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Pass XA-160 and Avalon Eidolon

I'm thinking about purchasing the xa-160's, because of the raving reviews.

I heard the spectral 360's on the Eidolon's and found myself getting tired after about 2 hours of listening. Was to 'fast' for me?

Therefor I'm thinking about the xa-160's; a warmer and more lush sound, but still great control and dynamics.

Any experience in this combination??

Any other (pass, or others) SS suggestions, that sound controlled, a little warm and dynamic but not tiring??

Thanks for your reaction.
johnpf4

Showing 2 responses by johnsonwu

johnsonwu
467 posts
 
Depending on your room size you may or may not need 160Ws of class A power.

I have Eidolons driven by VAC PHI 70 monos, sometimes with Canary 309 (similar tube config) , and sometimes
counterpoint Natural Progression Mono w AltaVista upgrades.

I also have a good friend with Ascent IIs driven by Pass 350.5. My impression of the Pass .5 is that it's almost as good as it gets with Solid State. Plenty of well controlled bass to feed the hungry Ascent IIs. The Pass also has the added plus of not tiring to the ears.

Now back to Eidolons. I dont think Eidolons need a lot of bass control power / current (which the Spectrals are known for with Ascents and Radians). You need a pair of SMOOTH tube amps (Conrad Johnson too thick, Audio Research not smooth enough) such as VAC. I had the Vintage 100 Monos driving the Eidolons for a while before I bought the PHI 70s as my main reference.

A summary of my opinion: For Eidolons you do not need too much power, you need a good solid 50 Watts of smooth and stable music power, that's it.

-j. wu
johnsonwu
467 posts
 
I am not sure how much better / different the 33H monos are compared to the old ML-333.
When I just got the Eidolons about 6-7 years ago I was using the 333 to drive them and I must say it was so disappointing I thought the Eidolons were incompetent.
If the 33H sounds like the old silky ML2, then I would agree that they'd be a match.
If they sound anywhere near the 333 then it would be disastrous.
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