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Good Speakers with Pass XA30.5 Power Amp?

I'm currently using a Pass XA30.5 power amp (with Pass XP-10 preamp) to drive a pair of PSB Synchrony One. Cabling is all Wireworld Equinox 7 and room is about 12'(W) x 24'(L) x 12'(H) with speakers firing down the long dimension - although I can only sit about 7' from the plane of the speakers. I find the sound somewhat laid-back, i.e., lacking in liveliness and I'm constantly fussing over the sound of the system. I listen at very moderate levels to a wide variety of music, but typically jazz (vocals), classical and choral music - with the occasional reggae and pop fare.

It's been suggested to me that the combination of the Pass XA30.5 and Synchrony One may not be a good match so I'm soliciting suggestions for speakers that should work better with the Pass amp - i.e., a more lively presentation. I'd prefer full-range speakers at least the equal of the Synchrony One in resolution and frequency extension. My budget is less than $4k used.
partialresponse
eniac26
95 posts
 
I'm running an XA30.5 at the moment with a pair of Magico S3's in a 15x24 room and find it to be an excellent match short of trying to reproduce Rave/Rock Concert levels in my room.

I would doubt that your speakers load is much of an issue for this amp since the load of my speakers is significantly more brutal and the amp seems barley phased by them. In fact, I've only seen the needle slightly move when cranking it up to a 92-95db level at my seated position 9ft away.

I typically listen to Rock/Metal/Pop so if there were an issue with its output power or lack thereof driving the S3's I would notice it pretty quickly. So far, I haven't witnessed any problems with it.

With that said though, there is no question that the XA30.5 is known to be a laidback sounding amplifier anyway. If you happen to be using cabling that is also laidback then this perception of its sound could be even more compounded.

I would recommend trying a dead neutral set of XLR Interconnects and Speaker cables from Mogami as an inexpensive test to see if it livens things up a bit for you.


kartikeyp
20 posts
 
I am using Pass XA 30.5 with Cary SLP 98 Preamp. I recently bought Coincident super victory II. My source is Sony HAP Z1 ES.

its been about 3 months and the combo sounds great to me. Very clear and detailed sound. I like to listen to Simple Jazz, old classic rock, Instrumental, and Indian Music. The SV II are fantastic in these kinds of music. I have not heard many other speakers though. My room is very live and i am planning to do some room treatment. I am sure that will improve the sound to a great extent.

I believe I saw SV II for sale on audiogon from SIngapore, offered at 3600 USD. Its a great value at that price IMO.
jafant
10,525 posts
 
Hopefully, this amp can drive a pair of Thiel CS 2.4 loudspeakers?
partialresponse OP
19 posts
 
Is anyone using (or has heard) this amp with Acoustic Zen Adagios? Will these be markedly different from (more lively than) the PSB Synchrony One?

I believe I saw SV II for sale on audiogon from SIngapore, offered at 3600 USD. Its a great value at that price IMO. 
I'm sure it would cost quite a bit to get a pair of those speakers shipped to the US from Singapore ...
kartikeyp
20 posts
 
When I approached him about a year ago, he offered me to ship it free of cost from Singapore to India. At that time it was listed at 4500 though. I finally bought my pair from Tom (audioloft in NY). 
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