Most Significant Changes In My Hifi 2011.

For me 2011 was the year the CD format went obsolete, well not totally, only because I still use them in my car for routine drive time listening. I rated the Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo so highly, I decided to get them for my own listening pleasure. Yes, they require a totally changed mindset in terms of handling, storing and music playback. However, once I got used to the new practices, it just became another part of my autonomous audiophile habit, taken for granted! 

The Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo is just perfect for me and my digital music files.


Having lived the Bryston combo for nearly a whole year now, I am still in the process of finishing all the rips from my CD collection and storing them in to my hard drives. I've also downloaded plenty of hi-rez files from the likes of Linn Music, HD Tracks, 2L, Chesky, amongst many other legit pay for music sites. The coolest thing about the Bryston combo is that I can access my music via my iPhone 4 any where from my home!

Isn't she sexy? The "cool" iPhone control interface that is!


The Bryston combo can be said to have the best compromises between convenience, sound quality, and life style all in one product. I've never look back towards my CD collection with fondness, only because 16 bit AIFF or FLAC files just sounded better, compared to the original disc it self, playing in a CD player!(I must however, qualify the statement with "unless the CD player is a TAD D-600") Hi-rez music is just icing on the cake, even if some of the files are of questionable quality. 

The Torus Power RM8A twins. The AVR version below is the best for those residing in ares where voltage in-stability is a major concern.  


The next item that took my system performance a few notches up is the Torus Power RM8A AVR. This it self is a further up grade from an RM8A isolation trans, from the noisy and unstable power supply in the Subang Jaya area! While some have questioned my wisdom for spending way too much on what is, essentially a power conditioner, all I can say is this, "to each his own, as in hifi there is no wrong nor right, only what sounds right to my ears, as it should be yours too!" 

The 3 piece Pass Labs X0.2 is cumbersome for sure, but once I heard it, I no longer wanted the X1 pre amp, which was my original up grade target!


The final piece in the 2011 up grade puzzle came in the form of a Pass Labs X0.2 pre amp. If you've been reading this blog for the past year or so, you'd realised that 2011 is the time we went all out to listen to some of the best pre amps in the market today. So why did I choose what is essentially a dated, last generation product when I have tasted some of the latest and greatest? I offer you two excuses. First, all those super duper, latest and greatest high end designs are simply out of my reach financially. The JRDG Corus sounded particularly "out of this world" in my system, but I simply can't afford it. The next excuse is what some audiophiles call synergy. I simply found the older X0.2 to have such complementary synergy when mated to my Pass Labs old dog, the Aleph 0 power amp. While the latest top pre amp designs, including the XP-20 that Odiosleuth bought, have improved lower noise floor, and better low level transparency with overall neutrality, I've always thought the X0.2 brought a degree of warmer tonal palette and romanticism that is more in line with my system's sonic synergy, and audio preferences.

I still love my music in all forms and genre which I consider as most important criteria when assembling, or up grading a hifi system. While I aim to take it slow and easy this year, who knows what 2012 has in stored?

Pass(t) Statement, Pass Labs X-0.2 Preamp.

All 3 chassis of the Pass Labs X-0.2 preamp, top is control/power supply unit and both the mono audio boxes below, one for the left and the other for the right chanel.

If there's one thing that I'll admit to about hifi is that I am kinda of a bottom feeder within the high end circles. I am not a wealthy man with unlimited resources, however I do crave for excellent sound quality in my pursuit for musical satisfaction. What's a poor guy like me to do?

The answer is to obviously buy "terpakai", or used gears! In the context of my hifi system, for the purpose of system matching synergy, I've always been secretly hoping to find a used bargain in the form of a Pass Labs X-1 preamp, to complement my existing X-Ono phono stage and especially the Aleph 0 mono block power amps, due to their 20db only, 3 gain stage topology, which requires preamps to have a certain level of gain, unlike much of today's latest zero gain designs. Clearly the X series of Pass Labs preamps is the more suit able candidate to match my power amps.

As fate would have it, I have out done my self again in spectacular fashion, the moment I crossed path with this Pass Labs X-0.2 three chassis of a former flagship preamp. I asked for a home audition and as they say, the rest is history!


I've separated the control/power supply unit to the shelf on the left, just below the Linn LP12 turn table, and placed the two mono audio chassis on the bottom right  shelves.


Switching over from the entry level Pass Labs X-2.5 preamp, it was easy to hear where all the compromises were made with the cheaper model. Not that the X-2.5 is a bad product, in fact far from it. I've been a happy camper for a good 4 years or so in terms ownership satisfaction. However, when compared to the alpha X-0.2 sibling, it's easy to experience a whole new level of refinement, bloom and dynamics in musical performance. By today's high end standards, the X-0.2 is not particularly neutral on the tonal front, compared to the 6H30 tube based ARC Reference 3 and the latest batch of reference level preamps which we reviewed recently. While the entire Pass Labs X series preamp shares similar sonic characteristics, the level of high frequency refinement with less grain and mid range smoothness improves as one moves up the range with the X-0.2 most charming with a certain romantic bloom, so evident in earlier tube preamp designs. The X-0.2 offers subliminal, textured, and solid bass reproduction. It's noise floor levels are not as low as the latest XP-20 that good ol' Odiosleuth had up graded to recently, but still amongst the most quiet of preamps as they come. Out right transparency and low level signal preservation is another area where the newer preamp designs like the XP-20 has clearly marched on. So clearly, statements about the XP-20 out performing the Pass(t) statement product are not without substance.

The X-0.2 claws back with superb micro and macro dynamics, plus top notch linearity to boot. This is where the X-2.5 tends to fall short, during orchestral performance climaxes, with the string and horn section on full tilt while the tympani beating relentlessly, as experienced when playing the opening track from Reference Recording's Eiji Oue conducting the Minnesota Orchestra, performing Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. During playback of orchestral materials like this, the X-2.5 will sound hardened, with the sound stage collapsing syndrome clearly apparent, while the X-0.2 sails on calmly, with not a hint of stress. I suppose the wider(double) volume range of the alpha preamp helps too. The Pass X-0.2 also better preserves timbre and harmonics of  wood wind instruments like the flute and oboe, not to mention string instruments like the violin, cello and piano, especially of the "grand" variety.

Like much of the older tube based preamp designs too, the X-0.2 offers an expansive sound stage, with clearly perceptible layers within the depth portrayed. It's ability to add a "halo" of air around each vocal, or instrument presented within that deep sound stage makes the musical reproduction just that bit more convincing. Many people, including Odiosleuth commented that there's a certain tube like sound element in my system since the addition of the X-0.2 preamp.

When last available in year 2009, the X-0.2 retailed for nearly RM$36k. I got this clean 2006 example for half the original outlay. It's certainly not cheap, but this is a very charming, if not the most neutral sounding top flight preamp I've come across. I'd certainly think it's got character, with it's Y2K millennia retro lab chunky styling and robust enough build quality to last a life time. Pass Labs certainly thinks so too, because after a 2 year break, they had decided to re-introduce the latest 3 chassis statement design again, this time in the form of the XP-30, which incidental had just started shipping out of the US now!


A closer look.


With the 3 chassis(connected by no less than 4 umbilical cords) Pass Labs X-0.2 preamp, I had re-align my hifi rack space requirement, as along with the 2 chassis X-Ono phono stage and 2 box Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo digital source and a Linn LP12 turn table, pushing my shelf space levels to a grand total of eight!  Thank fully, the FE Spider clone design is as modular as the original, which I'll touch on the set up soon.

Are You XP-erienced? A Second Take From X to XP. Pass Labs XP-10 & 20 Pre-amps.

Both me and Odiosleuth have been using the Pass Labs X-2.5 pre-amp for quite a few years now. Our latest craze for high end pre-amps have told us that pre-amp circuitry has marched on since. I know there's a group of audiophiles out there who think we're plain nuts to spend that kind of $$$ on a pre-amp. To that group, the pre-amp is a non necessity, as long as you have a CD player with variable volume output control. Now I've tried that approach many years ago my self, but never bought in to the argument presented. I still prefer my sound with a high quality pre-amp in the signal chain. Am I any more wrong or right compared to the non pre-amp advocates? Who knows? Then there's that passive pre-amp group too, but let's not worry about them for now.

All I know is that pre-amps should be rather simple devices used to switch sources and control volume as it's primary function, and no more. Then why is it, in the scheme of high end audio, that the pre-amp becomes critical to the matching of a given system's synergy? Some would argue that impedance matching is the other main(yet unseen) role that the pre-amp plays.  For me, I am not much for arguments, let alone discussion. I just like to play with hifi and hear the sound which allows me to enjoy my music.

Odiosleuth's new up grade, the Pass Labs XP-20 pre-amp. The XP-10 looks exactly the same,  only without the power supply box at the bottom.

I am sorry I digressed, but let's get back to point, the Pass Labs XP series pre amps. They've been around for some time, but due to Pass Labs streamlining their dealership process, their availability has suffered some what in the local context. I managed to get my hands on an XP-10(not supplied by dealer) for this article, to evaluate as a possible upgrade option from my current X-2.5 pre-amp.

From the moment the XP-10 was inserted in to my system, I thought I heard many similar sonic cues that reminded me why I liked and bought the X-2.5, rightly so, because the Pass XP series is a re-working and tidying up of the earlier versions of the same Super Symmetrical X circuitry. I first tried to use the 0db gain setting as recommended by Pass Labs, but the XP-10 did not have sufficient drive to match my low(20db only, normally at least 26db with other power amp designs, including the newer X and XA series by Pass) gain Pass Aleph 0 mono blocks. So I selected the gain on the XP-10 to +4db, which is the default, and recommended setting for the older X-2.5 design. With the higher gain setting, I heard exactly the same warmish neutrality sonic signature with slightly dried high frequency characteristics of  Pass, but only lower noise floor and improved transparency. Sound staging too is a little more vivid, with images slightly more fleshed out, compared to the older pre-amp. By the way, the XP-10's high frequency reproduction is much more refined too.

Coming from my point of being owner to an X-2.5, I'd probably not rush out for an upgrade now and save longer for something with a bigger margin of improvement. However, if one is looking for a high quality pre-amp within the RM$20k budget range, then the XP-10 is still very much worthy of your consideration, with though competition coming from the Ayre K-5XeMP and the much cheaper, if just as good "Small Wonder" Jeff Rowland Capri.

Odiosleuth tested the XP-20 pre-amp when it was first launched, but could never quite forget about it. That's how much he liked it. I did not get the chance to play with it then. However, with the dealership issue settled, Perfect Hi-Fi has kindly allowed us to try the XP-20 again, and this time, Odioslueth did not think twice about doing the up grade. Luckily, I managed to wrestle it from him for just a day to test it out in my system.

The moment I fired up the XP-20, I was thinking to my self "now this is more like it!" The two box XP-20 came with very bold expectations as the foreign reviews already claimed that it's so... good, that it made the much more expensive and higher end X-0.2, three box model redundant. I found the XP-20 to again, have that similar familiar neutrality with "a tinge of warmth" tonal balance, which is good. The highs are super refined and made the X-2.5 sound somewhat course and splashy by comparison. I have never had the opportunity to play with the older X-1 model so all comparisons will be referred with the X-2.5 pre-amp. The XP-20 is astonishingly transparent and can give those pre-amps costing 2, even 3 times it's price a run for their $$$. Again, the XP-20 also came close to those more expensive designs, when it comes to the handling of micro and macro dynamics. Acoustic guitar strings and violin reproduction were very live like and vocals have great density within. Bass is not earth moving, but of the more supple kind in quality. Sound staging is wide open and images with stability, plus the layers within the sound stage easy to discern. One particular area I thought the Pass XP-20 to be out standing is the linearity factor. Here, it holds the musical performance tightly at all volumes, unlike the X-2.5, it never suffered from symptoms like a collapsing sound staging and  lost of control, as a result of high playback volume during musical peaks.

The word that kept coming to my mind as I was listening to the XP-20 was "coherence". All musical reproduction aspects have been rendered as such, where any area of performance is particularly focused, or poorly rendered. You may also say "balanced performance" comes to mind too. Compared to those more ambitious and expensive designs, the RM$32k XP-20 gives away very little in musical performance. I must congratulate Odiosleuth on his fine choice of pre-amp.

One question keeps coming back to my mind, "Why pay more for a pre-amp?"

Due to the very short time I had spent with both the Pass Labs XP series pre-amps, I'd rather label this post as a preview.

Pass Labs is sold by Perfect Hi-Fi, contact Andy Tan at 03-58821693.

Even Better the Second Time Around - Pass Labs XP-20 Pre-amp

This is my second time having the Pass Labs XP-20 pre-amp, Pass’ current top dog in its 2-model pre-amp line-up, for a listening in my system. The first time was 2 years ago, in my old room, with largely similar companion components in the system. You can read about it here.

Then, I was extremely impressed with the advancement made by the XP-20 over my own Pass Labs X2.5 pre-amp, now discontinued. The senior and newer model showed its predecessor a clean pair of heels. I was so tempted to acquire the XP-20 unit, but my brain got the better of my heart and I reluctantly returned it to the distributor. I did go back to enquire about the unit again a couple of weeks later, but some lucky soul was ahead of me and the XP-20 was gone.

The matter thus lay dormant in my memory… until recently. We at Hifi-Unlimited are sort of having a pre-amp ‘phase’ now, triggered by the revelatory performance from Ayre’s KX-R pre-amp a few months ago. We became interested to know how the current crop of top pre-amps fare, possibly with the latest component improvement. So Big E got hardworking scouring for pre-amps from a few marquees to listen to. In fact, even as I am writing now, a Jeff Rowland pre-amp is waiting in the wings for us to tell its story.

Anyway, let’s go back to the Pass Labs XP-20.


The Pass Labs XP-20 pre-amp is a 2-box affair, one box containing the circuitry and the other containing the power supply. The additional space afforded by the additional box allowed Pass Labs to design a more elaborate power supply and also to reduce its interference on the audio circuitry. The only downside I see in this is that you’d need additional rack space to accommodate an extra box.


In terms of inputs, it has 2 balanced and 3 single-ended pairs plus a tape loop. The fifth input can be used as a home theatre pass through with unity gain, which I found handy to hook my AVR to, since I drive my main speakers as the front left-right channels in my 6.1 AV setup. In terms of outputs, it has 1 balanced pair and 2 single-ended pairs, all can be used at the same time.

The operations of the remote control had been improved on. Now, you can press a button to directly select a function, rather than the previous generation’s approach where you had to scroll through the menu using arrow keys to choose what you want.

All the qualities I heard in the XP-20 during the first encounter were still evident in this second helping. I’d go further to say that the XP-20 performed even better now in my system. Probably because of the bigger space and treatment of the new room, the system breathes better, allowing the quality of a component to come through easier.

The Pass Labs XP-20 sounded quieter than my Pass Labs X2.5, it also sounded more composed and calm, but, at the same time, had improved dynamic range and dynamic contrast. Music came through breathing and living, with greater excitement and more verve.

Focus was very good, image edges were clearer and it was done to a right degree, sounding natural to my ears as it avoided going overboard and became the clinical and etched type. With such good focus, the images had excellent separation, left to right, front to back.

The XP-20 conjured up a dense sonic picture, like it was made up of many more pixels. The pixels are finer too, giving the sound a smoothness that I rarely experienced and once experienced found very hard to live without.

The highs through the XP-20 was clean and transparent; the mid had good body; the bass, while solid, was the fist in velvet glove kind rather than the bare knuckle type. Overall, it has a very even balance without undue emphasis on any frequency spectrum.


Compared to the Ayre KX-R, in terms of tonal colour, both are essentially neutral but with a slight nudge in different directions. The KX-R had a tinge of golden hue and a dab of honey sweetness especially in the highs. Good recordings of female vocals tend to melt your heart. In contrast, the XP-20 was slightly more silver-ish, slightly more muscular sounding, and it emphasized the effort and energy in the singing which set one’s pulse racing just a tad more. Overall, the Ayre KX-R triumphed in the refinement department. Well, that’s what you’d expect to get paying more, I suppose.

I find that much as I love the Ayre KX-R, I love the Pass Labs XP-20 too. The KX-R’s pricing is prohibitive to me. The Pass Labs XP-20, though having a lower price tag than the KX-R, still lists for a 'financially challenging' RM31,200. But should a man let his love slip away a second time?

Should I?

Pass Labs is carried by Perfect Hi-Fi. Contact Andy at 03-5882 1693

KLIAV 2010 Pre Show Sneak Peek. Let The Show Begin.

The KLIAV 2010 show organisers, have gracefully allowed me to do a pre-show sneak peek yesterday and some of what you can expect from the show. The show starts today!

Here are some show highlights and latest gear of interest!
24 hours ago. The main foyer at the Starhill rooms are still being prepared for the show!
CMY Audio Visual goes big on Clearaudio galore this year, presenting the full range of turn tables and accessories available, bar the "Statement" table.

Perfect Hifi debuts the Audio Research Reference Anniversary pre amp! This is a shockingly good sounding piece of equipment partnered with Goldmund power amps and Wilson Sasha speakers to match.

Another demo system from Perfect Hifi, featuring ARC CD Reference 8, Pass Labs XP-20 pre amp and X-600.5 power amps. Speakers are Kef Reference 207/2.
Guess who's back? It's Linn, presented by Perfect Hifi! This is Linn Klimax 350 speaker powered by full Linn Klimax range of amps and Klimax DS music server.

The Linn Klimax electronics.

More updates coming in sans pictures:

A&L Audio Station presents the VTL tube amplifiers in the form of TP6.5 pre amp and MB450 Signature power amps powering a pair of Dali speakers.

AV Designs will be featuring the latest TAD CR-1 stand mount monitors and TAD electronics, all powered by a Torus Power RM16A PLC. Demo is to be held in the main Pioneer room, NOT the usual AV Designs Starhill room(that's for AV only, I am told, but it's a still must visit as they do some of the most stunning AV systems around).

Sweedish Statement, via Audiomatic will be showcasing the latest EAT Forte turn table, powered by Vitus amplifiers and Marten Heritage Getz speakers.

Audio Note Malaysia and The Absolute Sound will team up to show case Meridian CD player, with FM Acoustics amplifiers powering Avantgarde horn speakers.

We will be there covering the KLIAV 2010 show reports.

Especially for hifi fanatics up north in Penang, for what ever reason if you cannot make it to the KLIAV 2010 show, fret not. CMY Audio & Visual has not forgotten about you. Franck Tchang of A.S.I. will be doing an "Experience Sharing" product demo at the CMY Audio & Visual Penang showroom, starting from 6.00-8.00pm, Monday, 26th July 2010. Finger treats and refreshments will be served at the casual event.

See ya all at the KLIAV 2010 show.

Be there or be square!

My Vinyl Revival! Pass Labs X-Ono Phono Stage.

Pass Labs X-Ono. An example of the more commonly found Rev.2 version.

With my CD player's recovery health status in limbo, with minimum chances of ever fully operational again, in it's original form, I indulged with my other source, the humble LP.

With one of my hifi buddy's recent phono stage upgrade, I was offered a prospect of owner ship to his pre-owned Pass Labs X-Ono phono stage. I know, this is not the latest XP series model and that I would offer no new perspective on what is an out dated product. However, this blog also serves to document both mine and Odiosleuth's hifi journey too, so I think I'll make a quick mention of it here.
My actual unit which is the Rev.1 version, or the one of the first batches of X-Ono's ever made. Note the shoe box sized power supply box.

The unit is a Rev.1 version, in which while the audio circuit is the same as the more common Rev.2 version available here, the main difference is in the power supply casing. The Rev.1 version power supply box is plain black shoe boxed sized, whilst the Rev.2 version power supply box is full sized, same as the main audio box. The Rev.1 also makes do with 2U steel casing while the Rev.2 version gets CNC-ed thick aluminium panels all round, just as per the front panel. Both Rev.1 and Rev.2 connects to their power supply boxes via 24 pin terminated custom cable.
The back panel of the audio box. RCA input, XLR output. Note the Telos Gold RCA caps for better noise rejection and slightly improved sound staging and imaging focus. I hope to get a pair of Telos Platinum caps to try later.

Now, the sound. I must first stress that in the process of auditioning audio gear for sound quality, if a particular equipment gives you goose bump moments when playing music, it is worth investing your $$$ buying and your time listening to it! The Pass Lab X-Ono did just that within 20 minutes in to the home trial session! Never mind if the cartridge loading and gain setting was not even finalised. It's that good! I took a further 2 weeks of continued listening to finally confirm the both the earlier mentioned settings. Mated to my Benz Micro Glider L cartridge, I ended up using 76 ohms loading and 66 db gain settings.

With the setting finalised, I sat down and listened to some music. Compared to my home brewed Pass Lab Ono DIY-ed effort, I found the real Mc Coy Pass Lab X-Ono to have much, much lower noise floor, better dynamic range & frequency extensions at both extremes plus, it's a whole lot more transparent to boot! Couple that to rather refined and textured high, smooth(but not the smoothest yet!) mids and iron gripped bass slam, I felt my LP reproduction performance levels taken up a few notches. I think the Pass Lab X-Ono is a great musical all rounder, as if you can remember, I am musically genre blind. My playback gear must do all musical genre equally well, and be compassionate to most the poorly recorded 70's and 80's rock music in my LP collection.
The Rega P25 and the Pass Labs X-Ono. Interesting but goose bumps inducing musical experience.

However, all that transparency is also a double edged sword. Along with all the sonic improvements points I heard, the sonic limitations of my Rega P25 turn table are also laid bare for nit pick. I heard what can be described as, a slight greyness in the back ground noise, LP surface noise is starting to get notice able and some wow and flutter problems when playing piano tracks. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I no longer love my Rega P25 turn table, it's a great value for money product, high in musical satisfaction and gets most of the hifi fundamentals right. However, I'll have to admit that there are better turn tables out there, like the Rega P9 or Linn Soundek LP 12 for instance.

Needless to say, after much deliberation, I bought the Pass Lab X-Ono phono stage, to spear head my vinyl revival.

A Leap from X to XP - Pass Labs' New Pre-amp

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

"Hey, you want to upgrade your pre-amp? I am having a special offer on my last piece of XP-20." Nelson Chia, owner of Centre Circle Audio, called me and asked. Awwww...., this is the worst time for me to be tempted by another piece of potentially lethal hifi equipment. As I have said earlier, I have already busted my budget for hifi upgrade this year.

But I have to take it home for a spin anyhow. I wanted to know how far Pass Labs have progressed from its X-series pre-amp days, though it may not be entirely fair to compare the XP-20 to my resident X2.5 - firstly, the X2.5 was the entry level pre-amp for Pass Labs, while the XP-20 resides at the current middle rung; secondly, there is a more than two times difference in price (the XP-20 is listed at around RM30k).

The XP-20 has the traditionally high quality construction of Pass Labs' products. It is a 2-box pre-amp, similar to Pass Labs' previous X1. One box is the power supply and the other contains the control and audio circuits. The separation of the power supply provides the audio circuit with a much cleaner electrical environment to operate in. The two boxes are connected via an umbilical cord, the construction of which is similar to the parallel cable used for computers, though this one is chunkier and of higher build quality.

The pre-amp has 5 inputs - 2 balanced (XLR) and 3 single-ended (RCA), plus a tape loop. Unlike the X-series, the balanced inputs are not doubled up for single-ended operations, so if you use only single-ended components, you have only 4 inputs to play with (including the tape input). It has 1 balanced and 2 single-ended outputs, all of which can be used simultaneously, making bi-amping or feeding a subwoofer easy. The user friendliness of the remote has been improved upon, it is now a direct-select unit, where a command can be selected directly via a button (on Pass Labs' previous pre-amps, you have to use the arrow button to scroll to a function before you can activate it).


Let me say that the past week has been a hifi roller coaster ride for me. First, you have read how the Torus Power PLC elevated the performance of my system, then when I had to take it out to pass to maggielurva by mid-week , I was brought back to earth. Then the XP-20 was inserted in place of my X2.5, my spirit was heightened again, but came the end of the week, it had to go back to Centre Circle Audio and I was back to square one.

Well, the XP-20 is a big leap in performance from the X2.5. While I could still recognize the normal 'signature' of my system, the XP-20 took all the virtues of the X2.5 and ratcheted them up a few notches.

The XP-20 increased my system's transparency and resolution greatly, the sonic picture was packed with more information and details. This was extended to the entire sonic spectrum, the bass became more impactful and better defined, the mid was more articulate, and the highs shimmered. The stage was lit up and bathed in a nice attractive sheen, and its clarity left very little to the imagination.

The XP-20 also has a very fine sonic texture, if I equate my X2.5 to the smoothness of a teenager's skin, then the XP-20's textural fineness is like a baby's. The other great attribute of the XP-20 was its timbre accuracy, everything, be it a musical instrument or a voice, just sounded closer to real.

I had the XP-20 playing in my system for only 3 days, shorter than my normal period for equipment evaluation (however, the XP-20 has been run-in in the shop), so I would take this as an initial impression.

I could already sense that some of you want to ask how my system sounded with Torus Power + X2.5 compared to my own Hydra 8 + XP-20. I would say that the improvement is bigger with the XP-20. What this shows, I think, is that there is a limit as to the magnitude of improvement I could get with my existing equipment, and indeed the XP-20 is a superior piece of gear. But I shudder to think how Torus Power + XP-20 would sound - it could have been audio nirvana. (No, I did not try this combination, the timing did not allow me to)

Sigh... too much temptation, too little money! :-)

Centre Circle Audio is holding a special offer on the XP-20 and some Pass Labs items for a limited time. Please call Centre Circle Audio +60 3 77282686 or Nelson Chia : + 60 12 2876807 to enquire.

Posted by hifikaki 21 March '09