. We were not sure what the success of the MX-R's was going to be but we have been shocked by how fantastic the market acceptance has been! We have sold hundreds of pairs and this has paved the way for the KX-R. We feel very fortunate that so many people like what we do. Still, we’ve been amazed at how popular the pieces have been. We’ve sold hundreds of pairs of MX-R amplifiers since its introduction in August of 2006, through a network of only 42 dealers nationwide.

The reason we were surprised is that we’ve always presented ourselves as a “value” company, producing genuinely affordable components that could hold their own with almost any of the price-no-object brands out there. Our C-5xe universal CD player is a great example. It’s been critically acclaimed as among the finest CD players available.

DA: Thanks for your time, and thanks to everyone at Ayre for their dedication and innovation.

SS: It really is our pleasure.