pass labs xa30 to valve amplifier.

Thank you for reply. ive also been considering a tube preamplifier as a next step. that would also enable to keep the pass. do you or anyone else have sugesstions as to which ones would be in a similar league to the pass. cd player and pass have balanced connections so i would like to keep the balanced chord anthem, if possible. how would an old arc preamplifier fare? ive seen pre used ones that sell for around 1000 uk pounds. however, i think these are many years old. an sp8 sold recently on an auction site for 900 uk pounds. Any idea how much i should spend? i am very grateful for assistance given. thank you.

James123, a preamp that supports the balanced standard is my suggestion. The ARC is one that does not. The balanced standard (what created balanced line operation) is supposed to make the system immune to the quality/length of the cable. If the preamp does not support the standard, you will find that the cables still make a difference.

Ideally to do this the preamp will ignore the ground connection of the cable.

If I'm not mistaken, the ARC may have troubles driving the input impedance of the Pass. That has been discussed in other threads.

As a general rule of thumb, its a good idea to allocate about the same funds for the preamp as you do the amp, but individual circumstances often create wide variations :)

i have tried the Audio research Ref 5 preamp with my XA30.5. i used balanced input from my Wadia and balanced output. i found no impedance mismatch.
i suggest you try the Audio research REF 3. you might like it.

Thank you. ill look into the ref three. I read the reviews for ref 5 and it suggests sound of a very high calibre.
Im also considering atma spher mp3. Would anyone know if this preamp would work with the pass? i have leant from here that impedence would need matching. So would only as pass pre amp work correctly? What data should i be checking? if i know this, ill research the stats for myself. Sorry for all the questions. Thank you kindly.

THe MP-3 will drive the XA30.5 with ease from an impedance perspective, I think output impedance is 250 ohm which is very, very low, especially for a tube preamp. It also uses 6sn7 tubes which always seem to be in my favorite tube line stages - oh, an really balanced.