Seeking opinions about Pass Labs 250.5 amp.

Ok, have you heard the X350.5? I hear you regarding cables. I do believe in quality interconnects and speaker cable, and I use them, but not really power cables or power conditioners.

I agree with you about the business, and being just in it for the money is always a bad thing.

Wenn you go up the line with Pass you hear the difference. I owned the 30.5, 60.5 and the 100.5. It is not only the extra power it has. But also the sonic caracter. The stage is bigger, the sound is more musical. And there is more space around the instruments and voices. At every volume you will hear the difference in weight in the low freq. There is more control and authority at any volume you play. The X350.5 I listend at shows. Not in my own setting.

Well, that makes sense that the bigger Pass Labs amps will give you those things. It boils down to much more capacitance, bigger transformer (I believe the X350.5 has a 1kVA transformer in there) and better control of the speakers. I did read that the smaller XA amps are a bit on the slow side and have loose bass. So, it seems that the X series is the better choice if you want speed, tight bass, and detail. As you said, you get 40 watts of Class A from the X350.5, so that's great. That's cool you have listened to the X350.5. What were your impressions?

I was surprised that the XA30.5 could drive the Monitor Audio PL-300 with ease. And there was a lot of drive and also the speed was still good. Wenn you listen to an amp you also listen to many other aspects. The room ofcourse, but also the source, speakers and cables. These sets I didn't like. So it doesn't say everything!!

Ok, that's interesting. Very well then. However, the higher capacitance and bigger transformer results in more stability. The XA30.5 uses small caps and transformers. Yes, of course you do that.