Pass Labs AMP’s- What is the best Pass Amp Sound for You from past 10 years

I took an X350 home one weekend in 2002 for an audition. 19 years later- this past February I switched to the new X260.8 monos. My son has the X350 now. I’m using these amps with an ARC Ref 5SE and Thiel CS6 speakers and Purist Audio cables throughout. I can play it loud for me and the needles don’t move. I was nervous that I might feel the loss of the few watts difference from the X350 but no. It took some time for them to break in. Every time I listen now the sound stage is startlingly clear and focused. The highs are crisp and fast. That’s the best way I can describe it.

The only solid state amp outside of Odyssey I'd want is a Pass Labs.

The only solid state amp outside of Pass Labs that I would own is CODA, and that is what I own!

I got my first F4 (actually I built it) to serve as a zero-gain bass amp to augment my Coincident Franks, but unfortunately biamping on the PREs just kills their coherency (I've tried both active, with the Lygdorf, and passive, with the F4)... even with the Franks providing the F4's input signal from their speaker posts.  When I finally ran the F4 alone I was shocked to find that it was better than all the other amps I'd tried with the PREs. 

Previously, the Franks (currently up for sale) had won every shootout, but they simply don't have enough bass control for the PREs and I was forced to move on.  Super happy that I stumbled onto this amazing speaker/amp synergy, however. 

Thanks so much for sharing your power amp journey, probably the most useful I've ever come across-especially because it compares, at least in some important ways, respectable 300B SETs like the Franks with the First Watt F4. "They have a bit of the sweetness of my 300b SET amps, but both clarity and bass control that beats out all the other amps I've auditioned on these speakers.  The soundstage is expansive, imaging is precise, and there is absolutely no harshness or grain... an important quality with the accuton ceramic tweeters on the PREs.

Exactly what speakers do you have? I have two F4s that I had ordered from Reno Hi-Fi years ago. My speakers I'm have custom built from a proven design are ~ 94db/m/watt but only play down to 70Hz before my powered subs take over, so I can't see even one F4 having any problem driving them in my room and listening levels. I'm very glad you also mentioned the F4's "expansive" soundstage. Would that also be so in a 3D sense? And even if I use only one F4?

Also, very assuring is that you found zero "harshness or grain', as my tweeters likely be Raal ribbons.

Now the big questions are what is the ??db spl/m/w of your speakers, what preamp are you using and what's the approximate output  voltage usually needed to drive the F4 to make your speakers shine?