Ayre Acoustics

KX-8 Variable Gain Preamplifier

The Ayre KX-8 is a variable-gain preamplifier manufactured by Ayre Acoustics, with five analog inputs: two balanced and three single-ended. It uses continuously variable-gain transimpedance volume control, fully balanced zero-feedback discrete circuitry, Ayre’s Diamond output stage, Equilock gain stage, linear analog power supply, and high-speed circuit-board material. Optional digital circuitry includes an ESS ES9038Q2M DAC, Xilinx Spartan FPGA, asynchronous S/PDIF input, custom digital clock, minimum-phase filter, and single-pass 16× oversampling; the unit provides 4 V RMS balanced or 2 V RMS single-ended output and supports variable gain without attenuation.