Pass Labs XP-20 Volume Output Level


I recently purchased a XP-20 preamp. I have a question to other owner of this preamp about how loud your system is with the XP-20. My system is a Bryston 14b sst amp, Esoteric X-05 cd player, B & W 801 matrix II speakers and the XP-20 preamp. Preamp is connected to the amp via XLR connection. The Bryston amp has switches for a 6db boost with the XLR connection which is being used. My system does not play that loud. I am listening at full volume to my music and it is not that loud. We can have a normal conversation at full volume. I sent the preamp back to Pass Labs thinking that there must be something wrong with it. They checked it out and told me everything is normal. They really had no answer for my low volume output. With my old preamp which is the Bryston bp-25 I could not turn the volume past 65%. It would just be too loud to listen to beyoud that. It would not be possible to listen at full volume, the 14b is pushing 600 watts per channel. With the XP-20 at full volume output is about equal to 50% of the Bryston bp-25 output. Are any other owners having this problem? Any help would be appreciated.
benjie

Showing 1 response by almarg

Wow, that's a real puzzler.

According to Stereophile's measurements of the BP25 and the XP-30 (the XP-30 being spec'd identically in terms of maximum gain to the XP-20), the XP-20 is likely to have about 7 db less gain than the BP25. But that doesn't seem like nearly enough of a difference to account for what you are describing.

Although I'd assume you are not using a subwoofer in conjunction with 801's, just to be sure, are the outputs of the amp connected to anything besides the 801's? If by any chance they are, since your amp has bridged outputs (with the negative output terminals of the amp therefore providing signals rather than being grounded), I'm thinking that differences in grounding between the two preamps could perhaps bring out a problem if the amp outputs are connected to anything containing powered circuitry.

Also, I believe the 801's have overload protection circuitry, and an LED that illuminates if an overload is detected. If so, are you sure that it is not illuminating?

Finally, do you still have the BP25, so that you can verify that the system still functions as it used to before you started using the XP-20? Or if not, is there some other preamp you could try?

That's about all I can think of at this point. Good luck.

-- Al