Pass Labs xa - .5 amps

I'm not a believer in the blanket statement that lower powered amps always sound better. In my experience amps should be reviewed case by case. While I have heard some lines of amps where a lower powered one sounded better to my ears, I have also heard the opposite to be true. All other things equal, I think higher powered amps do have their advantages.

I owned the Aleph 3 and 2 and I think the XA is more dynamic, and obviously so. I owned the Alephs so long ago that I can't say more about other specific comparisons, but the XAs are real current monsters and they have a lot of bass drive and pace. The high power/low power argument is proabably endless and subjective to some extent, but I still think that the same basic circuits with the differences based on output power will sound better IF the lower power is sufficient to drive the speaker to the right levels. IF not, than more power will have an advantage since insufficient power is proabably more of a liability than the benefits of the simpler lower power version of an amp. But I don't mean to sidetrack, other than to agree that overall the XA is an improvement over the Aleph in that it maintains the former's virtues while adding improved bass and dynamic performance (the Aleph is still a great sounding amp, and with certain speakers the difference in drive might not even be noticeable)

Well the XA-30.5 is here and it sounds wonderful - powerful, punchy, and very transparent. It's been running for about 5 hours now and I've noticed marked improvement just in that period of time - thin and bright when I first plugged it in, but that's all but gone now. I'm sure the buck-a-foot Monster Cable that I'm using isn't helping matters any (the only able I had with spade connectors.)

Any recommendations for speaker cables?

Leave it in standby between use.

Do not power it down.

Have fun.

I used a Nordost Hemindall speaker cable with Focal Electra 906 and Pass X2 pre. and run very well, but im searching a Xlr cable between pre and power, ideas?

Im think in focal micro utopia but are a 89 db what do you think?