For classical music lovers best amp for large orchestral forces?

I just looked at the specs of the Epicon 8s, and while their 89dB sensitivity is relatively benign the nominal impedance is listed as 5 Ohms.  I can’t remember the last time I saw an impedance level that low, and if nominal is 5 you can bet minimum impedance goes quite a bit lower than that, which would make them a very tough load and may help explain why you’re sensing some compression with demanding material at higher volumes.  I’d call Dali and see what they think as then at least you’ll know for sure.  Just my $0.02 FWIW. 

I am curious how you determined that the Pass was the issue. Compression and separation can come from each source.  You can always have the units modified.  It can be as simple upgrading resistors, capacitors, adding filter chokes, etc. Power supplies make a big difference in this area.

Happy Listening.

+1 for horizontal bi-amping with active crossover. Better yet tri-amp!

@roxy1927 

hi there. I hear you loud and clear. For my profession I get to sit in a front violin chair in a great symphony orchestra. I listen to all music, jazz, rock, chamber music and also orchestral. There is no denying orchestral music reveals where ones system is at. It tells the story. I only in the last 2 years got into this because during covid I wasn’t performing. I was introduced to one of the worlds great stereo set up people and he has helped me build what is turning out to be a great system. I recently purchased a store demo VTL S-400 ii. It is a fabulous amp. Beyond fabulous, makes my integrated Luxman 590 II sound like a noisy plastic toy. For real. I will be making a major upgrade eventually from my modified AR pre, to CH precision. A great/quiet  pre is so important for classical. For orchestral you just want an amp that gets out of its own way but has a proper decay harmonically. The VtL i bought has that in spades. Reason is I have learned and spoken to Bea Lamm who is the ears behind VTL. She loves classical and we had an interesting conversation. No doubt Pass has some homogenization in the sound. Not sure 8k will take you where you want to go with orchestral. It certainly did not for me. I have also found through much trial that the quieter the system is the more orchestral loves it. For me starting with basic cables (just to hear the transformation) and introducing better and better cables one at a time to see if that was indeed useful has also helped classical in a huge way. in that regard I have heard such a huge transition from so much noise in a system to what my wife and I are finally calling a quiet system. We also found the streamer to be a major issue from a roon nucleus plus with nordost linear power supply (which wasn’t cheap) to a tremendous Wadax server. That also helped clean out and separate voices in orchestral as well. Sorry for the long post.

I can’t speak to your speakers and matching, but my Boulder 1160 attached to my Wilson Alexia 2s will blow your mind at the end of Mahler 2. The timpani shake your chest. The organ will rattle your brain. I love it.