Anyone Hear the New .8 Amps Yet

I'm currently using Synergistic Research's Galileo LE analog power cords on my Pass amps and preamp. For me, they provide full body and a very smooth tone that I like. The bass is ever so slightly truncated. Despite the smoothness, there is a ton of detail and very precise imaging and dimensionality that I'm extremely content with in my current system.

I have had Wireworld Silver Eclipse which I found too lean (I had Dynaudio C4 IIs at the time) with Pass. My next wire was TaraLabs The 0.8s (or the Ones, I can't recall). They gave good body and had a smoothness to them also but they did not give me the imaging and holography that I have now. My experience (although not with Pass) with Transparent leads me to believe that they would also work well.
 
madfloyd said:
Great question. I'd love to know what power cords people are mating with their Pass gear.
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Eight years ago when I owned the Pass Aleph 2, I replaced the stock cords with a unique solution. I have not used conventional power cords for my amps (or front end) since. I use two 15' lengths of JPS In-Wall cable running from two separate 20 amp circuits through the floor and terminated by Furutech IEC plugs. These are then plugged directly into each amp bi-passing all connections and outlets. I do the same for the power distribution box for my rack and front end components on a third 20 amp circuit.

This approach dramatically lowered noise and has worked great with the Aleph 2, XA160, XA100.5 and XA160.5 amplifiers. I have not compared this to conventional power cords and outlets in eight years, so some new PC may be better.
 
Interesting idea PeterA... I have a very high efficiency biamped setup (107db). So noise is my paramount issue. Combine that with I'm in a high rise building with 40 other residents. I do have a couple of Furutech Powerflux cords to try.
 
madfloyd said:
Tough question in some respects. I don't know how much the Ultra 5's are doing for me right now to be honest. I'd have to take them out from under the amps to see - and of course at some point I want to try them again under my speakers.

There's no doubt that I've moved forward in the presentation of rock music. Probably classical as well. Jazz is where I'm still struggling. I think it comes down to speaker positioning and that it's going to be a challenge to nail it. It seems I have to have the speakers about 6 feet out into the room to stop the deep bass from exciting my 30hz room node. The challenge when the speakers are that far out is to not have the midrange thin out where the upper mids can get nasty (Wilson being designed to be closer to the front wall and all...).

I'm going to try some different power cords and see what happens but other than that I think my priority is to nail down the speaker position (which prior to getting the .8's I thought I had done...).
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Got it...thanks. Just curious...what kind of flooring do you have? Just wondering if you think its the floor or the room, or both that is creating the bass problem.
 
In my experience, the Pass amps are pretty neutral with a slight bias to the warm/full side. However, when I tried the XP-20 in my system, which consisted of an X350.5 at the time, I thought it accentuated the frequency extremes (ie: treble, bass). In comparison, the midrange sounded a bit recessed so it pushed the soundstage and the images back further. At low volumes, it lost some of the presence. At high volumes, however, it was a good effect, because the sound wasn't in your face. I'm not sure how that compares with the XP-30, but I remember that as having a bit more midrange presence. A good friend of mine owns the XA200.5 amps. The original set consisted of an XP-20 preamp. I was not too enamored of that sound, nor was he. He ended up purchasing a Conrad-Johnson GAT tube preamp, which provided more midrange presence and detail and was much more musical. My 2 cents.
 
LL21 said:
Got it...thanks. Just curious...what kind of flooring do you have? Just wondering if you think its the floor or the room, or both that is creating the bass problem.
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The floor is plywood over joists with carpeting on top. I wish I knew whether the 30hz node was the room or the floor singing along... I'm now thinking about stuffing the ports of the Alexia's...


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dfwmediagroup said:
In my experience, the Pass amps are pretty neutral with a slight bias to the warm/full side. However, when I tried the XP-20 in my system, which consisted of an X350.5 at the time, I thought it accentuated the frequency extremes (ie: treble, bass). In comparison, the midrange sounded a bit recessed so it pushed the soundstage and the images back further. At low volumes, it lost some of the presence. At high volumes, however, it was a good effect, because the sound wasn't in your face. I'm not sure how that compares with the XP-30, but I remember that as having a bit more midrange presence. A good friend of mine owns the XA200.5 amps. The original set consisted of an XP-20 preamp. I was not too enamored of that sound, nor was he. He ended up purchasing a Conrad-Johnson GAT tube preamp, which provided more midrange presence and detail and was much more musical. My 2 cents.
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Which speakers does he have?


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madfloyd said:
The floor is plywood over joists with carpeting on top. I wish I knew whether the 30hz node was the room or the floor singing along... I'm now thinking about stuffing the ports of the Alexia's...


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I am no acoustician...but I would have guessed that if the 30hz node is audible throughout much of the room, it is more likely it is the floor...than if the node is audible in 1 or only a few specific locations. Pure guess.

In my case, I found I have both...but once I cleaned up the system with isolation, the bass largely cleared up...and it is in fact then that i realized I had a node in just 2 spots in the room...1 significant and 1 much less noticeable. I am not convinced stuffing ports of Alexia is the way to go, but that could well adjust the bass across a far greater spectrum than a single node...inadvertently causing all manner of other bass issues. Again, a guestimate.

If the Ultra 5s do not change this much...it probably is not the floor. At least in my own experience, it was a big improvement...but so too was isolation of the sub off the floor, speakers, equipment, etc. If it is a node, you may need to focus on things (placement, treatment?) that specifically address a node.
 
madfloyd said:
The floor is plywood over joists with carpeting on top. I wish I knew whether the 30hz node was the room or the floor singing along... I'm now thinking about stuffing the ports of the Alexia's...


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Stuffing the ports will do no good, at least with the Maxxes they did not.

As I said before, of the room is too difficult to treat, deqx will be your friend.

Cheers
 
or DSPeaker 2.0 Dual Core

If you haven't tried the Stillpoints under the Alexia's....start there.
 
The Sandman said:
My XA160.8s will be here late next week. Then it'll be my turn to do a little comparison with the XA160.5s (with my XP-30 preamp and Magico s5s).
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Howard,

I am very happy for you. I think it will be great to get your take with the S5's and XP-30. What is your room like?
 
FlexibleAudio said:
Howard,

I am very happy for you. I think it will be great to get your take with the S5's and XP-30. What is your room like?
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My room is 16' X 30' X 8' with a small bevel along the wall/ceiling interface on the long walls. There is an open 4' wide hallway at the back of the room that goes another 10' back. The speakers are placed on the short wall in front according to the Cardas formula so they're pretty far out from the walls. The subs (F112s) sit on the outside of each S5.

The amps have just about 50 hours of on time so far - I'm already getting an idea of what they're all about but I won't make any comments until they get at least 5 days of on time on them. :)
 
Yes Howard, we are on sonic "pins and needles".......I have a feeling the .8s will have even better synergy with the S5's than the existing great Pass/Magico synergy.
 
From my experience I can see where the .8's would be a great match with S5's. Big full sound that is very easy on the ears and great midrange and top end. Could be the perfect combo.
 
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