Pass Labs amps and Avantgarde speakers

I agree, the XA30.5 along with the Avantgarde Acoustic Duo speakers would be an excellent match.

I go with the consensus and think the gamble will pay off.

I own the 30.5 and am impressed with how well it does at low power levels which is where I would imagine you would be with your AG's.

Below is a quote from Nelson Pass's paper, "Leaving Class A" at the Passlabs website:

"We apply a single-ended Class A bias at about 10% of the push-pull Class A bias. This is sufficient to improve the performance around 1 watt and below." also that single ended class A is considered the "king of class A".

Food for thought:

If a speaker is rated to give 100 db from 1 watt, it will take 1/10th of a watt to produce 90 db, 1/100 of a watt for 80, 1/1000 of a watt for 70. Of course other factors like room size and distance from speakers have to be figured in but I believe that not only that "the first watt" is important but the fractions below it are too, especially if you like low level listening and/or the decay of notes/sounds. Good luck.

Have you been running your DCS directly to the amps in the past? Why are you replacing your existing amps? Have you tried any preamps between the DCS and the amps?

I only mention these items as I used to have a DCS stack and tried with many different amp and speaker combos running the DCS direct. Never got quite the same results running direct as I did with running the DCS through a preamp. I only bring this up as a possible consideration if there is something you are finding is not just quite perfect with your system.

I like the all class-A Pass amps. Just sold an Aleph 5 which was/is designed as a SS class A SET based amp, per Nelson P.

Sorry for being a bit of topic but I hope you will not mind my little story.

A few months ago I have attended an Avantgarde demonstration. I had about 1-1.5 hours till the shop was closing and my plan was to listen first the UNOs and then the DUO Grosso speakers. The dealer was king enough to switch the Audio Note integrated initially used with an Accuphase E-560 class A integrated amplifier (I own the previous Accuphase class A integrated, i.e. the E-550). I was so blown away by the Accuphase E-560 – Avantgarde UNO combo that I could not stop the music and go upstairs to listen to the DUO Grosso – I had to listen all the material I brought with me.

Since the Accuphase E-560 integrated (and the E-550 too) deliver 30 class A watts into 8 ohms you may also want to consider these integrated amplifiers.

Good luck!

For the past five years, I've owned Avantgarde Duo Primos. Prior to that, I owned Avantgarde Duos for four years. During that time, I have owned or demoed many many amps with Avanatgarde loudspeakers. I'm currently running the First Watt M2 with Avantgarde Duo Primos. The sound is warm, engaging & very musical. Very tubelike. I have pretty much owned or demoed most of Nelson Pass's Class A lower powered offerings (Pass Aleph 3, Volksamp Aleph 30, First Watt Aleph J, First Watt F2, First Watt F3, Pass XA30.5 and First Watt M2). The M2 being the best of the bunch followed very closely by the First Watt F3. I think you should really focus on the First Watt offerings in lieu of the Pass XA30.5 with your Duos, as the First Watt amps seem to be tailor made and at home driving horn loudspeakers. Good luck and let us know what you end up with.