Pass Labs XA25 without preamp (from a variable output source) vs INT25

Thanks!

I knew that thread. I have searching but I have very little info about using the XA25 without preamp. I´d love to hear from someone who tried the XA25 this way.

Thanks again!

Have you compared the sound with and without preamp? If so, could you please elaborate the differences between both ways of use?

Thanks!

@avanti1960 Have you tried to drive the XA25 directly bypassing the Cary in yor system? I´d love to hear your comments if you try it. BTW I owned a SLP98 many years ago driving Cary 300SE monoblocks. Nice preamp but with awful sounding signal caps inside (oil1 caps). I replaced them with Hovland Musicaos and the sound improved tremendously in every possible area (transparency, detail, timbre, soundstage, bass control, etc)

Thanks!

@chorus Thanks for sharing your experiences. 🙂 When you replaced your XA-25 for the INT25 you say you didn´t notice a SQ improvement but, did you feel you loosed "something" with that move? Which speaker do you have?

Thanks!

@hilde45 Thanks for the update! Much appreciated!

Just noe more question. Did you use the same DAC when using the XA25 with and without the preamp?

BTW it´s not a surprise you only get 78dB cause XA25 has only 20dB of gain so if droven directly by a source and without a preamp that source must be one with more than the 2V CD standard voltage.

Thanks again!

@hilde45 Did you control de output level of the Orchid DAC with the Bluesound? If so then I think you are loosing bit depth resolution performing attenuation in the digital stream instead at the core of the DAC (modern DAC perform digital attenuation at much bit depth inside the DAC). If the Bluesound has a modern DAC (i.e. ESS or AKM) that performs digital attenuation at DAC core and at much higher bit depth I suggest you to try the variable output of the Bluesound directly to the XA25 and please share your impressions with us. Althougn maybe is a lower quality DAC than the Orchid I think you´ll have way better results this way if variable output is used.

Thanks!!

P.S.: SOrry about my Englis grammar. I´m not english native spoken.

@avanti1960 I used extensively passive preamps in the past too (some Audio Synthesis units)  but that is a much more complicated way to achieve nice results than using just a source with high quality variable output into an amp.

With a passive preamp between source and amp you must take seriously some considerations like having a low source output impedance, a low cable capacitance and a high input impedance of the amp (and of course high output and an amp with hig sensitivity). It´s very easy to have a mismatch and get a poor sound with a system with a passive preamp. So unless everything is on set it´s better to avoid using passive preamps.

Getting nice results with a source driven directly an amp is way much easier so if you´ve got bad experiences with passive preamps in the past I strongly suggest to not extrapolate that experiences and  give the "source direct to amp" way a chance, may you´ll like the results.

I

I´d like to say that I´d love to hear that going direct to XA25 route brings spectacular results but I have my worries. A more transparent and pure sound? I´m sure. A "leaner" (cleaner) sound than with a preamp? Of course but as I´ve said I don´t want to get an overall lean sound so here my interest to hear from anyone that have tried both ways with this amp.