So in my system with Vandersteen 5A Carbons, my Pass XA 60.8s do an admirable job, checking almost all of the boxes of the sonic attributes I’m looking for. Then comes along an opportunity recently to demo a pair of Vandersteen M5-HPA’s. Immediately I notice a couple of things 1) there’s a better image center fill, a quality that Ralph (atmasphere) mentioned, and something I noticed about the Ayre KX-5 twenty preamp that I demoed a couple of years ago and 2) instruments sound more natural. The sax on The Girl from Ipanema sounds more like live, with an almost tangible weightiness to it as well. Massed strings are smoother as well. Now the Pass is no slouch, but theses amps take it to another level IMO. There’s a small amount of upper midrange glare that I hear sometimes which has been alleviated. RV told me that his time and phase accurate speakers need a no feedback design (specifically no global?) to sound their best. Is it the push push design that makes the main difference I wonder? How much is due to the low parts count for in the signal path? I know the Stereophile review is coming which should be interesting.
