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Pass Labs “House Sound” vs. McIntosh “House Sound”

I’m contemplating swapping out my McIntosh C2500 for a Pass Labs XP-20.  I’ve searched the forums for posts on the Pass Labs XP-20, being that it was released quite some time ago, I didn’t find too much referencing the sound characteristics.  Read plenty of reviews, but those, as we all know, are often full of audio journalistic color.  Any one able to comment on the Pass Labs “house sound”, per se?  Possibly what trade offs happen when migrating from McIntosh preamps.
toddcowles
aberyclark
1,355 posts
 
My combo (BHK Pre-Firstwatt J2) sounds great with jazz and classic rock. However, with modern, more electronic music, a little muffled. I'm thinking a c2700 with a Pass XA.30 or another SS amp of theirs that use balanced connections. I was told the Pass SS amps will be much more snappy and dynamic vs the J2.

I have ZU omen defs and SVS subs.
erik_squires
15,772 posts
 
From reading current and past Pass owners, the Pass amps tend to be very much speaker influene, possibly due to impedance and woofer control.

You should also listen to Ayre and Luxman.
shannere
82 posts
 
Eric did you ever own a Pass or Ayre?  Every time someone mentions Pass you try to steer them away in reality there are more Pass Labs sold than Ayre and Luxman combined so lots of people got bad ears.

stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,265 posts
 
@aberyclark 

I see you are going to used balanced on the C2700.  The C2700 is not a truly balanced preamp, only the top of the line 2 chassis C1100 McIntosh is truly balanced..  With that in mind, I use balanced on my McIntosh integrated and I feel it sounds a little better than the RCA input.
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