pass labs x250.5 or plinius SA102 for summits

Can't speak to the Pass or the Plinius, but I have run both the Parasound JC-1's and the Blue Circle 206 with the Summits, both are outstanding. Pre amp was the Blue Circle 3000 with GZPZ power supply. I have also heard the Conrad Johnson Pre (CT5) with the JC-1's and the summits. Very nice as well.

Would look for amp with extended frequency extremes summits have ample midband output, the plinius might be too much for the compression driver, pass isnt the last word in lowend control which that 15 will need, from what ive heard the jc-1 might be great. What levels do you need, if your not into 115 db, A good tube amp might be in order. Ive owned summits 4350 4435 L200 L300 L250 4320 ect. Favorite amp for those is a Crown Delta omega 2000 monos, 2K 2 ohms but sweet. I now own the plinius Sa250IV LOVE IT

i am sorry. these are the martin logan speakers and they have 200 amps driving the woofers.i live in texas and would prefer a ss amp with a tube pre.thank you for your response.

Charu: With the bottom falling out of the X350.5 market, you should consider the X350.5 over the X250.5. I have a pair of Summits arriving next week. They are replacing a pair of Prodigys which were driven by the incredible JC-1s. Since the Summits have on-board ICE amps for the woofers I didn't think I needed the power of the JC-1s so I traded them for an X350.5. I've heard from other Summit users that the X350.5 is more than adequate to drive the Summits. If you're still not sure contact me off list in a week and I can give you more details.

Veloceracing,

Boring question - could you compare JC1s to Pass X-350.5, soundwise? Any palpable difference relating the power slam? Any interesting point?

Zormi: Regrettably, I can't answer that question until late next week when the Summits arrive: I've been speaker-less for a while. I can tell you, though, with much certaintly that when I compare the JC1's to the X-350.5 in the "off" mode with no speakers attached I can't discern any difference sonic or otherwise. OK, just joking .... I should say that I've never heard the JC-1s powering the Summits, nor have I heard the X350.5 powering the Prodigys (my older speaker) so I don't know if I'll be able to provide a good comparison since the speaker/amp combo will be new to me. But I'll try to theorize ...

Velo - any update??

JMP... Actually yes, I finally do have an update! The Summits have been "cooking" for over a week via a tuner signal. I've listened to the Summit/X350.5 combination every night during this time for about an hour. I have not experimented with placement only because the area Martin-Logan rep volunteered to come by and help me with setup (how's THAT for service? - and that's not the only time that the ML people have provided great customer service).

I have precious little (make that NO) experience in penning audio critique so don't expect much from this article. Also, bare in mind the following: my previous setup were Prodigys with the JC-1s. The current setup is Summits with the X350.5. So the JC-1s were never available to use with the Summits, nor was the X350.5 available to use with the Prodigys.

All that having been said, I am really happy with the combination. I am a big fan of Martin Logans (having owned ESL's, ribbons, planars all my audio life) and I think that my ear is just used to their "sound." The Summits take the Prodigy sound and make it ... well, more "refined." It's a quality that I can't quite put my finger on (yet) but for me the Summits do disappear and the music sounds quite natural. I'm not saying that that wasn't the case with the Prodigys but on certain things the Prodigys produced fireworks and had more of a "look at what I can do" characteristic than just reproducing music. One impressive thing is how incredibly efficient the Summits appear to be: with minimal gain the speakers can fill my cavernous loft.

How much of this, though, is due to the amp? It's hard to say because living with the X350.5 really makes me appreciate the JC-1s: I think that they two amps are quite even in many respects. Or perhaps its that the X350.5 is called upon to power just the stator panels of the Summits whereas the JC-1s had to do alot of work with the Prodigys. My untrained ear can detect no solid state "grain" or harshness with the X350.5 (or with the JC-1s).

The amp exhibits no effort in powering the speakers but my PS Audio P500 gives me notice when the ICE amps start working inside the Summits. The X350.5 was purchased used and is broken-in so I think what I don't expect the sound to change.

I think that too many critical variables were changed from one setup to another to make a comparison worthwhile. In isolation, though, I think that the Summit/X350.5 combination is exceptional. Not to take food out of Mr. Pass's mouth but I would suspect that the Summits could easily be powered by the X250.5.

One thing, though, that I can confirm about the Summits is that it will take three people a few hours of patient listening and medium-lifting to get these speakers to sound their absolute best. It's not rocket science, nor do you have to lease time on a supercomputer to model your room's acoustics. Rather, it takes a bit longer than the Prodigys and it is a good idea to have more than two people to perform the task.

I hope this helped.