Ayre Acoustics Factory Tour
by Jeff Fritz and Marc Mickelson

Have you ever walked into a place of business -- maybe a music store or audio shop -- in which employees were laughing while they worked? We're not talking about the smiles that retail "associates" are taught to paint on their faces for the benefit of customers, but honest laughter that's an extension of the shop's close-knit, amiable culture. Employees at these places are often friends outside work and have common interests beyond their jobs. And they seem to enjoy their jobs. While they work they can be themselves, taking full advantage of their inherent skills and truly valuing the work they do.

This is Ayre Acoustics -- or the employees there are darned good actors. On the day of our visit, some rode their bikes to work, and all were dressed casually. There were Krispy Kreme donuts in the conference room, and everyone, from head Ayre-ian Charles Hansen to the people sitting at workbenches building amplifiers and preamps, seemed to like what they were doing. Ayre Acoustics doesn't overlook the hobby in which its customers are engaged by taking business too seriously. Work and high-end audio can be fun.

Ayre has been in its current digs, located in an industrial park in Boulder, Colorado, for ten years, with an expansion of its facilities to 10,000 square feet taking place last September. The company manufactures and markets ten different electronic components in three series. These include the V-1x ($9000), V-5x ($4500) and V-6x ($3000 plus $1250 for each channel) amplifiers; K-1x ($6750-8600 depending on configuration) and K-5x ($2950) preamps; AX-7 integrated amp ($2950); CX-7 CD player ($2950); and D-1x DVD player ($5250-$11,500 depending on configuration). Ayre's newest products are the P-5x phono stage ($2350) and DX-7 DVD player ($4950-$5950 depending on configuration). There are also a number of accessories, a system-enhancement CD, and Signature interconnects ($950 per meter pair) that were introduced late last year.

Half of Ayre's sales occur outside the US. The CX-7 CD player is Ayre's best-selling product, with the V-5x amplifier coming in a close second. All Ayre products are fully balanced, a claim very few audio manufacturers can make about their entire product line, and all are available in black or silver finishes, except for the DX-7, CX-7 and the AX-7, which are silver only.

Ayre's facilities include areas for building, repairing/updating and shipping products; offices for sales and design staff; a conference room; storage space; and a listening room that doubles as the company home theater. The most intriguing area was one we were not allowed to photograph: Charles Hansen's office. The issue was not that super-secret company memos were strewn about (they may have been), but rather that it looked like the living room of an eccentric family member who throws nothing away. Some people are bothered by clutter; others are inspired by it. Count Hansen among the latter, as his office is definitely a place where important work is done, just not by the janitor.

Hansen designs all of Ayre's products, beginning with the performance he's after and then devising the circuit to achieve it. "I have a song in my head that I'm trying to get out," he says. As anyone who has conversed with him knows, he's one of the rare designers who writes very well and can explain his creations in laymen's language. Hansen is no stuffy number-cruncher, and his personality permeates Ayre's corporate atmosphere. Marketing Director Gary Mulder is the same way and came to work with Hansen because he believed in Hansen's talent and enjoyed his friendship. Others at Ayre are there for the same reasons, their jobs taking into account their desire to help the company succeed. Any employer will tell you that such a culture is exceedingly desirable and also exceedingly rare. We felt at complete ease at Ayre.

Ayre's build area...	...is naturally next to the area in which subassemblies are stored.
Perhaps the most intricate subassembly is for the volume control of the K-1x preamp, with its many wheels and drive bands.	Faceplates and other chassis parts for various Ayre products.
Inside the CX-7 CD player.	Ayre products in the nude. Cosmetic parts are put on last to avoid damage as the units move through Ayre's facilities.

The build, service, shipping, and storage areas look like those at most other audio companies, which is to say that they are orderly but not immaculate. One technician, Clay Hansen, Charles Hansen's brother, does all repairs and updates; Ayre updates even those products that are no longer made. One can only guess how many different parts are needed to build ten unique products. Ayre pares down its inventory by creating subassemblies of its products, which it stores with the raw parts needed to make them. These ensure shorter build times and faster delivery. Chassis parts are either stainless steel or aluminum. They are kept in large enough quantities to ensure that orders won't lag because they are out of stock.

The tour proper ended as most do, with time spent listening -- and in this case, watching. We had been very impressed with Ayre electronics driving Avalon Eidolon Diamond speakers at the 2003 CES, a combination we missed during our visit by a couple of days, as the Eidolon Diamonds went back to Avalon. Instead, we got to hear Vandersteen 3A Signature speakers. Electronics were a V-6x amp, K-5x preamp and fully-equipped  D-1x DVD player. With music, the Vandersteen speakers sounded big, as they usually do, and very detailed. We had a great time playing cuts from our CD-R sampler and hearing cuts that the Ayre crew thought sounded especially good on this system. Informality reigned -- we talked, laughed, listened and relaxed.

Music gave way to music and video in the form of The Corrs: Unplugged. You can buy this import DVD in England (or from Amazon UK), but it is only available in Region 2 PAL format. Ayre DVD players are region-free and PAL compatible. The video image was even more impressive than the sound, and not just because the Corrs sisters are stunningly beautiful. The D-1x's film-like image had colors that were deeply saturated and a lack of crispy edge definition. We watched longer than we listened, marveling at the video. Although Ayre received Home Theater & Sound's Product of the Year award months later at CES, Hansen and crew won the award on that day.

After watching and listening, we went to lunch in downtown Boulder. We loved the sunny, warm weather as we strolled the Pearl Street Mall, the Flatiron Mountains in the background. And what great thin-crust pizza! If only all factory tours could be as laid-back as our visit to Ayre -- and as enjoyable.

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To find out more about Ayre Acoustics, visit www.ayre.com.