First Watt to Pass Labs

Having auditioned the Pass Labs XA-30.5, First Watt J2 and First Watt M2, I honestly believe it comes down to one's speakers, and how well they're driven by these particular amplifiers. IMO, the Pass Labs XA-30.5 are the more neutral and speaker friendly of the three amps. The J2 and M2 both have subtle differences, but differences nonetheless. Both require a particular speaker design (power requirement and impedance curve) to sound their best.

It may be that those people selling their First Watt amps have speakers better suited to one of the Pass Labs offerings, or it may be that the owners are changing speakers and require a different amp.

There are many possible reasons.

IMO, you shouldn't shy away from First Watt amps just because you see some for sale. The best policy is to audition the amps in your system.

I went from F5 to XA30.5. In my system F5 sounded more delicate and detailed, but didn't have enough power to drive my Electras. XA30.5 sounds warmer, more dynamic and has excellent bass control.

Although First Watt and PASS labs amps are from the same designer, they are designed with different philosophy. Each First Watt amps are designed with specific purpose. They are not for everyone and for every speaker. You should make sure that your speakers are compatible to the First Watt amp that you want to try. If you find First Watt amp that works well in your system you may never look back again.

I agree with both posts above. I have a J2 that I think is the best amp ive owned. The imaging, detail and articulation are beyond reproach. BUT...I have two other pieces of equipment that mate with the J2:

Hovland HP-100: Needs an amp with high input impedance, the J2 is 100K
Avantgarde: 102DB and horns need little dampening

The First Watt amps ARE very speaker specific, and Pass or Reno Hifi one of their main distributors will be the first to tell you that. If you've low power requirements, i.e., Abby's, or a pair of monitors then sure one can hardly do better than a First Watt amp.

Observing more first generation First Watt first amps on the used market of late I assumed was attributed to the fact that Pass made a major design change with the use of mosfets. I was considering buying a used F1 a month back. An email to Pass requesting the cost for the upgrade received a reply stating Pass isn't even allowing upgrades to those first generation amps until all first generation buyers have had the opportunity to upgrade their amps. In other words, I as a second owner couldn't upgrade the amp. I first thought that's fair, until I observed upgraded first generation First Watt amps available en mass from distributor Reno Hifi. So obviously dealers get the head of the line too. Sonically speaking First Watt matches well with single source driver speakers. But they'll not drive 65% of speakers on the market, hence the reason for distributor's offering a 'buy and try' sales strategy.

Great thread. I'm very interested in the First watt amps as well. Luckily, I have 107 db efficient horns and just assumed that the First Watt amps would sound better on efficient loudspeakers. Is that the case? Has anyone actually compared First Watt's offerings to Pass's offerings with efficient loudspeakers? Also, has anyone comapred the First Watt F3 to the new M2? If so, what are the sonic differences?