They don’t do that, but they do great double duty as space heaters. Thirty some odd watts in Class A. 
1 Like
Galen
Are you familiar with Reno HIFI? Mark , the owner, second generation with Nelson Pass, is a great guy.
He has some X260.8 mono demos at considerable savings.
Just fyi
Ron
When you say “the owner, second generation with Nelson Pass” do you mean he is related to Nelson Pass, or something else (like they have been a dealer over two generations or something like that)? Sorry, didn’t follow what you meant there and hadn’t heard that before, but had previously wondered why that dealership seemed to be such a go-to for Pass Labs products.
Thankyou Ron,
Yes, I bought my XP-10, a drop and dent version, years ago from RENO and it was awesome sounding for the money. Been close to Pass Products ever since.
Get this, the REMOTE buttons were acting out and discharging the batteries in a few days. I called Pass Labs to buy a new one and was instructed to send the old one. I got the new remote in like four days and…NO BILL. I called and they blew me off and suggested I just enjoy the pre-amp! A heavily used preamp that had the remote stuck in couch cushions one too many times. They had no reason to replace the remote. Service is better than excellent.
Best,
Galen
7 Likes
There is a reason Pass is such a successful manufacturer. I had a XP-20 line stage. I cleverly managed to ding the top plate of the control unit. Didn’t compromise the function of the unit, but wasn’t very pretty either. Called them expecting to fork out for a new top plate. They told me to keep my credit card in my wallet and they’d send me a new one on their dime. How’s that for putting the customer first. It helps buying Pass from Mark, every Pass piece I own or have owned I’ve purchased from Reno HiFi. He is, I do believe, Pass’s worldwide #1 dealer so when you buy from him you get the love from them if and when you need service. He’s located close enough to the factory, btw, that when he needs new stock he drives his van to the plant and picks it up himself. Way cool.
7 Likes
Mark is the son of Joe Sammut, who was partner to Nelson and as Nelson said so many times, “Joe had the best ears in the business”.
2 Likes
I bought an XP30 line stage that was about 10 years old. Pass went thru it and “refurbished” (replaced) whatever was on the ragged edge. Free. No charge. Gratis.
6 Likes
Bought my first Pass amp in the 80’s, and have been working up the food chain by trading in with Mark ever since: 5 amps, 4 preamps, 2 phono stages.
When I got my XA160.8’s, I had traded in a pair of 160.5’s for a demo pair of the 160.8’s. One obviously got dropped in shipment and one of the rear panel handles was bent, and the back plate was curled a bit at the corner. Other than that, the amp played just fine. I gave Mark a call to arrange getting the damaged unit set back for some TLC.
Instead he shipped me a brand new unopened pair.
Customer for life, here.
5 Likes
Some really impressive testimonials here. I guess that’s what comes of asking yourself as a maker or retailer, “What would I want done in this situation, if I was the customer?” and simply doing it without regard to the (upfront) cost. Tends to pay for itself over time. Doesn’t hurt that the products in question are superlative, of course. And the company has to be small enough that there aren’t beaners able to veto this sort of thing.
4 Likes
No offense to our Financial brethren, but I agree. Clearly you need enough income to cover the bills and pay the staff a comfortable living wage. Shareholders and insane salary expectations are one of the biggest issues we face.
2 Likes
…and then there’s bonus, stock options, and brownie points.
Regarding Pass, a class act all the way around, whether it be Threshold, Forte, First Watt, Pass, or what ever. Solid chassis, great sound, great retail presence, and a sound that needs no excuses or apologies.
3 Likes
…and a mean time between failure of forever.
4 Likes
Indeed, having a relatively early Threshold preamp, with no failures, It still sounds great.
1 Like
Easy to forget how vitally important this is. Of all of the needed fixes in the examples above, most were just cosmetic or user error stuff, no real device failures. Other than great sound (first criterion), bulletproof reliability for me is a close second
1 Like
Also Nakamichi where he worked with John Curl on the CA5 preamp
I own one and besides the 80’s black plastic faceplate and the thin sheet metal enclosure it is a killer phono stage
I still rotate it in periodically as a phono stage and am always impressed. Carful to avoid the CA5A which was done after Curl and Pass parted ways with NAK and is not nearly as distinguished sonically
Curl then of course, went on to design the Vendetta. A not so subtle name following his departure from circuit design for Nakamichi
Best,
-JP
I also had nice Threshold mono amps, I think it was the Stasis SA/2 monos. Oh man, thinking back I have quite some amp history…Threshold, Pass Aleph 0, Brinkmann, Gryphon, Vitus, Lamm…
By the way, for those looking for some wallet-demanding amps, this is a fun page. It starts with the lowest priced amps!
2 Likes
I am still waiting to learn how many watts it will take to get 105dB at 15’ out of these newfangled transducers.
Anyone, anyone…Bueller…Bueller…?
All I have is 300 watts so that should do it for me.
1 Like
Scotte1,
My T+A solitaire CWT1000-40 Carbons hit 105 dB peak with the M40 HV mono amps in high power mode (1200 watts into 4 -ohm) so we have that. They are 88 dB SPL rated.
I just did 100+ peak with a motorcycle helmet on and earplugs! They don’t lie. Of course I use a compressed rock source of mine…Nickelback, all the right reasons.
I don’t see the FR30 being too different but…the CWT 1000-40 have a HUGE tweeter panel and eight midbass drivers as well as FOUR driven woofers so they can take the power. No one driver is really seeing a lot of power by design. The SPL rating really doesn’t describe what happens at the limits so I make no claims except on what the 1000-40 did. You got me curious. DO NOT try this without hearing protection! Closer than eight feet is REALLY loud. I was ten feet away.
The downside is they are one spot speakers to sound the best. Yep, same as a panel speaker radiation frontal pattern. Nothing goes up or down.
I need to go put all the stuff back on the shelves…see you!
Best,
Galen
4 Likes
Really loud does not usually equal really good, IME.
“Headroom” is something I understand however. I don’t think you can have too much headroom with a given speaker/amp combination, within reason.
Thanks for conducting the experiment.
Cheers.
1 Like