Pass Labs xa - .5 amps

Mozvz, I responded earlier when you asked about the CJ ACT 2s synergy with the Pass. In a word, wonderful.

With the 100.5's on the Maggies now, I moved the 30.5 into my home office as an experiment. I've had the Cain and Cain Super Abbys in there for several years now and always got the best out of them with tube amps, especially SET's. The Abbys are a single driver/no crossover/fostex kind of speaker. Solid state made them sound hard and actually lose bass. Pass Labs and Mark at Renohifi both thought the 30.5 would pair nicely. I didn't think so. I was wrong. I'm listening to them now as I type. In three words: beautiful, relaxed and detailed. The XA30.5 is really a sweet amp.

Based on what you've said so far, I think you would be very happy with it.

Couple of technical points:

When switched on, it draws a little less than 200 watts from the wall. It does not heat up my office.

In standby, it draws just a few.
Standby generates no heat but keeps the caps charged so warm up is much faster.

Your CJ has a 12v trigger that can be wired to the Pass's trigger. Turning the CJ on turns the Pass on with no thumps or pops, always a concern with tube preamps.

Let us know what you decide. Good luck.

FWIW, Pass recommends balanced connections with their gear, c-j has never offered balanced connections.

I've run balanced and single ended into my XA-60.5 from the same preamp, and I've noticed minimal difference.

Mozvz, I responded earlier when you asked about the CJ ACT 2s synergy with the Pass. In a word, wonderful.

With the 100.5's on the Maggies now, I moved the 30.5 into my home office as an experiment. I've had the Cain and Cain Super Abbys in there for several years now and always got the best out of them with tube amps, especially SET's. The Abbys are a single driver/no crossover/fostex kind of speaker. Solid state made them sound hard and actually lose bass. Pass Labs and Mark at Renohifi both thought the 30.5 would pair nicely. I didn't think so. I was wrong. I'm listening to them now as I type. In three words: beautiful, relaxed and detailed. The XA30.5 is really a sweet amp.

Based on what you've said so far, I think you would be very happy with it.

Onemug,

Thank you for the updated information. I am still sifting through the choices with different scenarios in an equipment change/s.

It's also good to know the single ended connections are not any different then the balanced if I keep my CJ Act 2. Thanks Tvad..

It's also good to know the single ended connections are not any different then the balanced if I keep my CJ Act 2. Thanks Tvad..
Mozvz (Answers)

Just to be clear for those who might not read every post in the thread, I did not state that the single ended connections are not any different than the balanced connections.

What I said was that I noticed minimal difference (sonically) between them in my system.