Pass Labs XA30.8

panerai557 OP
Do you think Pass Labs XA30.8 has enough power to drive 86 dBL Dynaudio focus 380 speaker well?

Can't find much measured info on those speakers, if they are true 4ohm you should be fine with the 30.8, because it gives 60w out then.
But if the speaker is more 8ohm with just a dip to 4ohms, the the 30.8 is only going to give 30w. Which at 86db may not be enough to go loud enough for you.

Cheers George 

I had a XA-30.5 for many years, I haven't hear the .8 series (yet).
First it was driving a pair of Watt Puppy 5.1's and then a pair of Sasha I's. Both of these speakers are difficult loads, in a 23' x 16' room played to lifelike volume levels.
This amp is by far the biggest over-achiever I've ever experienced.
Our system had Meridian 800 series digital components, upper tier MIT Oracle cables, Sound Application power conditioner and the room was well treated.
Our system was very revealing, and while multiple changes occurred the XA-30.5 was never the weak point. 
Highly recommended without hesitation.

I noticed there a lot of used bryston 4b3 amp for sale.What people don't like in sound?

Hey panerai557

Admittedly, it's been a while since I've heard my friends Bryston amps. He has the 600 wpc mono blocks (I don't know exactly which models he has) they were the model 3b's (I think), I know they were not the 4B's which I remember as sounding very good with his PMC large stand mount speakers. To my ears they were a little bright and slightly on the analytical side (for my taste) but had tremendous bottom end drive. All in all they did sound pretty good. 

I have owned the Pass Labs XA30.8 for over 5 years. This is one piece of equipment in my system that I just can't get rid of. No matter which speakers it's connected to or what preamp is in front of it, it always sounds fantastic. I'm very picky and if a piece of equipment isn't what I consider to be great and turns out to be just good, chances are I will sell it after 1 - 2 years. This is an amp I couldn't part with because it has a very special musicality. 

Do not be fooled by the 30 watts per channel rating. I had that amp connected to a pair of Magnepan 3.7i's with a pair of their DWM woofers wired in parrallel which drops the load down to a constant 2 ohms and it sounded unbelievable. I had that system for 3 years and really enjoyed it. It not only drove that load effortlessly, but it always remained musical! That load would have killed most amps out there but it just laughed at that load. For the money, and considering the reliability, and how musical it is, I think it would be tough to beat. All I can say is two words, Nelson Pass! 

Scot      

Have you heard an xa30.8!? It is far more powerful than 30w. It is rated at over 100w a/b into 8 ohms. It can easily drive a 4ohm load.

Pass Labs XA30.8 will not do it and Dynaudio focus 380 need more power to shine especially in the bass frequency as it will go below 4 ohm.

I'd recommed Luxman M-700u as it can give 120 W/8Ω to up to 840 W/1Ω instantaneously exploits the full potential of speaker characteristics under any load conditions.

I can't imagine you'd have any troubles driving those speakers with the XA30.8, especially at the listening levels that you indicated you prefer.  People seem to forget that doubling your wattage only increases to volume by 3dB.

Panerai557, have you considered trying the Wide Angle
version of HFT?

@panerai557 specifically with respect to your question on the difference in sound character between your existing Bryston 4B3 and a Pass XA30.8, the design goals of the two companies are different. If you like the way Bryston sounds, you may not like the way Pass sounds. And vice versa. I think it would be misleading to say going from one to the other gets you more of something, or is a general improvement, as opposed to what I would instead describe as changing the direction of your sound.

I have speaker spike feets from Herbie. They made noticeable improvement over the stock penny feets. I suppose Isoacoustics feets are better... but more money too.

I use an Ikea TV furniture for now, why would amp blocks make any difference, does seismic vibration affect electronics? Can I use something like this instead?

https://butcherblockacoustics.com/collections/rigidrack%E2%84%A2-audio-furniture/products/rigidrack%E2%84%A2-3-shelf-rack-1-thick-maple-shelves-1-walnut-legs

Paneri a more holographic soundstage will be accomplished by making a few changes:

1: Upgrade from the Niagra 1000 to an Audio Magic power conditioner 
2: Upgrade from the Rocket 88 not good enough for the system
3: Use footers undeneath the preamp and amp, Critical Mass are expensive but amazing.
4: Isoacoustics footers under the speakers will make a very noticable improvement.

After those tweeks then I might look at an improved amplifier.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ AQ, Audio Magic, Coda, Critical Mass, Isoacoustics dealers

Elizabeth, that's an interesting point you mentioned about AC receptacles. My dealer has been telling me that I should replace my $1 receptacles with Audioquest Edison. Perhaps I should change that first and see what differences it makes to my system before changing my current amp.

About my setup: I use AudioQuest Niagara 1000 power conditioner. From the wall AC to Niagara, I use AQ Thunder PC. My digital front end / preamp is Moon 390. I use Zu Event I PC for the 390 and 4B Cube. XLR IC is Siltect 550i. My speaker cable is AQ Rocket 88. My room is treated with 10 HFTs.

I honestly am happy with my current setup, but the improvement I am looking for is more holographic sound, stable imaging, depth, and tonal accuracy. I am not even sure if changing the amp will give me that or not, but by reading reviews on the Pass amp, I get the sense that it exhibits those sonic characters that I am looking for better than the Bryston amp. 

Panerai,

A tube like solid state there are many amps which sound somewhat tube like, however, none of these sound like a true tube product.

The issue may be other parts of your chain, what are you using for your preamp, digital and cabling?

Is the idea of switching amplifiers to create a more melodious sound? Is your current setup not musical enough for you? 

Sometimes the better choice may be chaning your digital front end or going to a tube preamp or both.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

audiotroy2,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have considered tube, and I owned lower end hybrid tube integrated amplifier previously. With my listening lifestyle, I think SS suits better. This is why I am considering the Pass amp because I read that it sounds very much like tube but without losing lower end power and details.

Dear Auditory,
Yes I mean the Bryston 4B Cubed (4B3). Bryston stopped using the SST naming convention after SST2 (squared).
Btw, just a tip: perhaps you ought to check your frequent posts for grammatical completeness and accuracy. It may help in your advertising campaign.

Panerai,

We have to note  a point with Dupac's comments, the Bryston 4B3 does he mean the SST3 series,  is a very different amplifier than the newer cubed series. 

Personally after being a Bryston dealer for a few years we found the Bryston amplifiers when paired with a tube preamp was the magic ticket.

Personaly we would agree that the Pass should be an even better sounding amplifier than the Byston which still sound a bit cooler to our ears than some of the other really great solid state amplifiers.

We would also strongly recommend that you also consider a Coda .8 which is a steal for the money, power rating is 150 watts with the first 18 being Pure Class A. The Coda was compared to a set of the way more expensive Pass X60.8 and found to compete very favorably with them.

Coda is from Doug Dale who was the senior engineer of Threshold with Nelson Pass. Pass left to form Pass Labs, Dale left and founded Coda.

Coda is not as well known but has a cult following for their remakable sound quality and price which tends to be lower than Pass for a very comparable amplifier. 

The new .8 series uses a massive 4k transformer coupled with a brand new output device this amplifier is rather remarkable, fast, smooth, and powerful.

One of the world's best amplifiers and very affordable.

As per power 20 or 30 watts will be more than enough with even an inefficient loudspeaker, you are close to the speaker and don't play that loud 

Good luck on your search.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Thanks Dpac996. Your response is certainly is encouraging and i am almost ready to pull the trigger. 

I'm not sure how much help this will be but I drove my Vandersteen 3A Sigs (87 dBL) in a room about your size with my Aleph 3 and found it did not have enough power for me.  The 30.8 may be different but the Aleph 3 is also a 30W amp and the speakers are close in sensitivity.

When I used this combo in a smaller room it worked well. Once I moved to the larger room it didn't.

The XA30.8 will totally have enough power to perform to your stated goals and then some. I used an XA30.5 on my Dynaudio Contour 60’s and was absolutely floored by how awesome it sounded; Drove them to perceived distortion free levels beyond which I normally listen, The XA30.8 has almost 6dB of headroom and is more like a 100 wpc into 8 / 200 wpc into 4 ohm. Pass rates the amps very conservatively; The first 30 wpc are in class A, the rest of the delivery in super clean AB mode.
( which is ~10 dB avg louder than your specs)...I was not expecting this result. Room is larger and wall to wall carpet and such.
As for comparison to Bryston: should be a noticeable improvement in resolution, front to back depth ("holographic"), much more refined treble, richer harmonic content across the board. More transparent and "live" feel; For a time I had a 4B3 with Dyn Contour S5.4 (Pass XP10 pre);
Go for it!