laaudionut
Responses from laaudionut
| 8-10k budget suggestions please My first foray into high end audio had me originally lusting after a pair of B&W, they were aesthetically a good looking product with a great pedigree...it was the house monitor at Abby Road Studios, mind you. I was able to audition several mo... | |
| 8-10k budget suggestions please Come on...the syrupy and homogenized sound of McIntosh is the only thing that COULD sound good with the fatiguing and overly bright house sound of B&W. You are attempting to start fresh, so raise your listening expectations. | |
| 8-10k budget suggestions please Sell the 804's and add the money to the total budget. Building something special around speakers of questionable listening qualities is bordering futile. No offense... | |
| recommendation of amps Coda checks all of your boxes! I have had Pass XA monos(both the 60.8 and 160.8) and my Coda Model 16 outperforms them both in my listening space and paired with my other gear. | |
| Tube or solid state In my opinion, the speaker and the room are what you hear and feel the most. With that stated, I have always preferred a high powered, class A amp(in my case a Coda Model 16) paid with a tube preamp/line stage(Aric Audio Motherlode) and tube phono... | |
| Tube Preamp for Pass XA25 under $3,000 Suffice it to say, I second @mesch and his suggestion on reaching out to Aric. Happy New Year! | |
| Tube Preamp for Pass XA25 under $3,000 Gain matching is why I had suggested Aric Audio, as he builds adjustable gain control into every preamp/linestage he makes. The Pass amps like far more gain than the Backert can deliver. Therefore, you will never know what the XA is capable of. A... | |
| Tube Preamp for Pass XA25 under $3,000 Aric Audio, without hesitation! I had both the XA60.8, as well as the XA160.8 paired with the Pass XP20 and the sound was anemic and boring. I then added the Aric Audio Motherlode and those big Pass amps sprung to life. Call him to discuss your ne... | |
| DACs that do well without a preamp @alan_a , like everything in our esoteric hobby, "your own results may vary". In my case, I connected my HD30 directly to a Coda Model 11 and fed to a pair of PSB Stratus Golds and I was very pleasantly surprised with the sonic results. Perhaps in... | |
| DACs that do well without a preamp I had to stand up a separate system during a renovation and found that my Hegel HD30 Dac performed beautifully when placed between streaming source and amp without a preamp. I bought it specifically for this possibility, as it has fantastic volume... | |
| Which preamp to go with pass labs x150.8 Aric Audio! His preamps are a sublime pairing with SS gear. I have the original Motherlode first paired with Pass monos and now with a Coda Model 16 and I cannot speak enough about his tube knowledge, craftsmanship and customer service. | |
| Pass labs upgrade path @jc4659 I do not want to hijack this Pass thread and muddy it in any way and give the impression that I am not a fan of Pass amplification, which I am indeed. I was hesitant to move away from monos, which I have employed for a very long time. With... | |
| Pass labs upgrade path The Motherlode has single ended outputs that fed the Pass amps, now a Coda Model 16. He also has gain control on all of his preamps I believe so it pairs well with most solid state amps. | |
| Pass labs upgrade path Just to make certain that I was not out of my head prior to ditching the Pass preamp, I inserted a borrowed McIntosh C2300 into my system to see how it would behave. Even with the "homogenized" sound profile of the Mac Preamp, the Pass amps came t... | |
| Pass labs upgrade path When I owned the XA60.8 followed by the XA160.8 paired with the XP20 I could not understand why two fantastic amps could be so underwhelming. I replaced the XP20 with the XP30 and still was far from impressed. Could it be the Pass preamps?! I inse... |