HI kennesawjet
I had and enjoyed the Plinius sb301 and thought it was a pretty good amp. I believe it’s strength was in the bass. I had it on a pair of Magnepan 3.7i’s and it really woke up the Maggie’s in the bass.
When it comes to Pass Labs amps, in my opinion, these are some of the best solid state amps out there. For me, their magic is in their class a designs. There are a lot of audiophiles out there that think that they have to get the big watt models so they go for the Pass a/b designs. Don’t get me wrong, these are still great sounding amps. When I heard the Pass class a amps, I realized that those were amazing. Personally, I would buy their 30 watt per channel class a amp over their 300 watt per channel class a/b amp. People underestimate their drive capabilities and think that they have to get the 300 watt amp to drive a difficult speaker load or it won’t sound good. In my experience, that little 30 watt Pass stereo amp has incredible current output. I’ll give you an example. I had the Maggie 3.7i’s with a pair of their Dwm woofers wired in parallel connected to that xa30.8 and it laughed at that load. Not only did it drive that system with ease but it always remained extremely musical, that is a constant 2 ohm load! Most amps would have shut off with a load like that not to mention sound like crap. That setup sounded wonderful! Go for the Pass Labs class a amp(s), that’s we’re their magic is. Good luck.
Scot
