I'm going to purchase a Pass XA 30.5 and I would appreciate very much your advice and suggestions about the above mentioned matter, I would like to put my XA 30.5 in the best possible conditions to sing at its best.
So medium high sensitivity 92 - 94 db, and 8 ohm regular and easy impedance are required.
My listening room is abt 23 x 15 ft, wooden floor, no carpets, no curtains but a lot of furniture.
I listen to rock, jazz and electronica to low-medium/medium levels.
I currently own a pair of Totem Mani 2 but I would like to find speakers easier to drive for the Pass.
Both stand mounts with good bass and floor standing are fine, and up to 5000 $ used.
I look for deep soundstage, high resolution, musicality and smoothness.
Please consider that I'm in Italy so I cannot listen and find some of your brands so easily ...
Interesting discussion, not wanting to hijack the conversation, but will it match well with GrahamAudio LS 5/9 87db? Also what pre amps are you guys using ? been looking at Don Sachs pre and the Supratek pre’s
The Pass XA-30.5 is such an underrated amplifier! I owned one for many years before upgrading to a pair of XA-200.5's which we currently own. Our system was a moderately high end system at that time - Meridian 800 series digital front end, Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1 speakers, high end MIT Oracle cables and Sound Application power conditioner. We integrated our stereo with a home theater system so our family could enjoy our investment for movies as well as music - our setup emphasized stereo. We also have 3 X-250.5 amplifiers for the theater speakers and the XA-30.5 was preferred by anyone who had the opportunity to listen to both. The only thing the 250.5 did better was bass. When I sold one of our 250.5 amplifiers, I was concerned the person was going to ask to listen to the 30.5! Best little amplifier I ever owned! Kudo's to Nelson Pass!
I'm using mine with Revel Studio 2's and Salon 2's. The XA30.5 drives them well , the Studio2 are a few dB more sensitive. Right now I'm driving the Salon 2's but using a pair of subs and high pass filtering at 80hz. I can listen as loud as I'd want to with this amp and speaker combo.
both your suggestions seems to be really interesting and they have both an interesting free trial policy but I don't know regarding Tektons if it's valid to Europe...
Regarding Buchardt they don't seem to be such an easy load...
What a strange question. It's like buying a wedding gown and asking friends if they know any nice girls.
Dear roxy54 and friends,
I know what I'm asking for and why, so if you have an interesting contrinution you are welcome, otherwise please be aware that you are not the most intelligent and skilled around.
I would personally recommend a pair of Tekton spkrs. I own a pair of Pendragons, and they sound absolutely phenomenal. Nothing gets past em with the amount of detail they deliver. Pass Labs amplifiers sound amazing through Tekton spkrs. I’ve heard a Pass XA-25 through them, and I was truly blown away. They’re very efficient too at aprox 95-96 dB, which Pass and First Watt amps seem to like. You can at least call Eric Alexander and talk to him about recommendations. He’s very helpful, friendly, and most importantly honest. I’m not sure what shipping to Italy would be, but the Tekton line of spkrs is alreamdy very reasonably priced. It couldn’t hurt giving him a call.
If you're looking for bookshelf spkrs that deliver a big Soundstage, I’d also check out Buchardt S400’s. They’re made in Denmark, and I believe the shipping is free with a 30 day return policy, which is also free to send them back. They’ve been getting rave reviews, and they even sound good on certain YouTube vids too, which is rare.
I’ve run this same amp with 85db sensitivity speakers with success. It got very loud with still some volume to go. The amp pushes over 150 watts in class B. And no, you can't tell when it passes from A into B.
The xa30.5 operates in class a for the first 30 watts and can do well over 200w into 4ohms and lower in class A/B. i used one to drive my kef ls50 with great results. which are 86db sensitive i believe.
I own the pass XA30.5 and have driven several speakers with it.You'll find the rated power is underrated and the amp puts out a lot more than it's 35 watts. My favorite pairing at the moment is the Spatial Audio M3 turbo S.This company does have European distributorship and they are available in a wood finish for the euro market only. Worth a listen if you have a room behind the speaker for proper placement.
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