Experience with the Pass Labs XP-15 phono stage?

PS, A friend of mine was over the other day and had never heard my setup before (and probably nothing approaching high end before either). We ended up listening to a bunch of vinyl for a couple hours while our wonderful wives tended to a play date with our daughters. He was really blown away and so was I with record after record. It's a very revealing stage but also one that performs so well and so naturally that no matter the type of music it all is well presented in a very musical and non fatiguing fashion. It just gets out of the way and lets you hear deeply into the recording. That is, if everything is set up properly up the chain--tonearm, cart, clean records, etc.

I've been pretty much an ARC guy for some time. My current preamp is a Reference 5, and my power amp is a Reference 150. Turntable is a VPI Scoutmaster with a Classic 3 arm w/ the Classic platter etc.

I've decided to spend my upgrade budget this year on bringing my Ref 5 up to SE level...been on the upgrade waiting list for nearly a year. Time to try calling Kalvin at ARC again... Going to the Ref 5 made the biggest difference in my system by a big measure. It is a phenomenal preamp.

I have an XP-15/Lyra Delos/VPI Classic and really enjoy the rig. I don't have any ARC experience, but this combo plays nice together. Run balanced out to an XP-20, very very quiet.

IF you can swing it, go all the way and get the XP-25! That's what I plan on doing! :D

Dave,
Unfortunately my budget won't allow for that...and if I have the $$ I would have to consider the ARC Ref Phono 2 SE!