Pass Then vs. Pass Now


Hi 'Goners. 

Long time lurker, first time poster hoping to receive some wisdom from the community. Thinking about an upgrade (aren't we all?) Currently powering Devore Gibbon 3xl with a Rogue Audio Sphinx v3 and am inclined to try out some class A solid state amplification. I was a long time happy owner of a little Adcom GFA535. (I bought it in college in '88 and just let go of it two years ago!) That got me interested in trying out another Pass design. I have been weighing a Threshold400A vs. an XA30.8

Anyone have experience with Devore Gibbons and either of those amps, or thoughts on whether the newer PASS is worth triple the going price of the vintage  piece?

Open to any other suggestions on where to go from here with the system as well. For discussion, I  live in an apartment and use it almost exclusively for vinyl. I am a musical omnivore. The front end is a Clearaudio Performance DC with Tracer tonearm and Hana SL running through a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2. If I upgrade the amp I plan to continue to use the tube pre in the Rogue Audio integrated, for now. 

Thank you in advance for your input. Your time is much appreciated.

Shawn

theschwartz

Showing 1 response by hilde45

I have slightly more sensitive speakers and when I went looking for my Pass amp, I was between the XA30 and the XA25. Those who had tried both said there was something especially magical about the XA25. (Of course there's always a debate!) I was concerned about the power level but in all honesty, the XA25 is NOT a 25 watt amp and has plenty of power given the very nice ohm-load your speaker presents. Harley Lovegrove of Pearl Acoustics agrees, here.

Then there's this 6moons review that quotes Terry London: "Wanted to share that I just got through submitting my writeup on the Pass Labs XA25. I believe that this might be the best amplifier Nelson and his crew have yet created/built. I own a pair of XA-60.8, a FirstWatt SIT 2 and have had in my system an XA30.8. The XA25 does color, tonality, spatial qualities, bass control and overall macrodynamics different and better for my taste than these other wonderful amplifiers. I still cannot believe that I'm not listening to a great tube SET were it not for how quiet, quick and dynamic the XA25 presents the music."

Your speakers sound easy enough to drive for the XA 25 -- as Stereophile put it, " Its sensitivity is specified as 90dB/2.83V/m—rather high for a small monitor speaker. The impedance is given as 8 ohms—a "very flat" 8 ohms, according to John, and never dropping below 7.4 ohms."