McCormack vs. Pass Labs

Yeah but... After you spend the extra dough for the revisions you've surpassed the cost of a used X-150. What's the sense in that? The beauty of the Pass is that it is the best it can be right out of the box. There is no such thing as Pass amp upgrades. That should tell you something about the relative quality of the two companies. Open the top of an X-150 and all the circuitry you will see is a tiny jewel like cluster of resistors and caps that just govern the switching and lights. The actual signal path runs direct current throughout with not a cap, nor a resistor along the way, other than the power mosfets. It is a two stage single ended mosfet feeding a bank of high efficiency Hexfets second stage. The simplicity results in stunning dynamic swings and nonfatiguing limitless highs. The mids are sweet and clear. The Bass is a musical bass, none of that high feedback unnatural bone jarring stuff.

You're right. Pass equipment looks great under the hood and sound great too.

I think the original McCormack's were designed to fit a certain budget, so I'm not sure it's fair to indict the quality of their company just because those amps can't outperform an amp that is twice the price new. Now, if your saying you can get a USED X-150 for less than upgrading to Rev A Gold, it's something to consider. However, after upgrading, you basically have a brand NEW amp in the same chassis.

In short, you really can't go wrong with either. I just also liked being able to deal directly with Steve McCormack and have him personally work on my amps. I think he actually should be applauded for offering customers the ability to upgrade their current amps versus having to buy a whole new amp (and pay dealer markup) when they want to go to another level of performance.

Thanks for the input. This hobby is very frustrating! That's why I don't golf or fish.