Parasound to Pass Upgrade

@taylorro Interesting.

Currently, I own both the X260.8 and the JC1+ and have A/B’ed them several times.

Conclusion: Pass is more musical / euphonic.

I currently have two sets of speakers at home: Focal Scala Utopia (sold to someone, awaiting delivery) and Focal Maestro Utopia III.

The Pass sounds better with the Focal Scala Utopia (and I expect it would sounde better with a majority of speakers). However, the Maestro III are notoriously hard to drive - and with these, I prefer the JC1+.

So, my X260.8 shall be put up for sale soon.

@reg19 so the Focal MU3 are 93db sensitive, 4ohm (min 3ohm). What makes them so difficult to drive?

I’m contemplating replacing my XA30.8 with X260.8 to drive my Wilson Sabrina that are 4ohm (dip down to around 2ohm) and 87db sensitive. Based on your statement I should be worried about matching the X260.8 with the Sabrinas just based on specs the Sabrinas looks like a tougher load than your Focals.

@audphile1  The Maestro III are 3.5 way speakers. They dip down to 1.7 ohms at 110Hz.

I think only people who have owned Pass amps would be qualified to comment on how much heat they make, how they sound etc. (some comments here suggest the member is making an educated guess). I have a Pass 250.8 running Sasha 2 (with a Pass xp10 pre) in a 13 x23 dedicated listening room. Highly musical, powerful and smooth- I listen to jazz, funk, fusion. Contrary to what some people have said here, I'll confirm - the amp def runs hot and consumes 400 watts when powered on and idling. Much more when actually reproducing music. The room has no heat or AC and is in the basement. In the winter months the room gets down to 58 overnight. Within an 1-2 hours, with the amp on, the room is 68 and will hit 70. The rest of the year the room starts at 64 in the morning and when running the amp for a couple of hours it'll hit 72, sometimes 74. You can take a guess what these numbers would be if there were TWO big Pass amps running - 800 watts or more just at idle for starters. I have a pair of Bel Canto REF 600 m I pop into the system in July and August as they make no heat....I LOVE the Pass 250.8 and encourage anyone to consider their amps. The few I've had have all sounded great and work well with a wide variety of speakers I've had- Maggies, Cornwall 4, Focal 1038 BE, Sopra 2, Harbeth 30.2, SHLS5 Super, Sabrina and now Sasha 2.

First of all, I owned a x350 for over ten years__ granted in a fairly large room… but it never got more than warm. And some of you have $10K amplifiers and no air conditioning? Seriously?