Pass Labs amps and Avantgarde speakers

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions! Since I posted my question in april I have been auditioning these amps:

- Pass Labs XA30.5
- Cary CAD300SEI
- T+A V10
- Border Patrol SE300B
- First Watt F2
- EAR/Yoshino V20
- DOXA 62 (handbuild Norwegian solid-state amp)

All of them have been auditioned over at least a couple of days, some for weeks and even months. These are all great amps and a number of them could have been the first choice (including the XA30.5) - it's basicaly a matter of personal taste, sonic preferences and how well it performes in your system.

I went with the Border Patrol SE300B which in my system balances everything perfectly and simply creates magic with the Duo's!

Nice ! bet it sounds great Mohano. Enjoy !

Hi Mohano,

I purchased the First Watt M2 about 7 weeks ago. I believe it is by far the best sounding solid-state amplifier I've ever heard with my Avantgarde loudspeakers. It is so tube-like and musical that I find myself listening for many hours at a time. The M2 has really surprised me. Last week I had a couple of friends over to listen. Each of them have been in the hobby for 50 years and are huge tube gear lovers. They were shocked at how good & tube-like the M2 sounds in my system. They were very impressed with the M2 and could not get over at how good solid-state can sound. If you get a chance, try and demo the M2 and tell us what you think. Nelson Pass is a genius! Take it easy

Mohano,
Your choice does`nt surprise me, a well bullt-high quality 300b SET with those speakers should sound wonderful! Congratulations.

Late followup to the original post.

I have just finished setting up these speakers with the Pass XA30.5 as my final music system.

This combination is purely amazing, both for music and movies. No lack of power for movies with the highly efficient speakers. Pure class A sweetness and dead silent noise floor (similar to Class D amps). The music when coupled with my BG radia in-wall BGX subs is musical sex. It is like being touched by God... goosebumps for everyone that has heard them. As close to heaven as I am liable to get on earth.

I did build a major room to go with this setup including a great deal of diffusion and bass trapping.

Look up Blazar on AVSforum and you will find my thread there with all the pictures.

The amp doesn't even get into temperature extremes which is also nice since I have the amp in a rack.

All of the optimistic speculation in this thread turned out to be basically true.