First Watt moves to Pass Labs

SIT 1 monos are on my radar. I've confirmed with Pass on my end. I'm good to go with First Watt! Should be a great solid state option for pairing with Avantgarde.


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I am wondering how many Pass Labs fans have ever played around with Nelson Pass's personal playground gear, First Watt.

I have been reading a ton about them and after having an e-mail exchange with Papa Pass I just had to give one a try.

With my recent playing around with a classic ARC amp it confirmed to me that top quality low powered amps give me more of what I am looking for.

Having two powered subwoofers I do not worry about if the main amp can't provide the low end....

My SS amp was way too much power for me, but a buddy of mine having large Focal speakers with large woofers was needing more power. So we are trading. A First Watt F6 with very low hours is arriving next week. I am really looking forward to playing with it.

Since this was originally bought before Pass Labs took over building them I am pretty sure Nelson built this one :)...
 
Nelson Pass is a hoot of a person in real life. I've enjoyed some of his lectures.


I also enjoy reading some of his interviews, and this one relates to breakin

"
GB: Do you believe in audiophile "break-in"? If yes, do you think it is measurable, if we knew which parts of the brain to measure?



NP: I am a strong believer in breaking-in audiophiles. Most of them can hear pretty good after an hour or so, but a couple weeks is sometimes required. Their wives are another matter. "
 
With a few e-mail exchanges with Nelson I can say he is a very interesting, and funny guy. He told me once that he decided that he was not going to invent/build a transporter machine because he heard that the original dies and a copy shows up on the other end, so he would be afraid to use it :)... I told him I was very depressed since I was about to place an order for one from him :D...

Very cool guy and love that he plays around with his designs with no worries about marketing and commercial considerations.

I am so hoping that the First Watt blows me away!
 
I'm itching for the new XA25 amp from Pass. Too bad it's single ended only.
 
Ha!

Maybe a Marantz PM-10 :)

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a.wayne said:
Yamaha First .......
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Randy Myers said:
A couple friends from our audio club were over yesterday comparing the First Watt and Audio Research amplifiers. Well one preferred the FW and the other the ARC. I am neutral although maybe leaning towards the FW. The one who liked the ARC better is an Audio Research fan/owner from way back, so his heart was with ARC from the get go... and he really liked the VT50.

We all came to a definitely consensuses however that they are both pretty spectacular and fairly close. The ARC may have a little more "air" around it, especially in the highs while the FW probably has a fuller mid range and female vocals especially are startling good. Mid base very much favored the FW. Especially on a Fiona Joy SACD where the lower piano notes just had a more solid bottom residence. And the FW has probably a better and more stable image. Both are extremely good in this regards.

The ARC definitely has more power, but both are able to drive my MC's (which should be a very hard to drive speaker, 85 db, 4 ohm) to very high levels. Honestly, it is a really good problem to have :), and a very nice change of pace in amplifiers...
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This is where the blindfolds (or sleeping masks from Walmart) come in handy.


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