You've tried other amps and ended with Pass, please discuss

Nelson's specific recipe has led to many successes that have been proven over and over.

Absolutely true, you can't argue with financial success in a heavily competitive market, plus I hear he's a great guy. I don't claim to understand everything he's doing, but it is a specific type of recipe and clientele he's after.  I also think based on his writing and observations, he's also got a type of speaker in mind when he designs.  That may have much to do with his intention.

I’d like to see Pass do a Class D amp.

That would be interesting.  Pass adds a distortion signature to his amps. I wonder if he would create a new Class D architecture which has this, or add a front end to a conventional Class D design.

It was quite arbitrary, so what?

In particular it was because I hear a lot of Pass fans who talk about it as a closed ecosystem as if no other amp exists and I was very curious to learn about how they got there or left.

That's the privilege of the poster. :)



Best,

E

The premise of it all is very funny...."So why on earth are you enjoying your Pass amp so much?" As Greta Thunberg once said - "How dare you!"

If that is your interpretation of my original posting three_easy_payments I have to say you are reading things in here I never meant to put in.

The point of this thread was to understand the journey audiophiles take, and to understand audiophiles in terms of how we learn adapt and change. Why some like a type of sound and why others don't.  Just like music, there's no real wrong answer, but why person A becomes fascinated by an artist and others do not is a worthwhile discussion to me.

Some people see painting as 2 dimensional, you like it or you do not. I see art as occurring in a historical context in which even if I don't like it, appreciating the message and influence is culture.

Best,

E

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this thread. As I’ve said before, I am particularly grateful for those who can share specific experience as to what they’ve tried, and what worked and did not work for them. Those types of insights, whether they end up with Pass or not, are incredibly useful to everyone who is looking to settle down with a final amplifier.

It gives me great joy to see another audiophile reach their happy place, wherever that may be.

Best,

E

Hey @georgehifi

So lets talk about integrity. Meaning, you have standards you hold others accountable to the same degree you hold yourself to.

You are in every thread about people enjoying Class D and tell them that they can’t be enjoying class D.

OK, cool. So here I am talking Pass and you are upset ... at what exactly? "fishing for dirt?" What does that even mean in audio context? That Pass didn’t pay his taxes?

With the encyclopedia you’ve posted on why no one should claim to enjoy class D, what ethical or moral standard do you think you have to come in here and post about me asking open ended questions?

Lets say you were right, and the point of this thread was to bash Pass. It is not, but even if I was, aren’t you the kettle calling me very very black?

By what right do you have to run around here making people afraid of stating they like a particular thing and also attempting to chastise me for this thread?

Please explain how you square this up, because to me being a person of integrity means having some ability to observe your behavior and holding yourself up to the standards you are claiming for others.

There's no one more transparently biased than you, @Georgehifi
While I ask questions and respect people's experience, you absolutely can't stand that people are happy with amps you don't like.

Isn't there a happy Class D thread somewhere you need to go get kicked out of again? 

They are the best sounding amps I ever owned.

Hey @ron1264
I don't doubt you, but can you be specific as to the speakers you have used, and what in your mind makes the Pass XA30.8 better than all the other models?


What is it you gained or lost going from other models, and were there any speakers you think others did as well or better with?

@audiofound


Can you compare it to other amps you heard at the same visit??

  One thing you must do though is give the amp at least 5 full-days of turn-on time (nothing needs to be playing) before the amp sounds terrific.

Well, that's interesting for two reasons:

1 - Some Class Ds do exactly this, wonder what the commonality is?

2 - I wonder how many Pass amps I heard in San Francisco had never been able to warm up fully?

Best,
E

To be clear: What I want to encourage are discussions about your happy Pass model vs. non Pass amps.

If you listened to several OTHER brands and went to Pass, I would love to know what you had, why Pass was better for you, and what speakers you have.

 There is no possible wrong answers here. You like what you like.

Thank you to everyone taking the time to include this much detail.

Erik

I am being completely consistent.

Eric is asking someone, why they do not like the sound of Pass amps, but, refuses to answer my same question to him, as I was the 1st poster to his thread. George, I am with you

I have said in this thread I wanted to listen. A poster made some wildly generic, negative statements, so I asked him to avoid, and if he could not avoid, to at least be specific.

I am very grateful to all the pro Pass posts here which get specific to model of amp and speaker and discuss relative merits.

I am more grateful and lucky when the poster mentions brands  of amps I have heard and the relative differences.

Very happy to read of people enjoying Pass when they give me a reference point.


Best,

Erik

George is deliberately skirting the edge of saying something terrible. He crossed it. Further, he's being less coherent and more aggressive. That entire trajectory needs to be stopped.

He said "another species."
The implication has only one conclusion. No adult would think otherwise, though a teen might try to pretend. This is far from the acceptable behavior I see and expect here. How close to calling some one sub-human do you have to get? Let's not push that envelope, at all.

Hi George,
Calling any one on this forum non-human is simply not acceptable. I'm reporting your post and you.

Stop doing that to me and anyone else here.

Erik

George:
You aren't making any sense at all.
Maybe making simple declarative statements will help.

Best,
Erik

Hey @jeffvegas,

Well, I meant to keep this pass positive, but can you give some very specific examples of a Pass amp you did not like, and compare it to something you did and why?


What were the sound characteristics you heard? Also, what speakers?


Thanks,
Erik

Hi phd
While I appreciate the fandom, Pass has plenty of positive threads here.

What I want to encourage are direct comparisons with other amps I might have heard recently.


If you've had the change to compare them to other similar amps I'd love to hear your thoughts and any specific differences.


Best,

Erik

Huh.

From :
https://hometheaterreview.com/coda-technologies-continuum-no-8-stereo-amplifier/

and copied here under fair use guidelines:

The Pass Lab sound is slightly warm and velvety while the Coda is smooth and silky in its overall presentation. Both are great. Which one you would like better would boil down to personal taste and system synergy. Both amps offer a liquidity and grainlessness that normally is only associated with tube-based amplification. The Coda is very musical yet very detailed in ways that make me think that a fairer comparison would be my Pass Labs XA-60.8 monoblocks, which is a significant accolade for the Coda No. 8, as the Pass 60.8s are mean competitors costing far more money.

Coda amps are a good alternative to Pass (owned by ex-Threshold engineers). A big difference is the level of marketing.

Hey @vinylvalet - Can you talk about the sonic characteristics between the two? I heard Coda’s a long time ago and from a sound quality perspective, I would not have naturally put them next to Pass. What have you heard that is different or the same?


From the designs then, Coda was a low negative feedback, and very high number of transistors, to achieve remarkably low output resistance. Doesn’t Pass favor the opposite? Zero feedback and simplest possible designs?


In addition, AFAIK, Pass favors rich even ordered distortion, while Coda is attempting a straight wire with gain approach.


Clearly both brands have engineers with an enviable pedigree, but to my ears and knowledge of their PR, they are taking divergent approaches.


Best,

Erik

Stop looking for congratulations for going Class-D, it’ all too obvious with all the Class-D related post you start looking for positives on it, to make you feel satisfied with what you’ve got.

George,

Projecting intention on some one without evidence is yet another way in which you show disrespect. Further, you should actually read what @eniac wrote. He liked some amps with some speakers, and some with others.

It turns out I’m more familiar with those two brands of speakers, and some of those amp modules than I am with other brands mentioned so that’s particularly interesting.

Lastly, George, did you miss the entire thread where I left Class D?

I’d kindly ask you to go start a "Class D ax grinding thread" somewhere else and let those who have been able to compare Pass amps with others but stayed with Pass to comment without fear of you turning this thread into a personal vendetta related to a subject which has so very little to do with the material in this thread. That would be a great show of respect and self control, and I look forward to seeing it from you.

Best,

Erik

Hi @audiojan - Thanks so much.

Can you talk a little about your CJ experience relative to Pass?
Also, if anyone has experience with Ayre, D'Agostino or Luxman I'd love to hear about it relative to Pass, because unfortunately a lot of the brands being mentioned are some I haven't heard in a very long time.

Also curious if any of you have experience with old or new AR and went to Pass.
I'm not imposing any value judgements here at all, but if some one mentions Mark Levinson.... I haven't heard one in decades so I have no relative perspective.

Thank you,

Erik

@eniac

Thanks so much for that detailed, chronological, explanation of what you went through. In particular how you experienced the differences with the 803D2s vs. the Class D amps. That gives me a lot of information.


And thanks to everyone else who has added to our collective knowledge as well!

Best,

Erik

Eric, a second time, why is it that Pass amps are not to your liking?

Hi Mr Decibel, I decline to answer in this thread because unlike others, I like keeping a thread on topic. I want this space for pro-Pass discussions, especially relative to other brands which I may have heard.


If I make my own tastes central here, I'll never learn anything. 

In other words I'm going to be quiet and listen.

.Eric, you are not so different than Georgie boy.

If you think that makes me just like people who will jump on every thread they can to explain why your tastes are wrong, I don't really know what to tell you.


Nothing gives me more pleasure than others enjoying what they like to hear.

Best,
Erik

Maybe not their cup of tea, but to say what you have, is well, you know

I'm sorry, what is your specific objection to anything I've posted?

Hi Mr Decibel,

I don't think anyone needs to justify anything, at all. Ever. In fact if you read my posts and how I talk to people whose tastes vary from mine, I always encourage others to buy what they prefer, ignoring me, ignoring the reviews and (if they can) ignoring the price tags.


The main reason I thought about this post that I hear a lot of Pass fans talking about Pass vs. Pass, but not Pass vs. other systems.


I'd like to understand what their systems are like, and what they compared them to before deciding.


I have no intention of disproving Pass fans from their preferences, even if I don't share them.

Best,

Erik