Best Tube Amp For Sonus Faber? Or Pass XA-100.5? $6-7,500 Budget, Purchasing Used.

I owned the XA60.5, 30.5 and the 100.5 as well. The 100.5 where a lot better in all parts compared to the 60.5.

We are not talking only about more power adn control. The stage is wider and deeper. But the sound is a lot more involving and realistisc sounding.

I also was impressed about the 30.5. The 60.5 did not convince me at all for their price.

People often forget what diversity in sound is and what it does. In this part Pass Labs is in a league of its own.

Audio Research has more what I call a sound. This means an involving sound. With less diversity in sound in the whole frequency range.

It sounds like the low, mid and high frequency sound more the same. Diversity in sound is the most important part to feel emotion of the music.

Because the emotion is inside the music. Diversity in sound will create more layers and emotion during listening.

abrew19,

I was told by people involved with the company that the 60.5's would not be a good match due to the requirements of my Sonus Faber Olympica III's. They are 4 ohms, are rated at 90DB sensitivity (which I think is definitely inflated) and drop down to 2 ohms at times. I tried a very good pair of tube monoblocks capable of 65 wpc and they were not sufficient. 

If the 60.5's seem likely to power your speakers, I would re-read the Stereophile review of them, where John Atkinson called them the finest amps he has ever auditioned. 

I have been to Houston a number of times for work, and I would be concerned about the heat output of the 100.5's too!

JC

If the 60.5’s seem likely to power your speakers, I would re-read the Stereophile review of them, where John Atkinson called them the finest amps he has ever auditioned.

There are very, very few reviewers whose opinions I respect, and JA is definitely NOT one of them.
Frankly, I don’t think JA can hear at all. I learned to ignore any comment from him decades ago.

That’s not a swipe at the XA-60.5’s, I’m sure they work fine with the right speakers.

The ARC Ref 5 preamp is not a great combo with any Pass labs poweramp. We auditioned it with different Pass poweramps.

The limitation is based on the fact that stage depth and width is not like other pre amps are able to create.  It makes the stage less deep and wide. But also in speed and timing it is not at a reference level. Beside this the level in details is also limited. We could proof both in details in the high frequencies and even in the layering in the middle frequencies that they ARC Ref 5 was not able to show the these information we could create.

Both XP-20 ( which I owned for 2 years) and the ARC Ref 5 preamp are also limited in individual focus of instruments and voices. 

This means that they are both not able to create an intimate and physical image of voices and instruments.

I had different conversations with Desmond Harrington about the lack of individual focus of voices and instruments.

You need to understand how voices and instruments are being projected into space and how big they are.

I created Statement Audio Pro measurement what brings any Pass Labs poweramp to a superior and new level.

It creates a superior level in details but also in diversity in sound. There are so much more layers compared to the XP-20 and ARC Ref5.

I can create an even higher level about 6 times each year. We are at a level now that the energy of instruments can be felt separately. And even the energy of instruments can stand in a different perspective of depth.

The acoustics limits the quality of a poweramp so much. Without roomcorrection it is not possible to create this stunning level we can achieve at this moment.

We also can play a lot louder in pure class A with Pass labs X-series amps compared to the XP-20.

Now we have ideas to use conservatorium students to explain people what diversity in sound means and does with our emotion. We want to use instruments and real voices to show people how small and direct they are in real.

We can proof now that with Statement Audio Pro music comes so much closer to how music sounds in real. We are born perfectionists and we want to create the best level in realism possible.