I use one with a pair of Wolcott Monos into a pair of Sound Lab U-1s (soon to be updated to PX mode) Best of both worlds. Detailed, quiet, absolutely transparent yet reveals the source material. If the recording is rich, the sound is rich. If it is threadbare, the sound is threadbare but the music always comes through. If you change from agood speaker cable to an excellent one, you can hear the superior sound but the good cable is still acceptable. The sound is never objectionable if the music and the performance is good.
A case in point. I'm listening to the new Charlie Parker 20 bit reissues and they sound absolutely fantastic and soooo musically involving even though they were originally recorded in 1947. Occasionally you can hear a distortion from the original recording around I believe the drum kit, (this is on the broadcast performances) but it is somehow detached from the totally involving musical performance. One can "bracket the distortion" and ignore it.
On most systems this distortion would be integrated with the music and fatigue the listener. Not with the Pass front end.
This is uncanny ability, not sterility. If you hear sterility something else is wrong with your system, I opine.
The first preamp that I recall that separated distortion artifacts from the music was the Levinson Ml-1. Critics at the time used to the tube preamp sound did not understand this ability, or, vide Pilate, "asked "what is truth?," but did not stay for an answer."
The Ikeda cartridges also separate the recording distortion from the music, and the underrated stone bargain Kontrapunkt B does it to a certain degree.
The Pass is obviously 25 years more advanced than the Colangelo design....and we are more open minded.
