Pass Labs XA25 Anyone?

Super happy to hear that the end result is you're pleased with the amp Tony. As I said early in the thread, this particular amp is one which is high on my list and I'm envious! Glad you ignored the impatient chicken-little types suggesting doom at your initial uncertainty.

Cheers,
Robert

 

I guess it stopped changing and finally came into its own, you got your reward….congrats!

 

I took a while for our Aleph J to settle down.

 

yes but this helped in the mean time!

 

definitely both.

 

thanks slippers.

 

definitely the sound has improved. no longer hearing the original treble harshness on my demo tracks.

 

thanks ! 90 hrs.

 

thank you !

 

thanks Robert !

 

That's great! Congrats!

 

Not a problem, I know your passion for great sound. I guess the only other thing with the Pass amp as time rolls on.....is it to polite? This is usually determined after a while of living with it.

 

i hope not, no mention of being too polite by anyone and it's been available for 4 years+.

 

Oh man...plant that seed bud.

 

Sounds like smooth sailing from here on

 

There are many who think Pass can be polite. Could be personal preference.

 

Those where my thoughts before I posted it. In my listening to Pass gear I didn't find it was to polite at all. But others who also listened to the CODA, Levinson and Pass thought Pass was Polite.

 

i think the xa25 has a different character than other PL amps.

 

thanks G, yes sir, i am going to enjoy the ride....

 

The Parasound a21+ was / is very polite, the most polite amp i have ever owned.

 

Not only is it good to hear that your perseverance has paid off but, just personally, it's pleasing to know that 25 watts is plenty enough to drive such an esteemed speaker. Congratulations!

Do I remember correctly that you owned Spendor D7s before the Harbeths? Have you written about that changeover here?

 

Others will likely point out, the XA25 is very 'conservatively' rated at 25W. It actually puts out well over that into 8 and 4 ohms.

At 'clipping' (defined by Stereophile as 1% THD+noise) "the XA25 delivered 80Wpc into 8 ohms (19dBW) and 130Wpc into 4 ohms (18.1dBW)" ... Pass Laboratories XA25 power amplifier Measurements there are some 'caveats' but seems like it does put out more than 25W in most instances ...

and the Harbeths are >6 ohms over the entire audio band Harbeth Super HL5plus loudspeaker Measurements

I don't know what the "convolution" of those two are, but ... guesstimating that 60W or so can be reached before any significant distortion sets in. Even at the moderate 86dB/W/m sensitivity, this would result in high SPL levels (94dB or so).

 

You think so? I find they all have that same Pass character with differences in power while doing things a little different in presentation...at least in thise that I've heard.

 

I've heard the Pasrasound once....the a21 years ago. All I remember about it was the powerful bass. Lots of positive speak about the a21+ these day. Wouldn't mind taking in a listening session. Lots of times politeness can be fixed with different interconnects and system matching.

 

Excellent points. It's obviously too easy to get an incomplete picture just by skimming the specs

Also interesting, from the same Stereophile review "It appears from the shape of the traces in these graphs that Pass specifies the XA25's power as when the THD+N is close to 0.01%."

I'm really only familiar with the First Watt amps, whose power is rated at the (usual?) 1% THD.