Disappointment with Pass Labs - I'm looking for something else

I don’t have a Pass amp but my good friend and fellow audio hobbyist has beautiful Pass amplifier and preamp. He has commented on what excellent service and followup he has received from the company.

@triodlover1499 Nelson Pass and his company are simply among the best in the industry.  It's just crazy how much time they take out of their lives to support the diy community.  Who else out there is "supplementing" their commercial enterprise with free designs released merely because they want others to have good sound?  Maybe just Duke at Audiokenesis...

Your Pass Labs gear is good stuff; it is highly musical, and that soundstage and imaging!  You have the right line stage and amp for a style of speaker called a "book shelf" speaker - something simple with a single tweeter and say a 6-1/2 inch woofer of sorts - say like a Diablo Utopia or Soprano N1 by JM Lab/Focal.  A B&W D3 would also be a great choice.  I'm partial to JM Labs but that B&W speaker is also something special.  Small-ish powered amps and a large-sh floor stander, ehhh, that arrangement, by my estimation, does not seem like a combo with synergy.  Oh yeah, the Von Schweikert Unifield 2 Mk III I've listened also brings it too.  Happy hunting!

Call Steve Deckert at Decware and tell him your goals.  He can get you over the crackpipe that is overpriced high end gear.  I am mating the Cornwall IV’s with a Zen Torii MK4 with Zbit...yeah!

Dear @opm :  I agree with all those owners/gentlemans that touted Pass electronics because N.Pass designer is second to none.  I knew N.Pass rigth when he owned/designer too Threshold and his amps were and even today are still very good vintage performers-

Here you have several advices mainly to go with the Pass 25 and the 22.

Real problem belongs not to those great Pass electronics or the great Bartok unit but to the self speaker limitations been horn design and with a woofer developing heavy/high
 InterModulationDistortion levels that made that increment the speaker TotalHarmonicDistortions. Your ekectronics including the dcs unit are in other league where those speakers are truly short.

So, i agree with the gentleman that said change those speakers, he is rigth. Pass is no trouble..

The ones that siad here that the problem can be " fixed " with tubes and changing the stock unit tubes to " tailored " your needs are only telling you to add distortions to " colored " the sound reproduction instead to fix the real problem that has a name: speakers. Horns almost never can honor MUSIC. These kind of tube units advises could be too because your speakers has a sensitivbity over 100db and then according them you need 10watts or lower and a SS over say " 100 watts " will not works and this is a total misunderstanding because we can run high sensitivity speakers with 300 watts or even higher SS designs.

The " problem " with good SS eltectronics designs as Pass is that any kind of system audio items that's not up to the task can't be stays " hidden " behind the colored/high distortions developed by lesser design electronics. In this case your speakers.

If you take a look to the audio market the higher number of audio items  belongs to speakers one.

Do it a favor and change it, put on sale ( always exist horn lovers. ) and you will get what you are looking for with the same electronics you own today.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.