Pass Labs AMP’s- What is the best Pass Amp Sound for You from past 10 years

Brother Mike,

Your right!  At my age this were you start to forget your old girlfriend's names and what pieces of gear you owned throughout having fun is this crazy hobby.

Hey Jetter,

When Nelson Pass has been asked what is his all time favorite amplifier that he created/designed he says all of them!

As I stated it's my personal favorite of the .8 generation of amplifiers.  However, I have a soft spot in my audiophile heart for the Threshold SA-1 mono-blocks because they too were warm,full, and sweet sounding but with great dynamics.

I forget to mention I also own a First Watt SIT2 that's also a wonderful music maker.  Each of Nelson's creations offer slightly different "flavors" and the matching of the amps with the right speaker load also is very important.  I loved the XA-25 on Tekton Double Impacts-pure magic, but found that my much larger 21 driver ULf's, that are easy to drive but love high current, did not match up as well with the XA-25 that's were the X-250.8 sounded better.

So, it's not the amplifier in isolation, but the matching/synergy to different speaker loads that tells the tail of the sonic tape.  Still, the XA-25, with the right speakers is a "gem" of an amplifier at a reasonable price.

Nelson Pass is a true genius when it comes to solid state amplification.  I have been a life long owner of Threshold SA-1 mono-blocks, Aleph 1 mono-blocks, XA-100.5 mono-blocks, reviewed and bought the XA-60.8 mono-blocks, XA-25, and reviewed both the class A integrated amplifier and the 250.8 single chassis amp.

Recently I have gotten two pristine refurbished Threshold s/350e and a s/550e which still are wonderful amplifiers.

As I stated in my review on the XA-25, also made it a product of the year award winner, even though its the least expensive of the current .8 series amps its my personal favorite because of its rendering of timbres/tonality, and the image density that it creates.  It also drops over 60 watts into 8 ohms and 120 watts into 4 ohms, so unless you drive very difficult speaker loads you might be shocked on how much power it can drop if needed.

I love/enjoy all my Pass Labs amplifiers and feel lucky that they are part of my stable of amplifiers.

Hey 64voxac30,

My three favorite amplifiers in a ranked order on the Ulf's are:

1) Coda No.8 2) Threshold S/550e 3) Pass Labs XA-25

The XA-25's harmonics/tonality are beautiful on the Ulf speakers.  However, because it does not drop as much current as the other two amplifiers it just misses out on the total control of the speaker that the other amps offer.