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One of the questions that I hear the most is, “How many watts are those speakers?” I also hear, “What’s the wattage on that amp?” Usually folks are asking these questions to see if the amp/speakers are a good match. Believe it or not those numbers mean less to me than the “voice” of an amp or speaker, when I think about matching an amp and speakers. I have covered before how wattage is rated in a few different ways and how those numbers have nothing to do with one another. The piece I would like to talk about today is an excellent example of a piece of gear where the numbers have nothing to do with reality!
We move equipment around a fair bit and sometimes a really nice piece of gear will sit dormant because something from the same line is hooked up or we just don’t have space. Recently we moved some stuff around and I had a chance to hook up the Ayre AX-7 integrated amplifier. As I was saying above, on paper the Ayre doesn’t seem that impressive. It is rated at 60 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 120 watts into 4 ohms. Mind you this is continuous power not peak power. I’ve owned guitar amps with more power than that, but as I said above sometimes the numbers lie. Among the innovations that make the AX-7 special are a volume control that uses FET switches and metal film resistors, the fact the control microprocessor is completely off unless you ask the AX-7 to do something like changing an input or volume level and the fact that the inputs are completely disconnected when not selected. When you add in Ayre’s legendary zero feedback, fully balanced circuitry you get an incredibly low noise floor that allows music to move effortlessly and for even the softest passages to have presence and impact. This also allows more “space” between instruments.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about hooking the AX-7 up and I had a slew of songs that I was excited to hear once I hooked it up. So I connected the Ayre QB-9 DAC to an Apple Mac Book Pro via an Audioquest Carbon USB cable and to the AX-7 via a pair of Audioquest Single Ended King Cobra. The AX-7 is powering a pair of Wilson’s incredible Duettes with Transparent Music Wave Plus speaker wires.
Wilson lists the minimum power requirements for Duettes as 20 watts per channel with a nominal impedance of 4 ohms. The sensitivity is rated as 90db @ 1 watt @ 1 meter @ 1kHz.
Up first I put on an 88.2/96 copy of B.B. King and Eric Clapton’s Riding with the King. On the track Hold on I’m Coming, you can clearly hear WHERE Eric and B.B. are both vocally and their guitars come from slightly behind and to the side of their voices. The background vocals during the chorus are faint but can clearly be heard as being “behind” the band proper. I saw B.B. King play live at a relatively small venue years ago, and I about drove the person I went with crazy talking about how clean and powerful his guitar tone was. I thought about it for days afterward and in spite of the fact that I listen to him fairly often this was one of the rare times that all that power, clarity and bell like tone sounded real. Mr. King could have been in the room!
Next up I gave a listen to a Bjork track called Army of Me off of Post. I like this track for the complex synth bass line. The line is sinuous and quick with notes that are close to together in both time and tone. If the amp and speakers is slow to respond this track sounds like one big annoying pile of mush. Usually to control bass this low and this fast you need LOTS and LOTS of power. On paper the AX-7 should not be able to reproduce this track with accuracy and grace, nor should it move with ease. The AX-7 didn’t even blink an eye. All the notes were clear, clean, and articulate and the amp never felt like it struggled or was trying to keep Bjork’s voice was tightly focused and jumped right out of the mix.
I thought it was so cool that I pulled Anthony in to give it a listen and got a kick out of him grinning ear to ear as he shouted, “My chair is VIBRATING!”
Yes folks we could feel the bass in our bodies and our sits. This from an amplifier rated at a lowly 60 watts per channel. More evidence, not that we need it, that the proof really is in the listening.
Next week I will be doing a special post, as Peter McGrath is coming to show off Wilson’s best, I will be talking about that! Feel free to stop by the Jenkintown location for one of the best listening sessions you may ever have! The week afterwards I will be blogging right from the CEDIA convention, from September 7th-9th. If you are curious about a particular product or gadget and want me to check it out, post on our Facebook page or hit me up via email! I will do my best to check it out and I promise to pass along all the cool stuff I run into!
And always remember; the proof is in the listening!
Do you have questions, ideas, or products you would like to see reviewed? Let me know what you want to see in this blog in the future! Contact me at JHeld@hifihousegroup.com