Pass/musical fidelity for focal scala

With the type of gear you are looking at, its easy to make an expensive mistake. You don't mention a preamp. If you neglect/overlook the preamp, there will be a huge price to pay down the road. Also, the Oppo will most likely be outclassed by your other components. Put the whole system together, from source to speakers, and give equal attention to each. Even if you can't buy everything all at once, you still need to do it this way for best results.

"Yes, i'm a newbie to this hobby.. Just trying to enter this audio hobby slowly, that's why i make the priority on the focal scala first, amp second n everything else slowly"

I think you're right to enter this hobby slowly. But if you want to go slow, you have to actually do it that way. I know what I would pick if the choice was between the Pass and MF amps you list. If you take my advice, though, it does you no good. To do it right, you must decide. Either amp will drive the speaker with no problems.

Here's one piece of advice I can give you. When you are new to audio, amps and speakers are the exciting purchases. When you have some experience and kind of know what your are doing, preamps and sources are the exciting purchases.

More advice. Don't fall into the cable trap. Match all of your components properly and the cables will take care of themselves.

One of my Pass amps burst into flames the first time I plugged it in. Great sounding amp though. Pass has a reputation for building very reliable products. The vast majority of them don't catch fire.

"07-11-14: Abucktwoeighty
I find all purchases are exciting, even with experience."

Of course they are. I was just saying that it takes most beginners some time before they see how important sources and preamps are. Personally, I feel that the preamp is the most important and hardest component to get right. If you mess up and get the wrong one, the system will never sound right.

Didi1606,

Do you live near an Ayre dealer? I think it would be well worth your time to demo some of their products if at all possible. My favorite SS company.

"07-12-14: Didi1606
Thx zd542 for ur exp sharing.. Nope, nowhere near my place... How about the heat?? Mf/pass.. Is it really hot so i cannot touch with the bare hand?"

"07-12-14: Didi1606
Thx jdoris.. Btw, is there any chance that a new beginner like me can hear the difference between class A or a/b one.. Regarding the heat, is it safe to use the Class A all day long? My city here don't have any audio specialty brand.. So i must prepare the time and narrow the list.."

I don't want to sound like a broken record but you did ask for advice and said you wanted to go slow getting into this hobby. By the looks of it, you are going as fast as you can go. I see one of two possible outcomes here. You will either get very lucky and pick components that you will be happy with for a long period of time, or you will spend a lot of money and have a train wreck. With equipment this detailed, a train wreck is the most likely outcome. There's no way to bypass the experiences that end up shaping your personal tastes. Its going to happen. The only variable is how it is going to happen. The choice is yours, so I'll leave it at that.

I don't recall the heat from my Class A Pass amps to be any type of problem. Yes, they get hot, but it was never something that bothered me. I don't recall whether I could touch the amps without getting burned, or not. If you live in a hot climate and don't have A/C, that may be cause for concern. Otherwise, no.

"07-13-14: Didi1606
Really nice of you two to share it.. I know every equipment must be equally to get a "better sound.. Right now my budget for something around 5-10k.. So my priority is getting the amp first, later to get everything else done.."

I just want to clarify my last post. I wasn't saying you need to buy everything right now. Very few people have the means to do it that way. One piece at a time is perfectly OK. When I say you are going too fast, I mean that you are going to buy expensive, specialized equipment, without the knowledge and experience you need to make a good choice for yourself.

Here's a good example of a very common problem. You buy the JM Labs speaker and a Pass amp. After a month or two, the high frequencies start to bother you. They're a bit harsh and unnatural sounding. You don't enjoy listening to music anymore, and you now find that you need to fix the system so you can listen to it. At this point, you start a thread here on Audiogon asking for suggestions on what to do. Here's a list of recommendations you are going to get.

You need to buy a tube preamp.
You need to change your cables.
You need to clean your AC up by running dedicated lines to your system.
You need to buy speakers that don't have metal tweeters.
You need to buy a tube amp.
You need to buy a better source.
You need to treat your listening room with various acoustic products.

You may get other recommendations, as well, but the ones I list above, you'll definitely get. So looking at all this, what would you do? Where would you begin?