Used Pass 600monos or Rowland 8TiHC?

Never owned a Rowland or heard one for that matter, but I can tell you I had a pair of Aleph 2's. And the customer service at Pass was second to none.

I've had both the Rowland 9Ti's and the Pass 600's, both of which I just sold. The Rowland s had a "sweet" sound but were really unresolving and kind of boring. The Pass' were livelier and much more resolving, but not as sweet a midrange (vocals). I had the JC-1's for 10 days and they were superb. Resolving , sweet-sounding, imaging, you name it. They blew away the Rowlands and the Pass" in listenability, if I can coin a word.The only weakness in MY system was at relatively high volumes, they became distorted. Now I have vicious speakers to drive, Avalon Osiris with a nominal 4 ohm impedance, but with what is charitably described as a difficult load. I may get the JC-1's, only I plan to audition the big Krells first. As Always, YMMV.

David Shapiro

The Pass X600 is not out of production, nor will it be, according to Peter at Pass Labs. Give him a call for the straight scoop!

Cheers,

Quin

I agree with all the positive comments about Pass customer service- it is superb. Peter and Wayne are an absolute pleasure to deal with. I have two X350s and a D-1 driving my VMPS RM40s and the sound is to die for. The X350 also drove my ML Prodigies very nicely when I had those. The new PS Audio 250 Classic sounds very interesting for only $5K, and I think you can get a 30 day trial through PS Audio. New Llano Phoenix amps also "sound" very promising. I was thinking about getting the X600s for that price, they are a steal!

I have read over and over again that Rowland House sound is laid back and warm. But then people disagre. Someone calling it boring and someone calling it musically superb. I have only listen to the Model 2 with the best midrange (vocals) I have ever heard and I hope that 8TiHc would add the slam and dynamics that the small model 2 lacks. Anyone out there who has actually have 8tihc in there home for listning?