Pass XA.5 vs XA.8

[Mike]

I was doing a google search for something today and stumbled across another forum, from about a year ago, quoting myself and some others at "Audioshark" stating the XA.8's did indeed sound better than the XA.5's - less grain, tighter bass, but still maintaining all the good stuff about the .5's with none of the less desirable characteristics like the puffier bass. At the time, the XA.8's had just been released and two friends, Charles and Howard were earlier adopters and both had upgraded their XA.5's to XA.8's. I even got to hear the XA.8's in my system on the Alexia's when Charles brought his XA100.8's down and it was superb.

There was some other users at this other forum insistent that there was no way the .8's could be better than the .5's - although they had never actually heard the .8's! Almost a year later, this seems almost comical.

I'm wondering, anyone today still think this? Has anyone here tried the XA.8's against their XA.5's and felt the XA.5's were better?

Don't get me wrong, the .5's are amazing amps. But I find I found the insinuation that Pass would release newer, more expensive versions of their XA series that sound inferior quite entertaining to say the least.

[joeinid]

I'm sure that the point 8 series is better. I'm almost afraid to compare them against my XA60.5's. The only thing that may hold me back is the increased heat output. For the peak of summer, anything hotter than what I have now could be a problem. Yes, i have air conditioning, but any background noise, however low, still bothers me. I actually love the heat, especially now :)

[rbbert]

Among other differences the .8 series is more heavily biased into Class A, which also means that the output at clipping will be slightly higher for the .5 amp. I doubt that would result in any audible superiority of the .5 amp in any situation, but I can't be sure of that.

[kzhtoo]

My experience is limited to the stereo version only, but IME, XA30.8 is better than XA30.5 across the board. I lived with XA30.5 for 2 years and have XA30.8 for over 3 months now. XA30.8 has lower noise floor, better bass performance (quality and quantity), more transparent and neutral. XA30.5 is more romantic with its sweet treble but XA30.8 is more exciting and clearly better. I compared them side by side for 3 weeks.

[kzhtoo]

But I do wonder how would XA30.8 stereo would fair against a pair of XA60.5 (used) as their prices are about the same ball park now.

[joeinid]

Hmmmm, can we talk?

Ha! I know someone with a pair thinking about XA100.8's or even XA160.8's :)


But I do wonder how would XA30.8 stereo would fair against a pair of XA60.5 (used) as their prices are about the same ball park now.

[Alpinist]

I have owned both the XA-100.5's and XA-100.8's and in my opinion, the XA-100.8's are substantially better in every way. The only negative on the XA-100.8's for me were they produced more heat in my room than the XA-100.5's, although the vertical heat sinks of the XA-100.8's distributed the heat much more evenly than the horizontal heat sinks of the XA-100.5's.

A friend of mine who owns the XA-100.5's tried a 10-day in-home demo of the XA-100.8's and they did not sound as good to him in his system as the XA-100.5's, so he ended up sending them back. Afterwards, he questioned if the virtually new XA-100.8's had sufficient break-in time before he gave up on them. We also questioned if his passive preamp just matched better with the XA-100.5's than the XA-100.8's or perhaps he received a bad pair.

Ken

[kzhtoo]

Hmmmm, can we talk?

Ha! I know someone with a pair thinking about XA100.8's or even XA160.8's :)

Sure, if the Strads are part of the deal. [emoji4]

Just kidding, as much as I'd love to try XA60.5, XA30.8 is still giving me goose bumps after 3 months and there are a few areas in the system I'd like to address before getting to the monos eventually.