What's a good alternative to Pass Labs?

I'm familiar with your amp and preamp. Your issue is your preamp/dac. I think this is the 1st time I've ever heard anyone describe the x250.5 as bright.

I'm not familiar with your speakers.

If you want a forgiving amp, look for so,etching with tubes,,but not AR

Why don´t you try an external power supply unit with the Mac Mini. Thus you will avoid distortion coming from the Mac.

Daniel

I'm in agreement with the others, as I find it hard to believe the Pass amp is the problem. This review on the Pass Labs X250.5 describes the high frequencies as natural, which has been my experience with other Pass products.

This may be the review for your T+A Criterion TCD 110 S that Tom is referring to. The part about being "shouty" is toward the end, but prior to the "Conclusion" section.

IMHO, the issues you describe are not related to each other, so making a single change will not solve both problems. As Peterayer suggests, speaker/room interaction may be a problem.

If you don't use the subs, do you still have the mid-bass bloat? Also, curious as to the cables you are using, digital, IC's, and SC's.

Tls49 is correctnwith the link: here isk the paragraph in question~ "When I moved on to Lara Ruggles’s “Snowflake,” also from Sony’s AR1 SACD Sampler, I found that voices through the Criterions sounded less colored than through my reference B&W 802 Diamonds. The T+As’ midrange actually reminded me a lot of what I heard while listening to this track through Wilson Audio’s Sophia 3s -- Ruggles’s voice was vibrant, with excellent timing and depth, but also a bit harder and cooler at higher volume levels than through the PMCs or B&Ws. This brings me to my one and only criticism of the Criterions: Like the Wilsons, when the T+As are pushed hard, the upper midrange can sound a bit tilted up and teeter on sounding sharp, most notably with female voices. That’s not to say that their tweeters become noticeable, as do the Sophias’ -- they don’t -- but with some recordings, the Criterions’ CD arrays could sound a hint shouty".

I too think you are looking in the wrong place. Trying to find a better amp than the Pass that fits your speakers perfectly in the areas you are not happy with will be an enormous task. And likely not fruitful.

In the realm of SS amps I would never classify Pass as bright.