Good match preamp for Pass labs 250.5

Pre 2000 CJ will do just fine.

Ilv, I have been using either the Pass Labs X-350.5, and recently a pair of XA-100's in my system and both have sounded gorgeous with the Placette Dual Mono Active Line Stage.

I'm a great fan of Nelson Pass designs, his preamps have alot to offer, however, in my system, the Placette allowed his power amps to really shine in my system. Guy Hammel's, that Mr. Placette, other preamp which is a passive line stage offers about 80% of the performance of the active linestage and costs $1500.00 compared to $4500.00 for the active linestage. I auditioned seven different preamps, both tube/ss, and choose the Placette because of its sonic virtues and overall performance.

I'm assuming you love your new X-250.5, Pass really nailed it in the X-.5 series, they really are beautiful sounding amps. Well, I hope you put the Placette on your audition list, you get a 30 day home trial period and Guy is a great gentleman to do business with.

I once emailed Nelson Pass a question about matching tube preamps with the X-series amps. He reported that customers had good results with a wide range of preamps. The Audible Illusion preamps were the only ones that seemed to be a problematic match with the Pass amps.

Go buy a Pass X-1 and be done with it. The quality of sound, customer service and experience will not be beaten. I own all pass equipment and love it.

I've just bought the X350.5. Am waiting for it to show up at my door any day now. Another friend also has the X350.5 and paired it with both an ARC Ref 2 Mk I and a Pass X0.2. We were over there the other day trying to help him decide which preamp to keep. It was a hard decision as some music sounded better with one than the other. The Pass actually sounded warmer and more natural than the ARC. It was a toss up. We would be happy with either one. At the end we voted for the ARC as it allows you to modify the sound with NOS tubes.

I will be mating mine with an ARC LS-25 Mk I with GNSC's (Great Northern Sound Company) reference level mod and a set of white label Amperex 7308 tubes.

FrankC