Lamm 1.2 vs. Pass xa 60.5


Hi

I currently own a pair of pass xa 60.5 driving my vivid g3 speakers. I'm missing some juice out of the speakers (same conclusion reached by stereophile recent review with the same pair). I'm thinking of going with different amps and thought about lamm 1.2 hybrids. Anyone matched those 2 amps ? Any other opinion where to go after the pass 60.5 in the $15-20k budget ?
Thanks
icorem

Showing 2 responses by georgehifi

Hi, Icorem those G3 speakers looking at the Steophile test measurments have a current hungry bass, 4ohms and -40 degrees phase angle, also they need watts as well at only 86db efficiency.
I think the Lam's maybe be a bit of a sideways step, if you look at the Stereophile tests on both them and the XA-60.5, as there's not much difference in watts and current.

A suggestion as well if you want good current, bags of watts with the class A sound of the XA60.5. For the price you get for your XA-60.5 you could get a pair of these.

The John Curl (he's up there with Nelson Pass) designed Parasound JC1's will drive anything you can throw at them, even the impossible to drive at their best "Wilson Alexia's". I think they are the best value in big amps.
As you can see below, the watts just keep increasing with lowering impedance, this means they can give great current drive into any load and remain flat in frequency from 20hz to 20khz, instead of acting like a fixed tone control, like some wimpy amps do.

Tested at
8ohms=545watts
4ohms=1154watts
2ohms=2255watts
1ohm=4200watts

They also have one nice feature that let you switch them to much higher 25watts pure class A, still with 545w a/b for transients, (they run hot in this mode)which is good when you listen seriously, then you can switch it out to the lower class A bias, for dinner/parties or background music, and this will save the power bill and they run luke warm.

Cheers George
And also Kevinkwann it's not a question of better "sound" of the two amps, the OP's original question is "more juice for his Vivid g3". And the Lamm 1.2 is a step sideways in this regard.
Just look at Syntax's speakers 100db!!!, infinately easier to drive that the OP's 86db Vidid G3'3

Cheers George