Does anyone own the Pass Labs X1 preamp?

I had never considered Spectral myself because of hearing other opinions similar to yours Platsolos. What changed my mind was hearing a Spectral system at Overture in DE. That system was anything by dry and non-musical. As a result I couldn't help but to purchase a system for myself. I can say for sure that my system is more musical now than ever.

The Spectral stuff is very revealing of what is going on upstream. Bad sounding CDs and LPs sound a bit worse than they did with my previous system. Use of compression on recordings, for example, is much more noticable (and more annoying).

On the plus side though, recordings that previously sounded just average have taken on new life. Removing the layer of noise that was present in my other components has allowed me to better appreciate the sound of average recordings.

I would imagine that Spectral might not be everyone's cup of tea. I do think though that their stuff is worthy of an audition. JMHO

Ken

Quinn, your X-1 review was right on. Keith Yates is a renowned designer for big bucks theater systems and always has an eye open for the best. This is what he has said about Nelson Pass products:

"I typically specify the speakers, subs and processors that go into my
projects. I'm increasingly being called on to spec the power amps and
source components, too.

Pass Labs, in my opinion Nelson Pass is the only real genius circuit
designer in high-end audio. There are a few others whose parts- and
build-quality are at least as good (Burmester and Rowland come first to
mind, and maybe Spectral, Levinson and Boulder, too), but no one
combines execution and sheer circuit-inspiration as completely as
Nelson."

Gotta put a plug in in for the SF Line 3. It doesn't sound at all grainy to me. Not saying that it is the best tube preamp but it definitely is on the short list of the most for the money tube preamp. The only complaint that I have is that it doesn't have quite enough gain to drive my Bryston 4BST when using the digital TV box for a source. OK, I know that I am off topic and will get back to the thread. From looking at Pass Lab's specs and reviewing owners comments one thing that stands out is that NOBODY complains about the Pass Labs products performance. It looks like state of the art SS to me. If you buy the X1 then you probably will have no complaints.

I owned the Pass X1 for about a year, then sold it. Not because I disliked it, but I wanted to get away from using any preamp, and rely instead on my CDP's volume control. The X1 is very transparent, slightly lean/dry in the mids, very tight in the bass, and highly refined in the treble. Soundstage is just what's in the source, no more or less. I prefered X1 to comparably-priced preamps like ARC LS-25 and Levinson 380S. But if your system is already analytical, the X1 may take it over the top. Really should try it out if possible....