Pass amps with Tube pre-amps


Is anyone doing this..Pass amps with a tube pre-amp?If so what pre-amp have you used?Thanks
spaz
I am doing this with a ARC Ref 3 pre and Pass XA160. The one thing I am a little concerned with is the impedance matching. The Pass amps have a lowish input impedance which may not be a good match for the high (relative to ss pres) output impedance of tube pres. I cant say I am disappointed with the results though I do have some concern and need to investigate this more.
I don't personally own a Pass amp but I did hear the x250 paired with a Hovland preamp and it sounded great
tried arc ref3, bat 51se, hovland hp 100. All worked well. (Theoretically, hovland has some impedance mismatch and it was single ended.) I prefered all these over the x1.

VTl would be great too
I have a Pass XA 350.5 with a Sonic Frontiers Line 3 and the combination works very nicely.
sure it will work with any tube preamp.
I have auditioned Pass with vintage Marantz 7 tube preamp and it sounded great.
Due to the relatively low input impedance of Pass amplifiers, some tube preamps are not what might be considered, ideal matches.

Consult your preamp and Pass reps for specific information.

Good luck.

Disclaimer: Pass retailer
I run X250,5/Revel Salon with CJ Premier Ten and with ss Premier 18 for different sound but overall tubes are better
I run Pass Labs X250.5 with Audio Research LS-25 linestage, balanced.
Sounds great. No issues.
I did call Pass Labs and spoke to a tech there before buying the amp just to make sure there were no problems running this combo and gave all the specs of my preamp to Pass Labs tech. He said that my ARC preamp should be an excellent match with the X250.5 and as far as I can tell, he was right.
Excellent results, no problems, with Pass X250 and ARC LS25mkll and also ARC LS15.
The Joule 150 MKII is able to drive relatively low input impedances, but it is single ended only and it seems many Pass owners prefer to connect in balanced mode.