Breath of fresh Ayre

An ‘integrated hub’, is how Ayre Acoustics describes the EX-8. That’s nice, we thought, but what the heck is an ‘integrated hub’? We have not previously encountered a thing so described. The problem, of course, is that there are now so very many different ways to store and deliver music. Hi-fi manufacturers not only have to make sure their components accommodate all those different ways, but they have to come up with a simple way of telling customers that their products are equipped to handle all those different ways… as well as give them an idea of what type of amplification might also be built in. AV receiver makers have been struggling for more than a decade to come up with a better term describing everything a modern AV receiver does, but have yet to succeed, stopping somewhere around ‘networked AV receiver’.

Here in the two-channel space, Ayre Acoustics’ has obviously attempted to do this by joining the words ‘Integrated’ and ‘Hub.’ Presumably, we’re supposed infer that it’s not only