Pass XA 30.5 with Revel F 208 ?

Kartikeyp,

I currently have F208s and submit they are a super great value. I just ordered a Parasound Halo A-21 to drive them.

I have stand mounted monitors rated at 7 ohms and 89 db efficiency in a 10' X 12.5' room.

I auditioned a Pass XA 30.5 and it sounded glorious at quiet levels, but completely lost it as I increased the volume.

Chuck

Zavato

Per Stereophile testing the XA30.5 goes to 130 wpc at 8 ohms A/B.

It should work fine at average listening volumes. Simple calculation!

1 w 88 dB @ 3 ft
2 w 91dB
4 w 94 dB
8 w 97 dB
14 w 100 dB
28 w 103 dB
56 w 106 dB

I drive a pair of Thiel 2.4s (Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 3 ohms minimum. Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/m. Recommended power: 100–400W) with that amp, and even though I got a lot of shit for doing so, it sounded quite a bit better than a Pass Labs X250.5 and a McIntosh MC-402 (the loser in the competition, by far). According to Stereophile's measurements (see the link below), the 30.5 provides 195 watts into 4 ohms before clipping. I do think the XA series is a little light on bass though. I've read that over and over, with people endlessly upgrading up the line to try and address the issue. In my opinion, it's just the weakness of the XA series. I got slightly better bass with the X250.5 (500 watts into 4 ohms), but everything else was quite a bit better through the XA30.5 (soundstaging, imaging, vocals, timbre). It wasn't a hard decision to figure out what to keep.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-xa305-power-amplifier-measurements

Also, just saw this on another (active) thread about your speaker...

03-12-14: Bbybaudio
Ricred1,
Thank you for your post. I was concerned that the Snappers (100WPC Tube) may not be enough, but found a review that drove the F208s with 60WPC Tube.