Pass Then vs. Pass Now

The 400a was a nice amp in its day.  I owned one for several years.  The newer Pass stuff (I've owned several) sounds much better.  Unless the 400 has been rebuilt, expect problems.  Mine was in the shop more often than not before I finally sold it.  Unless you live close to someone who will repair it, I'd stay away. Your wallet and back will appreciate it. 

When Nelson Pass started Pass Labs, and left Threshold, his first amps were the Aleph Series of amps.  In my wanderings, I've had the good fortune to own a Aleph 5 (60 wpc Class A), then Aleph 2 monoblocks (100 wpc Class A), then finally the keepers, Aleph 1.2 monoblocks (200 sweet wpc Class A); these Aleph 1.2s are real room heaters.  Back in the day, I tried a series of Stereophile Class A preamps and they sound from okay to meh.  From what I remember, I had a Adcom GFP 750, a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 with outboard power supply; I even rolled different 6922 tubes looking for that thing that I was hoping to find.  Finally, I had enough scratch to buy Nelson Pass's new series of "X" preamps, which was the 3 box X0.2.  OH MY!  The total synergy of the X preamp with the Aleph 1.2 was something to behold.  That beautiful midrange bloom that everyone talks about from the Aleph series of amps came out to play; that lit from within detail where the inside and shape of wooden instruments could be heard.  The transient of a harp string or guitar prick - the onset of the note proper, followed by the trailing note.  Depth, width, hearing individual instruments in a 3D space.  It was all there.  This equipment was mated up to Von Schweikert VR-6 speakers, which are very fast.  The Aleph amps tamed that beast, and the detail from that Focal tweeter and front firing two 4 inch mids just all fell in synch. 

I then moved and started second system with Pass gear.  The pre is the 3 box XP-30; amps were X60.5s and my speakers with Focal Mezzo Utopias, which is all a splendid grouping.  This newer equipment smokes my very musical Aleph for detail, transient snap, greater 3D picture of instruments in a field, greater height, and that individual sound and the very specific dimensional shape of a note as it bounces in a venue when it is picked up by sound engineer's microphones is borne out.  Again, that midrange bloom, and lit from within sound that somewhat honey coats the music is very enticing to my ears.  Now, that is not everyone's taste; I like gear that errs on the side of warmth.  Presentation that is threadbare in the midrange or has that laid back presentation, ehh, while not to my liking, it is not the end of the world.  New Pass has that greater overall detail, more punch, better flow, better transient snap, and also much better bass than the old Aleph amps.  Sorry for the verbose passage here.  If you get Pass amp in the X30.8 (which is a fine sounding amp), be sure to listen to it connected to a Pass XP-12/XP-22/XP-32 preamp so you will hear the magic and synergy of a Pass pre and amp playing together; you MUST do this. 

>>>gfys now??? You should run for office.

   My observations are based on actually owning multiple products designed by Pass. Most of them I liked, but also most of them could have had better build quality inside.  

  I have seen people like you too. Easily offended by any other perspective. So then the first response is a passive aggressive comment, followed by a vulgar shoot from the hip type remark. 

I don't have experience of the Gibbon but have experience of the O96 with Passlabs amps. The .8 series are superb power amps. As per a previous poster, I would certainly look at selling the Rogue in favour of an XP12 pre. That is a very nice sounding pre / power amplifier combination to drive highish sensitivity speakers.

 There is something to be said of Nelson Pass as a person. He reminds me of the Grateful Dead, who allowed themselves to be recorded by anyone during their concerts. That is remarkable by any standard. In the same way, he shares his knowledge of audio design and actually encourages it at Amp Camp and such. 

 When building his B1K preamp, which uses a DHT (SP1), you just can't ignore the great sound in spite of the fact that the SP1 tube is by no means the last statement in tubes. I have actually built other one designers' concept of this tube for a preamp, and guess what? Doesn't sound as good, period. I believe it is because Nelson uses matched transistors instead of an integrated circuit. Anyway, the beauty of kits is that you have more control over what you prefer. 

 Maybe this thinking translates to consumer products as well?

Don't mean to derail the thread here, as I am interested in other peoples' experience with the big NP amps.