2. amps-preamps
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pass lab owners: can i afford one?

not to buy it - to run it! i just read an old stereophile review of an aleph, and the reviewer said his electric bill went up 40% (gulp) after he got it? can that be right? i have found in the past that the cost of running something involves more than just the rated watts (getting a two hundred dollar increase after running a space heater one winter showed me that). could some pass owners give me an idea of how much of an increase they saw in their electric bills (please not "a lot", in dollars or even a percentage to your best guess). thanx, mike
ratso1
auxetophone
114 posts
 
I have the XA160.5 also, and while the spec is 600W each, I measure about 410W at idle and when running in class A. I suspect the higher power consumption spec includes overhead because the XA.5's can go into AB when they reach rated power, and will draw more during those peaks.

I assume specs for the X600.5 etc. are even more conservative, but I don't have one to check.
bjesien
1,270 posts
 
Easy calculator

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
My Pass X350 pulls about 0.5kW at idle. We pay $0.09/kWh here, so about 4.5cents/hour to use. Our big screen, LCD TV consumes 0.25kW. (big TVs are power hogs) My wife has the TV on all day long, so it costs me much more to operate than my amp. I do not leave my amp on all the time simply because I would not get anything done around the house. The stereo pulls me in like a magnet. I leave the amp on over weekends sometimes in the winter. It sounds a little smoother after being on for 40 hours, I think.
dob
577 posts
 
If you don't want to run expensive class A amplifiers due to their electrical bill - then its right time to look into class D amplifiers. If you want expensive, with prestigeous name and very expensive then look at Mark Levinson #53.($50k).

If that is too expensive then look at Jeff Rowland which recently issued new A/B class amplifiers but with (financially) economical switching power supplies.

Alternatively, Spectron monos I have - use old fashion transformer based power supplies nut consume only 40 watts and sound not terribly bad too (somehow I survived ;---)
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