2. tech-talk
  3. 1282046892

PASS LABS XA-30.5 vs XA-60.5

Hello all,
Has anyone heard the differences between these two amps, and have done A/B comparrisons on them? I have a XA-30.5 that I'm using with Totem Hawk Speakers. The XA-30.5 drives them very well, but I have been told the 60.5’s give you much better smoothness and cohesiveness, better imaging, better bass control, greater ease and greater resolution.

Here's the million dollar question:

I am ready for my next upgrade and have roughly $6000. Should I upgrade to the XA-60.5's or upgrade my Esoteric X03-SE cd player to the Esoteric seperates P-05 transport and D-05 DAC??

I have very appealing offers for both options.

Any Thoughts?

My system:

Pass Labs XA-30.5 amp
Pass Labs X0.2 preamp
Esoteric XO3-SE cd player
BPT 3.5 Ultra Sig. power conditioner
Totem Hawk speakers
AudioPath custom IC's and speaker cable
Shunyay Python CX power cords
roor

Showing 2 responses by unsound

unsound
7,343 posts
 
I have been led to believe that the Pass amps were designed to work best with balanced input. No c-j gear has balanced circuitry.
unsound
7,343 posts
 
It would appear to me that the cases made re: balanced and single ended are generally sound, but not necessarily taking the specifics of the Pass circuitry (marketing?) into consideration:
http://www.passlabs.com/pdfs/articles/susy.pdf
More to discover