My new Pass Amps

[mbovaird]

Originally Posted by joeinid

Somebody dropped the ball on this thread .....

Joe - I will sick my wife after you. . I was at the "mall" for 3 hours. God help me. It's my annual trek with the wife. I have no idea how women can look at everything they see and buy one thing. I guess that's better than buying everything they see. I also love how they all fall for the "50% off". Half off a $1200 purse is still a rip off!

I will get to it....soon.

Mike

[vintage_tube]

Originally Posted by joeinid

Somebody dropped the ball on this thread .....

Will you take plural??





Happy Holidays Folks,

Bob

[joeinid]

[joeinid]

Originally Posted by mbovaird

Joe - I will sick my wife after you. . I was at the "mall" for 3 hours. God help me. It's my annual trek with the wife. I have no idea how women can look at everything they see and buy one thing. I guess that's better than buying everything they see. I also love how they all fall for the "50% off". Half off a $1200 purse is still a rip off!

I will get to it....soon.

Mike

You, my friend, are a better man than I. There is a special place in heaven for you

[Ritmo]

Originally Posted by vintage_tube

[mbovaird]

Here you go....http://www.audioaficionado.org/pass-...w-faceoff.html

[Kingsrule]

Originally Posted by mbovaird

I've had my Pass xa160.5's for 11 days now and they are breaking in wonderfully. Yesterday during a fun little amp shoot out (Pass xa160.5's vs Mcintosh 2301 vs Classe ca-2300) - I made a discovery that may help some of you.

I had been told by Pass to use the stock power cords and plug the amps directly into the walls. Although I was very impressed with the sound, the sound went to a whole new level when I decided to swap the stock power cords for WW Silver Electra PC's and plug the amps into my power conditioner (the massive APC S20). EVERYTHING got better - bass, much tighter bass, MUCH smoother top end, dynamic range, sound stage, you name it. Instruments had much better tone color.

I'm sure other Pass owners have made similar discoveries with Shunyata and other PC's. I'm not exactly sure if the secret sauce is the power cords or the power conditioner or both - but it works - very well.

I really don't understand how you can make changes and determinations with power cords when the amps aren't even broken in yet.
As through as your amp review is not having completely broken in the 160.5's will leave questions about them and the entire review....
If Nelson says use the supplied cords he has a reason.

[mbovaird]

It was meant to be a fun little review prior to me moving my Classe downstairs (for that system) and selling my 2301's - nothing more. I don't get paid for this. It's for fun and I my made all possible disclaimers up front - including the hours on the new amps. It's not possible for me to wait 200 hours for the new amps to be fully broken in as I'm moving amps today. That 200 hour number is purely arbitrary anyway - it could be 100 hours or 400 hours - we really don't know.

If you have a differing review with the same amps, I would be interested to read it. Otherwise, this was meant to be fun and I did my best. I'm sorry I disappointed you.

[boilerkj]

Originally Posted by g997

If Nelson says use the supplied cords he has a reason.

I suspect this is for protection against any liabilities should an issue occur with the amps and 3rd party PCs. I believe Nelson Pass to be a brilliant designer, but a better PC results in even more Pass goodness.

[tunes]

+1

I recall talking with Reno about recommended power cords and they repeated the same factory cord suggestion. However, they said they had received LOTS of calls about cables/cords and should be testing them to help answer these questions. Probably a liability thing and the stock cords are decent as far as stock cords go.