Erik Y U Gotta Hate!

I do like D’Agostino.

While D’Agostino may be chosing to make euphonic amps he can’t possibly be doing the same thing Pass is, or making the same exact choices, therefore there’s absolutely no guarantee that anyone should like them equally. I mean, if that were true, then all Pass fans would love D’Agostino too, right?? Or why don’t all of you just give up and agree that CJ Premiere 8s were the best amplifiers ever and you are all just wasting money?? Those were very euphonic amps. My favorite of all times. Why should the CJ 8s sound like Pass or D’Agostinos?

I’m not trolling Pass, anyone who thinks that fails to read my statements fully or understand them. What makes Pass useful to the discussion of personal taste (or really euphonics) is that he’s told us he’s adding a secret sauce, and Stereophile has published pretty extensive data on the distortion profile.

I can’t find anything like that for Dagostino, therefore I can’t sit and look at two sets of charts to figure out why I like one and not the other.

Unfortunately, rather than having discussions about what makes Pass special what we are most discovering is how threatened Pass fans are.

If you truly loved Pass and felt they were the best, a question about why would not perturb you. Instead, the question of what makes Pass special is met mostly (but not all) with what amount to a mix of pro-Pass ads and slander.
My thread about why Pass people loved Pass was 90% pure fandom and 10% people willing to post specific comparisons and impressions, of which some were not positive.


One weird thing about Pass owners is they tend to act as if Pass was the only possible amp choice. When they talk about upgrading, it is only to other Pass amps. That's great, but trying to get an objective idea of WHY they like it is curiously difficult.


This is just not a discussion that can be had it seems, and that’s a shame.

Both Pass and D’agostino amps are designed with purpose, and that’s to achieve a certain sound (vs perfect measurements). I’ve already pasted comments above from D’agostino implying this.

Here’s the other side of it from Pass Labs via Hometheatrehifi.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/amplifier/pass-labs-xs-preamplifier-and-xs-300-pure-class-a-monoblock-power-amplifiers/

At 20 volts output, the B-A peak is at -42 dB. If I had just looked at the graph, but never heard the amplifier, I would have predicted some audible distortion. But it didn’t occur. Here is the reason. Pass Labs used extremely high quality parts, a massive power supply, and more than 100 output devices. They created the sound by changing a capacitor or resistor here and there, but these were not band aids to fix problems. They were there to create a pleasing sound, one that was similar to a Pure Class A triode power amplifier (50 watts) that they designed beforehand, and decided that they would build the Xs 300 to mimic that sound, but not be deficient in the bass or high frequencies.

This should answer your question what people like about Pass Labs (for the same reason someone would like D’agostino amps).

To the couple Eric lovers, you must be blind, just look at his history of starting anti Pass Labs threads.
And this one started by markum01 OP is just a "retaliation thread" to the dirt digging anti Pass one Eric posted just 22hrs beforehand, wake up and smell the roses.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/stereophile-pass-integrated-and-personal-taste

Be careful George you'll get your post censored and removed like I did by the almighty mods.