pass or krell

PASS LABS!I have owned many Krell power amps and pre-amps over the years. About 3 years ago Kell fired their service manager Patrick and ever since the service went to hell. About 2.5 years ago I bought Pass Labs X350.5 after a bit of frustration with Krell's service dept. I have been very pleased with the X350.5s performance and Pass Lab's Service. It does sound different than the Krell FPB 600 amp I had prior which I had throw in the trash. I find myself listening a lot longer than I could with the Krell. I have a friend who has owns a Krell EVO 202 and it does sound nice with an EVO 402 Power Amp , but it is a lot of money for what you get. My friend agrees that my system sounds much better than his. I have a radically different room and speakers combo. I just recently purchased Pass Labs XP-10 and I am real happy with it. It replaced my Pass Labs Aleph P. It was HUGE improvement! I have used my friend's EVO 202 in my system and it did work well with my Pass power amp, I am very weary of purchasing anymore Krell products. Both the EVO 202 and the XP 10 are great sounding pre-amps the Pass seemed a bit more quiet, had better separation between instruments, and the Pass tonal balance and sound stage is much more real. I hear the XP 20 is a bit better than the XP 10. Now that the Krell has changed hands maybe it can fix its problems. I do not know what will happen. I think a Chinese holding company now owns it but I do not know for sure. I heard the name of holding group is KT holdings.

Tube pre-amps can have a great sound but I tend to lean towards the solid state.I did go down the tube path for a little while and I decided I do not need too many more options I.E. different tubes to try out. I drove my self nuts trying all the different tubes. Then I found myself spending a fortune on tubes. I have to say the my tube amps and pre-amps sounded great but I hear much more resolution with a super high quality Solid State pre-amp power amp combos. With out knowing your system I cannot give advice on tubes vs solid state but I do know that the Pass stuff sounds great!

Pass or spectral. I do not know. I have no ear time on spectral equipment. From what I see in the forums and reviews it looks good. Without ear time I cannot make a recommendation. They have a lot of fans as does Pass Labs. I have heard the McIntosh sound very good in several systems. It is not the sound for me. But I run Apogees Duetta Signatures which are 3 ohms nominal so I need current and lots of power. The autofomer that McIntosh uses is not for me. I like when an Amp doubles it power as the impedance becomes more difficult to drive the more watts but the current is constant. It make my Apogees sing! At 3 ohms my Pass Labs X350.5 is like having 1000watts per side although I do not play it all that loud you can feel the music and the instruments and voices are spooky good.