Integrated Amplifiers - Luxman vs Pass Labs

A fella is selling his Pass Labs Int-250 Integrated for a fairly reasonable $8,500 dollars on U.S. Audio Mart. This thing cranks; it’ll make 500 wpc into 4 ohms. Like all other Pass AB amps, it is biased in Class A for something like the first 20 or 30 watts, then it becomes an AB amp. This is a good one! Here it is:

I own the Pass INT25 and use Tannoy 15" dual concentrics.

Your speakers I have not heard but they sound very similar.

I have an older Luxman Receiver in use in my office and

I like that as well. I do not see the differences that others

mentioned here. 

I have heard Luxman INTs recently at $5k and at $10k.

In my mind they sounded excellent. Of course they were in well

setup rooms with excellent speakers. 

You can buy Pass gear with a trial period from Reno Hi-Fi. 

You do not mention a specific goal so I assume it

is overall next notch up for SQ?

Have you considered a Tube INT? 

That would produce a different sound

and since you like the soft, big sound 

you might really be happy with a tube INT.

The one I have my eye on in the new ARC I-50

at $5k. I am waiting for my mentor to listen to it

and advise me his thoughts.

Post more in the future. I like your system!

Hi Chorus, thank you for your post.

For the past couple of years I've had the pleasure of a nice 2A3 amp/preamp setup which I absolutely loved with my high efficient Coherent's but I'm moving away from that.  I found that I was constantly worrying about the usual downsides to tube gear such as potential tube failure and degradation etc...  It got to the point where I wasn't able to enjoy the music the way I should have been and found myself listening more out of my SS amp because of it.

I guess I'm trying to re-create as much as possible the sound I was getting from my tube gear - big, detailed yet relaxing, present (in the room) sound without harshness. I would say that my current Luxman has gotten me the closest thus far to that sound but I'm hoping for a bit more body or fullness and a touch more warmth (bottom end maybe??).

How would you describe the sound you are getting from your Pass INT25 and Tannoy's?

How would you describe the differences between the Pass and Luxman gear you've had the opportunity to listen to?

I own the L-509X paired with Audio Note AN-K/SPx SE speakers.

The overall sound is open, relaxed, and natural sounding.  I think it's a great pairing.  Great at low volumes with the Loudness feature on, great at higher volumes with the Loudness off.

Excellent, thank you for chiming in on the synergy you are getting with the Luxman and Audio Note speakers. 

I was able to briefly listen to a pair (I believe they were either a 'J' or 'E' model) at an Audio Show and I was smitten by their fullness and naturalness of sound.

Have you had an opportunity to pair them with any Class-A amp?