ANY of the newer Pass Labs amps are better than ANY of his old amps. I live 30mins from the factory. He told me himself!
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
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i think @liquidsound ’s post highlights a very important point and that is that amps of certain power levels do better or worse within some range in their power band -- for instance, using high efficiency speakers with paper cone drivers etc, very sensitive to that first watt, fractions of the first watt they ever get from the amp (btw - that’s the reasoning behind the choice of name, for those that didn’t realize...) versus something like a modern x250.8 - designed to deliver 250w into 8, 500w into 4... amps like that operate in their sonic sweet spot when they are doing some real work, and they are at their best, they show the strengths intended by the designer when they are delivering some serious current, applying their high damping factor on woofers that need it, and so on.... you get my drift... so given the wide range of amps offered by pass, from the (relative) fleawatt fw’s to the mega x series amps, one still needs to think carefully about speaker/room matching -- that is the key to sonic happiness all the above said, it is also important to note that the smaller xa series amps, in my opinion, give somewhat the best of both worlds.... they are rated very conservatively at 25-30 wpc but can actually deliver well over 100 wpc on transients.... |
@jjss49 What's the lowest-powered Pass you've used to drive (successfully) a Harbeth 40.x? |
@jjss49 Thanks ! As you've said, Nelsons' First-Watt "kitchen-table" amplifiers were designed for sounding terrific from the first-watt in mind. The reliability also of the Pass-Labs and First-Watt electronics is well-known. Nelson is also one designer who is very willing to share design information and I've e-mailed him questions about my amps on several occasions. He's always gotten back to me and rather quickly, considering he must be a pretty busy man. I love the minimalist approach to the First-Watt series and the sound of very few active components "singing" through a fairly efficient speaker can be captivating. It was that way with the SIT-2 and my Volti Vittora's.and even my Living-Voice OBX-RW's. The Vittora's are long-gone as there was no room for them in our retirement cottages' small listening space, however the 106-db single driver speakers are coming soon ! Happy listening ! |
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