Integrated Amplifiers - Luxman vs Pass Labs

Hi tj-sully. Don’t get me wrong. Of course you are entitled to provide your experience on the Pass Labs amp which you own. I’m just providing information on the comparison between the Pass Labs and Luxman in response to the remark which you made about the transparency of the Pass. The reviews and YouTube video are perfectly valid as they are specific to this thread. The reviewer has compared both Luxman and Pass Labs integrateds while both of us only have experience with either one. Although useful impressions, it’s pretty much a one-sided affair.

Two things:

1) Very few posters in this thread have had Luxman and Pass amps in their systems at the same time. Our aural memory is shockingly short - some studies suggest as short as 15 seconds.

2) Opinions are all over the map.

When you are spending serious dollars on equipment, you need to listen for yourself, ideally comparing both brands in your system. Not always easy to do though.

One thing worth noting is that Pass integrateds are bare bones affairs. Luxman’s feature set is better. Plus they look nicer IMHO.

FWIW, I have no Luxman experience in my system. I own a Pass Labs XA30.5, driving high efficiency open baffle speakers (Spatial Audio M3 Sapphires). I enjoy this pairing so much that I would only move up the Pass Class A line, most likely just to the XA30.8. Incredible detail and a very nimble, delicate presentation (not sure why some say these Class A amps are “dark” or “slow”.)

@ryder, the Steve Huff comparison is between a Class A amp (Luxman) and a Class A/B amp (Pass). Perhaps the detail of the Luxman is a function of it being Class A?

Ryder man, stating the obvious. The op asked a question about Pass house sound. I responded in an effort to help. Ease up on the judgement please.