Congrats! I’m sure you’ll be happy with that great amp and look forward to your thoughts.
Pass XA25 for my system
I have been a long-time lurker here, but never posted until now. I have learned a lot from reading other posts and I thought it would be nice to share details on my current system. Also wondering if anyone has thoughts on switching from Hegel to a Pass XA25 amp.
Current system:
- Room: 14x19 living room with medium(ish) damping - couch, rug, bookshelves, plants etc.; however, no dedicated room treatments.
- Sonicorbiter i9 optical Roon server upsampling to DSD128
- Fiber to Sonore Opicalmodule Deluxe 2 (Sonore LPS with Mundorf Silver/Gold DC cable)
- Sablon Ethernet 2020
- Bricasti M3 DAC and Roon endpoint running exclusively via NDSD conversion (3x Isoacoustics Orea)
- Audioquest Fire XLR cables
- Linear Tube Audio Microzotl Level 2 preamp with Lundahl balanced transformer input, Ray Reserve and Gold Lion tubes.
- Iconoclast Series 2 OCC RCA cables
- Hegel H390 Integrated (using as amp with HT bypass)
- Audioquest Robin Hood speaker cables
- Dynaudio Heritage Special (Dynaudio Stand 6 with Isoacoustics Gaia feet)
- Power: AQ Niagara 1200, AQ tornado and Cardas power cables.
My system is relatively modest, but was carefully assembled and it sounds pretty great to me. After adding the Microzotl preamp and seeing the improvement, I am thinking of replacing the Hegel (I am not using the preamp or DAC functionality) and trying a new amp. Thinking of the Pass XA25 after reading great reviews and seeing other people matching it with both my speakers and preamp. To be clear, the Hegel has been great and is a good match for my speakers. Dynamics are great, clarity, detail and a very relaxed feel to the sound. It was maybe just a touch too “clean/thin” before the LTA preamp. That move added a little more body, better imaging and soundstaging so curious to see what the Class A XA25 might do to further improve on these areas. The LTA Microzotl also helped with lower level/volume listening allowing more detail and dynamics to come through. With the Hegel volume control, I had to turn things up quite a bit to get things sounding their best. I also tried the Bricasti as a preamp and that was slightly less preferable than using either the Hegel or LTA for volume control.
I am still slightly nervous moving away from the Class A/B sound I am familiar with. Maybe it will soften things a little too much and be a step backwards? I was also considering a slightly used Class A/B Audionet Amp. I have no doubt they make excellent amps but I also couldn’t find many people using that brand and even fewer using it with my preamp and speakers. Any thoughts on whether the Pass XA25 will soften dynamics and transients significantly relative to my Hegel? I found some info. at 6Moons comparing the XA25 to Kinki Class A/B monoblocks and the comments seemed positive albeit a little mixed and unclear.
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- 38 posts total
@soix +1 on your recommendation of Clayton Audio amps. |
Happy New Year everyone. I wanted to circle back to this thread since the new amp has been playing for 5 days now and I have some initial thoughts on it. It is exactly what I was looking for and I am really pleased that I went with the Audionet Amp 1 v2. No, it doesn't "crush" the H390 as I really liked that sound as well. The Audionet just does everything a little bit better than the Hegel H390. Same iron grip on the Heritage Specials, but the sound is more refined and transparent. Some improvement in soundstage depth. There is almost a touch of warmth, but that word doesn't exactly capture what I am hearing. It can be almost hypnotic on the right songs and I find the music even more engaging and that is exactly what I was hoping for. Lastly, it seems to be a great match for my LTA Microzotl and cables. I really think I have all of the major pieces in place for a system I can enjoy for at least the next few years without needing to change things (except for maybe some small tweaking/experiments like adding an additional LPS on the dirty side of my fiber). One interesting thing that has happened is that due to the height of the amp, I need to reconfigure my audio rack. I think I will take this opportunity to move the rack to a spot that should open up more room for me to play around with speaker positioning. When I change my listening position with this amp, I get a really good soundstage and stereo imaging. I think there is definitely more I can do with setup to fully enjoy the Audionet. FYI, there is also an article on speaker setup by Richard Mak that was just published over at PTA. I really enjoyed reading it and I am going to try some of the setup tips that are described.
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@sfpeloton - Thanks for sharing how the new amp is working in your room with your other components. Sounds like the Heritage Specials are a good match with the AudioNet amp and LTA? Great news! |
- 38 posts total