Best Used Speaker for Around $5000??

Do you think my XA-30.5 would be ok with the Daedalus Ulysses?

I'd suggest a phone conversation with Lou on that question -- I'm sure he'll give you a knowledgeable and honest answer.

While I have no experience with the Pass amps, fwiw my own feeling is that I can't imagine that they would not be a good match for either the Ulysses or the DA-RMa. Considering your room size and their high sensitivity, your amp would undoubtedly be running Class A nearly all the time. For any occasional brief peaks that might require more power than is available in Class A, you would have 130W available into the DA-RMa's 8 ohm nominal impedance, and somewhere in the vicinity of 160W into the Ulysses nominal 6 ohm impedance (extrapolating from Stereophile's measurements).

Lou has indicated that the new AP (all-poly) crossover option, although not inexpensive, among other things makes these speakers significantly easier to drive. But even without that option, people have used them successfully with everything from SET's and OTL's to high-powered SS amps. Check out the recent threads at his Audiocircle forum for comments by others, particularly the threads on "Synergistic Amplifiers" and on the "All-Poly Option."

Good luck!

-- Al

Greg, $3750 - $4000 sounds very low to me.

For most of the past year, and possibly considerably longer, the price for a new pair of Ulysses in cherry with bases and stands has been $11,550 (of which $600 is for the bases and stands).

As far as I am aware there have been only two pairs of Ulysses sold here at Audiogon in the past year. I believe that both were in cherry, with bases and stands, and both were described as being in perfect condition. One was sold about 6 or 7 months ago, and was about a year old at that time. If I recall correctly, it was initially offered at around $8K. During the next week or two the asking price was lowered a few times, and I'm pretty certain it was in the area of $6K to $6.5K when it was marked "sold."

The other pair was sold a couple of months ago by member "Fig". I don't recall what the asking price was, and I don't know what it ended up selling for. You might want to contact him and ask.

Good luck!
-- Al