Ayre Acoustics wins flat out, hands down, slam dunk, by a country mile AudioStream's Coolest Room Award. In fact the Ayre room was so cool, I didn't even know Audiostream had a Coolest Room Award until I saw it. Decked out in the best of mod design right down to the orange ashtrays and martini server setup, the guys at Ayre created a room to dream and enjoy music within. Bra-freaking-vo! We need more real life in hi-fi, imo of course, and it was a real treat to hang out in the Ayre room and listen to Neil Young. I felt like a teenager again until that pain in my lower back started to act up...

We were listening to a MacBook Pro running Pure Music feeding the Ayre DX-5 ($9,950) via its USB input which in turn fed the new Ayre AX5 integrated amp ($TBD but should come in under $10,000). The AX5 was driving a pair of curvaceous Vivid Audio GIYA G3s ($40,000/pair).