2. amps-preamps
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Partnering Equipment for Pass Labs XA60.5

Dear All,
Thank you for your much needed guidance on my amplifier choice, with previous posts! - as i have limited choices and can only audition a few, i can only hope to make choices from your choices or recommendation, i live in a country where auditions are very difficult, so choice did i make with Pass Labs
XA60.5 (Pure Class A Monoblocks)

I am mainly perplexed about my preamp and speaker choices now;

I do know that Pass Labs XP20 isa great preamp; but i would want to go the all tube or hybrid preamp route, i know some argue the XP20 is more tube like than some of the tube preamps out there, but truth be told - i want some glowing filaments , inside my pre-amp and thats it.

Also, my shortlisted speakers are now off-the-list.
My dealer says, Devore Nines by Devore Fidelity is discontinued, so they are still waiting for what would replace it! so Devore is off-the-list given the timings, i think the Silverbacks have too high a sensitivity for use with the Pass.

Harbeth, quite frankly is nice, although i prefer the M.40.1 (Domestic) to SHL5 (which i find to have a weaker bass output) ; but am unsure if XA.60.5 has enough juice to pump the M40.1 - I never like to use Subwoofers with my setups.

So here are my speaker choices - my room is just 16 Feet X 13 ; i wont be able to shop for HiFi for pretty long time! given other commitments, my humble plea to fellow audiogoners to not just write whatever they want but only share your experience if you have heard the XA60.5 with some partnering equipment.

Speaker Choices
--------------
Verity Audio Parsifal Ovation
Verity Audio Rienzi
Egglestone Works The Nines
Harbeth M40.1
Tannoy Glenair 15
Magnepan 1.7
Anything Else your Choice?

To be frank, Parsifal Ovation is really stretching it for me in the sense of budget, but given that i plan to run the amps directly from my dac for a few months, will give me time to save up!

Preamp Choices (Final Addition to my rig)

Atma Sphere MP1 (Dual Chasis)
Atma Sphere MP3 (Single Chasis)
Aesthetix Calypso Signature
Rogue Audio Hera II

I am well aware about the impedance mismatch between some preamp makes and the pass, hence i need to be very,very careful.

Returning any gear, is not feasible in my circumstance!
thegoodarcher
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,211 posts
 
I can speak from experience on both the Harbeth M-40.1's and the Aesthetix Calypso preamp.

The Harbeth M-40.1's have a very flat impedance curve and are 6 ohm nominal... so your PASS amps would be more than powerful enough for them. I've driven them with tube amps ranging from 3o watts to 75 watts and they sounded great with all of them.

Verity Parsifal Ovations are also highly regarded and can be found used for around $10K. They come packaged in flight cases, so they travel well.

If you are considering Tannoy, I'd be looking at Kensington SE's.

The Calypso preamp is a dependable, high value preamp that responds very well to tube rolling. You can find them for around $2,400 used... just need to spend another $400 on good NOS tubes and you have a great preamp.

Atma Sphere & Lamm would also be on my short list. Rogue would not be on my radar when it comes to preamps.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
11-25-12: Pdreher
The Harbeth M-40.1's have a very flat impedance curve and are 6 ohm nominal... so your PASS amps would be more than powerful enough for them. I've driven them with tube amps ranging from 3o watts to 75 watts and they sounded great with all of them.
Paul, you've provided some excellent comments IMO. However, I would point out that the impedance curve of the M40.1 is anything but flat. While its impedance characteristics represent an easy load, apart from its somewhat low sensitivity, and I have no doubt that the XA60.5 can drive it with ease (especially in a 13 x 16 room), the deviation from flatness will result in significantly different tonal characteristics with a solid state amp such as that, in comparison with a tube amp. For example, a solid state amp, having negligibly small output impedance, will give greater emphasis to frequencies around 500 Hz, where the impedance dips to low values, while a tube amp, having significant output impedance, will give greater emphasis to frequencies around the speaker's impedance peaks occurring near 1.2 and 5 kHz.

Having no experience with the speaker, I can't comment on which kind of response is most likely to be preferable, although obviously you and many others have been very pleased pairing it with tubes.

TheGoodArcher, my only other comment on your candidates is that I would eliminate the Maggie 1.7 from consideration, as I don't think it would provide the bass response your other recent threads have suggested you are looking for.

Regards,
-- Al
thegoodarcher OP
70 posts
 
Dear Pdreher and Almarg -
Thank you so much for your insight - i will take the maggies out of my list.
So far looking like Harbeth M40.1 , i really do love harbeths! i am going to to Malaysia for holiday and will get to audition the Verity, lets see how it does.

Theres a used pair of Ovation in Bangalore that is accessible,i've heard it sounds alright, but in my opinion harbeth sounds better, the harbeth i heard was brand new.
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