Amplifier recommendation for Legacy Focus 20/20

Flyfisher: Your mentioning this reminded me of something i overlooked in my previous comments in this thread. My Father REALLY loved when i brought over a Nelson Pass built & designed amp for him to use. It sounded very sweet, airy, delicate and liquid within his system. I remember him saying that it was the most impressive amp that he had ever heard, but he was disappointed in the lack of "oomph" on the bottom end. This was prior to me modifying his speakers, replacing the speaker cabling, changing preamps and swapping out interconnects in his system though. In effect, he had a very different sounding system than he does now.

As i've commented in the past, i've never found any of the Pass designed amps to have "bottom end wallop" that some other amps deliver. The bass does sound very "natural" even though it lacks "slam" and "impact". The newer .5 series of amps are supposed to address some of these areas and there is no reason that you couldn't impliment some of these changes / parts upgrades to the existing X250 that you have. Either way, you have a very nice amplifier as it is and i'm glad that you like it.

I would look carefully at the cabling that you use between the amp and the speakers. This can really make a huge difference in my experience, regardless of those that say that speaker cables are all the same. Making sure that you also have a 20+ amp circuit to feed the amp and a good quality power cord will also add a bit more icing to the cake, which may be all that you're looking for. Sean
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I have a dedicated line which I had put in for audio purposes years ago. Since then we have rearranged furnishings and plugging the amp into this outlet would require a 12 to 15 ft power cable. Is this too long?

No comments on the X1???

Well, I would think if it's a little bright, selling the CJ and buying the X1 won't help things. I've never heard of a CJ preamp considered to be the source of brightness. Maybe a Cary SLP-98 will smooth out that Pass. I love most of Pass' work. I love his old Threshold gear. I love his Aleph series for Pass, the X series I found a bit more sterile. I understand the XA-series is supposed to help address that issue.

Regards,
John

So long as you can maintain solid connections and minimize voltage drop through the cord, i don't see any problems with doing so. After all, other than an extra point of connections, it would be the same thing as running longer Romex to a closer outlet.

As to mating an amp to a preamp from the same manufacturer, i typically find this to be too much of a good thing. That is, the engineers / designers that built the gear typically have a specific sound or type of circuit design that they like to use. This typically results in a "house sound". Compounding multiple components with the same house sound can result in an over-abundance of that sonic signature. That is, unless you REALLY like that sound. As such, i typically find better results by mixing and matching components.

Others may bring up the point that one has a better chance of finding "system synergy" by using gear that was designed to work together from day one, but as mentioned above, i find that there are potential drawbacks. Obviously, how noticeable this is will depend on the individual components and / or manufacturer of the gear. Cosmetically speaking, it's typically hard to beat using the same manufacturer for multiple pieces of gear, but in my book, cosmetics come second to performance. Sean
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