Love the Avanti1960 threads. My auditions and ultimate purchases have somehow closely paralleled Tony. Currently Technics 1210gr or Marantz SA8005 feeding a Cary SLP05 to PS Audio BHK 300 to Stirling LS3/6 and REL T7s. Along the way seriously considered Rogue, Para sound A21+, Pass 30.8, and various Harbeth's.
The ST100 was a great sounding amp. Excellent sound stage Good bass and dynamics. Very good refinement. Occasionally a little shouty in the midrange. Ultimately missing the highest highs and the deepest lows and great micro dynamics and quickness. The XA25 has the frequency extremes and is so quick electronically that notes appear instantaneously making the presentation scary real at times. I get slightly startled by how quickly some sounds appear out of nowhere. The pace and timing is right on too, again making it sound more life like. The other standout feature of the sound of this amp is the contrast in volume of different instruments compared to every other amp I have owned. A bass guitar will suddenly be noticeably louder than the rest of the mix, or an acoustic guitar in the right channel will do the same thing for example. It is very cool. I have never noticed this kind of contrast with any other amplifier, never made me take notice.
Congrats on your 25. Glad you are giving it time, looks like it's paying off. I bought a Pass XA30.5 13 yrs ago, the following year I bought their XA100.5 monos... still have them both. I found putting a good tube preamp in front of them to perform music magic for me and I'm a BIG tube 'amp' fan. fwiw... they have been in constant use and have never had a hiccup.
Listening yesterday afternoon for a few LPs and the sound can be summed up as "enjoyable". The sound is enjoyable on all levels and has a perfect balance of detail and forgiveness. The midrange is definitely a bit forward, which I really like. Highs are perfect. The amp continues to burn in, I put back in the brighter Sylvania tall boy tubes which caused the original harshness and that has all but disappeared. Not gone completely with those tubes but greatly reduced. I'll continue to listen and report back more impressions as the amp completes the ~ 4 week burn in time.
Iwas following this post and waiting for you to come to this conclustion . Enjoy your amp and use it in good health .
amp is taking a back step- sound keeps changing back and forth- the tonal balance keeps shifting slightly. ~ 200 Hrs and 3-weeks of use.
Do you ever consider the possibility other factors may cause the differences you hear? Mood? Power? What you had for dinner? Music selection? This happens to me on occasion where my system just sounds a bit off. I usually attribute it to my mood.
Have you turned it off at all during those 3 weeks? I know amps sound better if they’re warmed up, but maybe there’s a limit to that and it eventually needs to be turned off once in a while in order to regain its composure before turning it back on again.
Right. No matter what system I've got playing, it varies. And biggest sources of that variation by a huge margin is source material and my mood. The rest don't change much.
That's the nice thing about tubes in an audio chain - you can often use them as tuning devices to get the right balance of sound you are looking for. I am doing that right now with my Manley Shrimp preamp.
Agreed. I found that using a tube preamp with an SS power amp makes a huge difference. Far more satisfying in my case.
totally normal I hope you close the amp every day for a hour of so.. caps need to decharge a bit before plugging it up again
I am not discounting these factors but the differences are so obvious. Possibly "source" warmup, e.g. my CD player. But not on phono where the phono preamp is constantly powered on. Also the amp has been several hours before I make these observations. On the same LP it has sounded slightly bass heavy and then more neutral in the same listening session.
