Pass Labs XP-10 & XP-20 preamps

Alan,
I thank you and greatly appreciate your very thorough and well-written comparison between the two preamps. And in response to my simple question. Thanks for the effort. I had not heard of the H2O Fire and as Muralman1 writes so favorably about it and his amps, I was curious to know more, especially as I had just upgraded to the new Pass XP-20.

My pre has the separate power supply which the XP-10 does not and my amps are the XA.5 series instead of your X.5. I also find the Pass equipment to be extremely quiet, quite detailed and just slightly warm of neutral. That may be from the class A amps. Classical and complex passages are indeed easier to follow, as you write, and soundstage dimension and instrument location and separation are superb. Timbres, too, are very acurate to my ear. I do not hear the dry bass to which you refer, but again, that may be the amps. I do find the XP series to be cleaner and clearer than the X-1 which it replaced. The latter was darker and richer, but that may have been slight distortions. The XP seems more "accurate" which to me means more "musical" because it brings me closer to the sound of the Boston Symphony Orchestra than did the X-1.

Well, the Fire has some big fans on this site. It sounds like a wonderful preamp. Thank you for sharing your impressions with us.

Peter

Hi Peter, I just know what made the big changes here. I have demonstrated the noisiness of all jacketed cables on the H2O. There are folks in Europe who have gone so far as to use ribbons for speaker interiors.

I arrived at the ribbon SCs through deductive reasoning. Class D is a new field, and require new thinking.

I didn't get to hear the XA 100 monos on my speakers. I did get to hear them on the huge Full Range Apogees. That is a very special amp. The 600.5 amp is similar to the 600. the .5 was clearer than I remember. The bass was way loose on my speaker's panels.

Hi Peter,

The dryness in the bass which I spoke of seems to be going away as the XP10 is burning in.

I took a look at your system and judging from who you were working with when purchasing, we seem to live relatively close. I sent you an email via the Audiogon mail form. You are welcome to check out the Fire at some point if you wish.

Alan

I wish we all lived close. We could all learn a lot.

I recently purchased an XP-10 to pair with an Ayre V-5xe. The combination throws a stunning 3D soundstage, revealing musical details, timbre and depth that have always been there, but somehow missing until now. Coming back to separates required more rack space and other resources, but very happy with the outcome.