Are Pass Labs amps probably the best ever you can buy ?


I have about 15k to spend on an amp/preamp/integrated amp.

I mostly listen to smooth jazz like Dave Koz, Rippingtons, Brian Culbertson etc.... and loud.

I have yet to hear any amp that comes close to Pass Labs.

Your experiences pls ?
128x128cakyol
So now I know what to do with my four grand...keep it and use it for more tubes.
Absolutely in the team photo.

One of their greatest strengths is that while they may not be the "perfect" pairing with a given set of speakers, they typically sound damn good with everything.  So, as far as an investment that is nice to know.

I've run my 250.8 with power hogs, and with easy loads.  I've swapped out amps on the same speakers.  Typically, the pass still sounds the best.  

The 250.8 however I believe is one of Nelsons best designs.  I like it better than the 350.8 when I've heard it. 

Just has a really great midrange.
There are a number of great amplifiers out there, both tube and solid state, for a range of prices.  I have been lucky enough to have many of them from ARC and CJ tubes to a number of Rowland, Levinson, Krell and, yes, Pass Labs amps including most recently the XA100.5's.  I have not owned the 0.8 series Pass amps yet.  Having said that, a critical factor for most amps remains the speaker-amp interaction.  I have ML CLX's and Pass Labs has recommended the larger X 0.8 amps which they feel are better suited to driving the CLX's than the XA series due to its need for higher voltage and amperage as well as its punishing impedance curve.  Your taste in music and in what aspects of music reproduction  are most important to you are obviously critical as well; no amp or speaker is perfect.  This sounds trite, but I really think that you need to hear your speakers with the amps under consideration.  Others have opinions, but you may not share them.
@almarg 
I just crunched the numbers on Wolf's speakers assuming a typical room size and speaker placement. He should only require about 9 watts to get up over 101dB at 14 feet away. That figures out to about 9.5dB of gain. The SIT3 would work. It wouldn't work for me though. I need about 3dB of pre-amp gain to get where I want to be with the F5 at it's 15.5dB. It's easy enough to fix that if I wanted to. Getting it up around 19 is a matter of swapping 4 resistors. Most people do make that change when running 32V rails. I didn't.