Pass labs upgrade path

@laaudionut 

I will admit that I have not heard of Pass preamps being the preferred preamp of other amps. While, I owned a Pass preamp… it was eclipsed by the Audio Research preamp I bought. I have a huge respect for Pass amps, and Audio Research Preamps and Phonostages. 
 

@laaudionut Were you running single ended into your Pass amps from the Motherlode or did you have Aric provide you with balanced inputs and outputs?

I think you'll get the biggest overall improvement going to the .8 series amps.  If you want to change preamps and want to consider tubes that's a totally different approach.  Some like it better.  I didn't.  In the case of Pass, their amps and preamps really have great synergy.

The Motherlode has single ended outputs that fed the Pass amps, now a Coda Model 16. He also has gain control on all of his preamps I believe so it pairs well with most solid state amps.

I’d recently tried an XP-12 in two of my systems. It was very impressive! The piece had enchanting detail, and one of the best volume controls that I’ve experienced to this point. In the end though, I preferred the XP 2.5, and an Aric Unlimited II, in their respective systems in terms of overall synergy. I was not prepared to build an entirely new system around the XP-12.