Pass Labs XP-32
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Hot off the press!
I just received my 2021 March copy of Stereophile Magazine. They have a review of the XP-32 in it. The XP-32 three piece unit made the front cover along with the new Wilson SabrinaX. The teaser text on the cover is "We Savor Pass Labs Triple-Decker Preamp." I have not read the review yet, but it looks like there are 5 pages to the review, if you do not count the intermingled ad pages, which makes it twice as long.
In my late December post I predicted a review was likely going to show up, given Pass Labs had full page ads for it recently in Stereophile and TAS.
About the only thing good about being an audiophile in Iowa is that we seem to get the Stereophile and Absolute Sound magazines earlier than anyone else and usually on the same day. I suspect both magazines are distributed from Iowa because we are centrally located in the country. Watch the mailbox for your copy
Enjoy!
I just received my 2021 March copy of Stereophile Magazine. They have a review of the XP-32 in it. The XP-32 three piece unit made the front cover along with the new Wilson SabrinaX. The teaser text on the cover is "We Savor Pass Labs Triple-Decker Preamp." I have not read the review yet, but it looks like there are 5 pages to the review, if you do not count the intermingled ad pages, which makes it twice as long.
In my late December post I predicted a review was likely going to show up, given Pass Labs had full page ads for it recently in Stereophile and TAS.
About the only thing good about being an audiophile in Iowa is that we seem to get the Stereophile and Absolute Sound magazines earlier than anyone else and usually on the same day. I suspect both magazines are distributed from Iowa because we are centrally located in the country. Watch the mailbox for your copy
Enjoy!
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Stereophile has now put the Pass Labs XP-32 preamp review online for those of you that do not have a subscription. Here is the link:Hot off the press!
I just received my 2021 March copy of Stereophile Magazine. They have a review of the XP-32 in it. The XP-32 three piece unit made the front cover along with the new Wilson SabrinaX. The teaser text on the cover is "We Savor Pass Labs Triple-Decker Preamp." I have not read the review yet, but it looks like there are 5 pages to the review, if you do not count the intermingled ad pages, which makes it twice as long.
In my late December post I predicted a review was likely going to show up, given Pass Labs had full page ads for it recently in Stereophile and TAS.
About the only thing good about being an audiophile in Iowa is that we seem to get the Stereophile and Absolute Sound magazines earlier than anyone else and usually on the same day. I suspect both magazines are distributed from Iowa because we are centrally located in the country. Watch the mailbox for your copy
Enjoy!
Pass Laboratories XP-32 line preamplifier
When I studied physics at university too many years ago to admit, I learned about Occam's razor. Many, many more years ago than that, Franciscan friar William of Occam stated that a hypothesis should provide the simplest possible explanation for a phenomenon.
www.stereophile.com
Enjoy!
Is there a chance of a 3-box version of the XS pre-amp being offered?
the XS is similar to the XP-22 in that the control/pre-amp circuits are in 1 box, while the power supply section resides in a separate, "no-frills" box.
The XP-30 and XP-32's control/power supply section reside in the same box, while the pre-amp circuits are placed in their own individual left and right channels, a topology which is said to reduce noise floor even more.
Why wasn't the 3-box topology been applied for the XS model?
the XS is similar to the XP-22 in that the control/pre-amp circuits are in 1 box, while the power supply section resides in a separate, "no-frills" box.
The XP-30 and XP-32's control/power supply section reside in the same box, while the pre-amp circuits are placed in their own individual left and right channels, a topology which is said to reduce noise floor even more.
Why wasn't the 3-box topology been applied for the XS model?
If you read the Stereophile review of the Pass Labs XP-32 you likely saw the reference to DC couple the outputs. There is no mention of this ability in the manual. I recently implemented the DC coupling option as depicted in the attached PDF file. There are two spare jumpers in the text box describing changing the gain of the preamp. Note that the reference to change gain via jumpers J1 and J2 are incorrect. J1 and J2 are actually the jumper locations to implement the DC coupling option. These two jumper locations short out the 100 uF and 0.1 uF capacitors that are in parallel with each other in each phase of the XLR outputs. The directions for changing the gain of the preamp in the text block should be calling out J3 and J4. Note that DC coupling the outputs will likely cause a DC offset on the output on the preamp that will be an issue if your amplifier is not AC coupled! With my XP-32 unit the DC coupled output configuration caused offsets of up to 20 mV. If your amplifier is DC coupled and/or does not have a DC servo that can deal with this much of an DC offset the output of the amplifier could exhibit a 20 times higher DC on it's output. The offset and offset balance between the plus and minus outputs (XLR output) can be adjusted with the two potentiometers on the amplifier input board. Since my amplifier is AC coupled I have yet to adjust the two pots, so cannot comment on how much offset I could get rid of in my specific unit. I have talked with Wayne Colburn and he has indicated my unit has obviously drifted given the measurement I supplied him and could be adjusted to a much better result.Stereophile has now put the Pass Labs XP-32 preamp review online for those of you that do not have a subscription. Here is the link:
Pass Laboratories XP-32 line preamplifier
When I studied physics at university too many years ago to admit, I learned about Occam's razor. Many, many more years ago than that, Franciscan friar William of Occam stated that a hypothesis should provide the simplest possible explanation for a phenomenon.
Enjoy!
So what does it sound like? Besides the spectral balance changing in a positive way, I found a significant improvement in the overall resolution with the DC coupling implemented on the XP-32. Low level detail, soundstage depth and better tone (truer harmonics) to the instruments all improved. The higher frequencies seemed to have the most improvement. The sound quality with the normal capacitor coupled configuration seems colored/distorted by comparison. With the DC coupling implemented, I feel like I have a new preamp!
Highly recommended, enjoy!
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Have a question and hopefully not too off topic but wondering if anyone has had the opportunity to compare the Pass Lab XP-32 or 22 to a Constellation Preamp 1.0. Have the Preamp 1.0 in house for audition and we're enamoured. Just raises the system to another level of resolution (Pass Labs XA 30.8, Bartok, Magico A5)
We have no local dealer for Pass and so ordered our amp from Reno Hifi but this is somewhat problematic for an audition of the 32 or 22, further complicated by the border between us the US. The Constellation is in the price range as the 32.
Any thoughts would be welcome.
We have no local dealer for Pass and so ordered our amp from Reno Hifi but this is somewhat problematic for an audition of the 32 or 22, further complicated by the border between us the US. The Constellation is in the price range as the 32.
Any thoughts would be welcome.
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