Pass labs XA60.5 anything wrong with them.

Bo1972, I have my sights on Pass Labs too. Or First Watt as I have very high efficiency speakers. Thanks for highlighting the differences. It does go against the grain of conventional thought ie Class A sounds better. However, differing opinions such as yours are ok with me.

When my Pass dealer asked what my preferences were, I said fast, accurate and dynamic, he said I would probably prefer the X series to the XA

Bo1972, do you prefer the X250.5 over even the XA100.5´s?

No, In prefer 100.5 over X250.5. But in the setting I use now I prefer the 250.5 over the 60.5. That is why I will choose for the 600.5 later. XA has a more musical sound compared to X series. But the drive and speed do a lot with the Pl-200 speakers. Since I use the Audioquest Redwood 2013 version ( mid's/high's is full silver and low freq. is copper) the timing and speed advantage of the X250.5 have gone to another level. I understand that in other settings peolple need the overwhole warmer sound of the XA series. My tweeters go even above 100khz. There is no harshness in the high freq at all. Do not forget that even the XA100.5 has a lot of drive in the low freq. But it is the speed and more drive of the X series ( 0.5) what makes the sound more stunning in my setting.I also use the Acapella pure silver ballanced cables to my X250.5. These have also a very open mid freq. Like the Purist Audio 2013 LE powercable. In my settings the XA could become too much of it. These days I use the Onkyo PR-SC5509 with my own way of Audyssey Pro measurement. I did a lot of testing with Audyssey in the last 2,5 years. Now I have a wider and even deeper stage than with the XP-20 which I owned for 2 years. I have also more drive and a better separation of instruments and voices than what I had with the XP-20. Even wenn I play extreemly loud my needle is almost not moving. I can play till about 118 db with the Pl-200 with ease. I measure at totally different places and hights compared to they way Audyssey does. So I become a superior drive, speed, more resolution and a far better individual focus of instruments and voices. I have even more micro information. I can let people hear words endings of songs they thought they knew. Now they hear the word ending of these songs at a ss, ttt or th. You even hear people better breathing during singing. Because roomcorrection is only 1/3 of the whole Audyssey system how I use it. Now I can crush most pre-amp till 10.000 dollar with ease. I win in every part. More drive, wider and deeper stage, more resolution, better articulation, more natural sound and a much better individual focus of instruments and voices. I still play stereo the most these days. I never heard a touchable 3-dimensional image this convincing in my life before. I use it for stereo and multi channel clients. Many clients with expensive stereo pre-amps now play with the Onkyo PR-SC5509 with my Pro measurement. What I did was comparing it with there expensive pre-amps. It was that superior that they could not go back anymore. Audio is for me comparing and showing the best sound what is possible these days. I only can say: Mannnn I love it!!

Here is my 2 cents as a happy owner of a x250.5.

Why do you see relatively more xa60.5 on the used market? I think it may actually boil down to something as much to do with economics as anything. I believe the 60.5 becomes a "stepping stone" model more than others because it is the entry path into the highly desirable monoblock models. And, at its $11k price it begins to get into the rarefied air of the 1 percenters who can more freely afford to trade up to the more expensive models such as the xa100.5. Unfortunately I cannot spend that much on an amplifier so I will just have to be satisfied with my x250.5 (which is a wonderful product in its own right, btw).

As for the common question of the "XA.5" versus "X.5" you might check out an article that Pass Labs staff themselves once pointed me to. I know nothing about the journalistic integrity of the Positive Feedback publication, but I do believe it captures the essence of the biggest differences between the class A and AB models. The article actually reviews the integrated models INT-30A and INT-150, but Kent English himself from Pass once told me that with the exception of the volume controls they are identical to the xa30.5 and x150.5 Check it out here: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue58/pass_labs.htm