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Pass Labs X-600 vs. X350.5 vs. SoundLabs?

I hate audio ... I really do ... Crack addicts pass me on the street and I call tell that they're thinking "at least I don't spend MY money on $2,000 power cords!" But I digress. ...

I recently sold my beloved M-L Prodigys and replaced them with a pair of SoundLab ProStats. We're talking 9ft x 4ft of radiating panels here people!

So far my wonderful Halo JC-1s have not even broken a sweat powering these monsters. But I've got a hankerin' to try a Pass Labs amp, only because my preamp and phono stage are Pass equiment.

Perhaps courtesy of the impending D-day of April 15th (isn't it the 17th this year?) there are a few Pass Labs X350.5's for sale for under $6K. Yet for the same price I can also buy a pair of X-600's (NOT 600.5's, of course).

So my questions for all those out there are these:
(1) Should I leave well enough alone and keep the wonderful JC-1's and spend the extra money or something frivolous like a medical checkup or car insurance?
(2) Should I be a true-blue audiophile and dump a great product that's served me well so that I can try something else? If yes, then what would be a better ... well ... I don't know .... "value" I guess? The pair of X-600's or an X-350.5?

To assist you in answering, I live in a condo so turning up my amps to "11" to hear "Smoke On The Water" is not an option. I don't need to have my filling fall out from the decibels. I listen at what most of us would consider "moderate" levels and my music of choice is small combo jazz, chamber and opera and alternative.

In terms of synergy, the system is as follows:

VPI TnT6/Triplanar VII/Dynavector XX-2 L.O
Esoteric DV-50S
Magnum Dynalab 108 Triode (a freakishy great tuner, BTW)

Pass Labs X0.2
Pass Labs XOno

Kimber KS-1130
Kimber KS-3033

So, X-600, X-350.5, stay with the JC-1s or ....?
veloceracing
honest1
586 posts
 
For insight on the 600 vs. 350.5 debate, check out Teajay's excellent reviews of the Pass line. He has had X, X.5, and recently XA amplifiers in his system, along with Aleph and Edge.
I have heard great things here about the JC-1, but can't recall comparisons to Pass.
teajay
1,691 posts
 
First, thanks to Honest1 for your kind remarks concerning my reviews of different Pass Labs gear.

Veloceracing, if you enjoy your JC-1's now, I believe you would find the 350.5 would offer another level of refinement and musicality to your system. Remember your amps give 20 watts of class A before going into A/B biasing. The 350.5 gives you the first few watts in single ended class A then goes into class A for 50 watts before it goes into A/B biasing. You will hear the difference with the speakers you drive along with your excellent upstream gear. The 350.5 I believe is a better sounding amp then the 600 monoblocks and offers great power to drive any speaker to high DB levels. The .5 series really was a qualitive improvement over the first generation X-series.

Jameswei, is quite right you have to try the amp in your own system to really tell if its for you based on system synergy and personal taste. I still assume, seeing the rest of your systems' gear, that you would love the 350.5 in your system. Let's be serious more insurance for health or for your car, when an up grade can be done for your system, are you MAD, of course you go for the amp, everthing else can wait!
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
I have had a passing interest in the x350.5 for a while, to drive my Wilsons, so thanks teejay for your input. I always knew this was thee place to come for comfort and guidence in prioritizing things audio, and how they interact with life's choices. Having sold my first-born I would know. (The buyer wants a refund.)
veloceracing OP
26 posts
 
Wow! Thanks to all of you for the quick, detailed and informative responses! Let me try to answer collectively: you are probably right that because of my music and environment I will not need th sheet grunt of the X-600's. I mean, if I decide to hold a week-long salute to organ music well ... yea, maybe I might need horsepower. The JC-1s with 400WPC have had no issues whatsoever powering the Prodigys and the SoundLabs. So the X350.5 should not either.

The only reason that I was considering the X-600's was because of the dreaded crosstalk issue: there's something appealing and logical about mono amps. On the negative side, though, one less amp means once less box that makes the stereo room look like a mad scientist's laboratory.

The advice to audition the amps is reasonable but, regrettably, I don't want to take advantage of my local dealer. I can't afford the new price tags of either component. I was just attracted by the fact that the X-600's and the X-350.5 are avaiable at roughly the same price of around $6,000.

But there is one thing that rubbed me the wrong way about the responses to my question: Jameswei is on record as stating "First, if you're happy with the JC-1s, I'd stay with them." What the hell????? What sort of audio talk is this? Are we sure that Jameswei is really one of us? Can someone do a background check on him? I would not be surprise if we discover that he is a paid lacky of the International Global Book Readers Consortium. That sort of reasonable talk has NO PLACE on Audiogon.

As a refreshing comparison, Teajay rightfully advised me to forgo that checkup to find out why I'm spitting blood and whether the numbness in my arm is anything serious. "Everthing else can wait!" he says. Now THAT'S sound (get it ... "sound"?) advice!
bpwalsh
1,207 posts
 
If your JC-1s aren't yet broken in, I suggest you haven't heard them. Play music through them around the clock. Volume level doesn't matter (just not zero), nor does high or low bias setting. They will become much more agile, dynamic, sweet, and extended. I recommend giving them the time they need, as deals on other amps will come along if you decide to change.

Others have expressed the .5 versions of the Pass amps are better, although I have not heard them side by side. The X600 is not an involving sounding amplifier, in my opinion.

It may be worth noting that performance measured by Stereophile (Feb. 2003 issue) of the JC-1 showed output far in excess of ratings, I think nearly 600 watts into 8 ohms before clipping and about 1100 watts into 4 ohms.
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