Pass Labs XA-160 vs Levinson 33H

Zoran, you are right but what can I say, I like to upgrade a lot. The A21 was a pretty good amp though. Two years ago seems so long ago....Thanks again!

LOL. just how many pre's are you going to go thru before you find your soulmate ? why not give the vtl 6.5 a try, or the 7.5 mk 2. with the right PC and ICs, the synergy with the pass amps is really nice. By the way, the occassional distance i heard with the vtl 6.5 in my intense audition of the 6.5 / ref 3 a/b was COMPLETELY solved when i moved away from the cardas GR ICs to TA ultras. in the audition i used the TA ultras only on the ref 3 due to a miscommunication of advice for the vtl. had i used the TA ultras for the vtl as well, the audition would have been 4 hours rather than 4 days. i am sure many other excllnt ICs would have revealed the same results in my system. see my review \on this site. there is most likely an impedance issue with the ref 3 and pass amp. placing both in the same system may compromise the potential of each very excellent component. if your amps+speaker combo does it for you, look into the vtl pre and keep an open mid regarding ICs. speaker/amp synergy is the first priority, though i am sure there are a handful of superb amps for your speakers should you want to keep the ref 3. call up brooks berdan in pasadena for the vtl. cheers,marc

marc, there are just so many cool components to listen to out there! Its hard to stay satisfied with only one. Unfortunately I can only afford to have one at a time but that does not mean I can swap out the one frequently!