ARC Ref 2 MK 2 Pre w/ Pass X-600 monos?

Bhouser, thanks for your thoughts. I actually had a chance to meet Mike at the San Fran HES show last year and he pretty much told me the same thing about the Sims. In fact he had Sim gear running his flagship Firebird loudspeaker, or whatever the thing was called. The thing was that I had already owned the Pass monos, which I got an incredible deal on.

So what you are really saying to me is that the problem with my bass response is my amps? This is not a pre-amp issue? ...BTW, listening to the Al Dimeola/J. McLaughlin/P. DeLuca 'Friday Night in San Francisco' SACD through the Talon's as I write this, and they are indeed magic (with this type of accoustic material)!

Msaines -

I listen primarily to 'fusion jazz' as well, or whatever is left of it these days (damn-hard to come by lately...).

Anyway, as for your Pass having a 'problem with bass', I wouldn't blame it on the amp specifically. Rather, it is more a situation of synergy, and the BIGGEST match that you must overcome in ANY system is between the Amp and Speakers. Though impedance matching, gain matching and sonic signatures are certainly important between Pre and Amp, the Amp-Speaker match is even more important. Unfortunately, it is also very hard to predict how things will mate up here because it has little to do with tangible numbers. In fact, there are MANY speakers that work terrifically with Pass amps, just not the Talons.

Believe me, the last thing I wanted to hear Mike tell me was that my prized, newly-acquired Pass amps were not typically the best match with Talons. But after getting the Sim Titan and comparing directly, I can only say that he was completely right. Keep in mind that I haven't heard the X-600's specifically, but I did own the X-250 and X-3, which should have a very similar house sound.

Finally, if you plan to stick with the Pass amps, the best synergy will probably be with a Pass preamp. It won't change the basic sonic nature of the amp, but an X1 would be terrific with it, if you can deal with sacrificing that tube midrange magic.

YMMV....

Just a little update on this thread:

I finally sent the Aesthetix Calypso back to my dealer, and have been running my Accuphase DP-77 directly into the Pass monoblocks. Oh-my-god what an improvement! In addition, I re-focused the Talon's bring them closer together and closer to the wall and the improvement in bass response has beeen shocking. They sound wonderful, and I know they could achieve even more with more precise placement. Altogether the difference is stunning and I found myself listening to a lot of recordings I found otherwise unlistenable before.

On the pre-amp front, my dealer (who detests solid state equipment--i think even his toaster runs on tubes) sold me the Ayre K-1x, and I eagerly await its arrival. He says it is the only solid state pre he has ever liked.

Stay tuned...

Michael

I feel very comfortable saying that better than 90% of pre-amps do more harm than good.