I mentioned in my last "Today's Fresh Catch" post (HERE) that the Pass Labs XA 25 power amplifier (below) had arrived here at Jeff's Place for me to listen to, blog about, and write a feature article about for you at Positive Feedback.

After hearing Nelson's First Watt SIT-III power amplifier (below) and how impressive it was (review HERE), I was really looking forward to hearing Nelson's Pass Labs XA25 power amplifier, which I know has already impressed quite a few people.

In fact, I consider myself lucky to be able to write about the XA25 for you, as the XA25 is so popular with 'philes that they are in an almost continual state of being backordered, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to snag this one for some listening.  

The Pass Labs XA25 power amplifier is rated at 25 watts into 8 Ohms, and the First Watt SIT-3 is rated at 18 watts into 8 Ohms.

The First Watt SIT-3 sounded stunning on my 8 Ohm sensitivity Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers with their external Duelund CAST crossovers within their power limits, but 18 watts wasn't quite enough power to blow the windows out volume-wise, like I enjoy doing at times. 

Given the West's high sensitivity, you'd think you could use even a flea powered amp with much success, but the West's are more power hungry than you would expect, and they really come to life with my rather powerful vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural power amplifiers (30 watts nominal, 60 watts on peaks), for example.

So you might imagine that I am really looking forward to giving the more powerful Pass Labs XA25 power amplifier a workout on the big West's, and I suspect it will be a nice match.

After all, Nelson uses "Tannoy 15” HPD coaxial's from the 1960’s, mounted in upside down Jensen Imperial boxes (above) with the crossover that Joe labored over for 10 years (below)" at home for his personal and reference listening.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, as first I need to finish up the Duelund-Altec Project with the vintage "Stokowski" Altec's and the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers, so it'll be a while before I can wrestle the big West's into position for some listening time.

Not that I'm suffering on the loudspeaker front, mind you, as the vintage "Stokowski" Altec's with their state-of-art Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers are occupying the West's normal placement, and are mind-blowingly good (below).

I've been listening to the big Altec's with the superb SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier (review HERE), which I'm voicing the crossovers with as my reference amplifier - it's a very happy match!

However, I really wanted to give the XA25 a listen, so today I pulled the SPEC out of the system, and put the Pass Labs XA power amplifier in, along with my cherished vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier (above).

Speaker cables are Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper, and the interconnects are Duelund DCA20GA tinned-copper. The power cable I'm using for the Pass Labs XA25 is the superb Acoustic Revive Absolute (review HERE), and the MX110 has its own captive power cord.

For an analog source I'm using my Classic Turntable Company / Artisan Fidelity hot-rodded Garrard 301 (above), with the Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge seeing most of the action (review HERE).

For digital I'm using the Mhdt Lab Havana+ USB DAC, which I stream digital to with my ancient MacBook (old Mac's just never die, well unless you spill coffee into the keyboard in a distracted moment - don't ask!). Between the Havana and MacBook is my DIY Art of Tone 22GA tinned-copper USB interconnect.

Have I ever mentioned to you that vintage Altec's are very flattering to digital? For whatever reason, they are, and more than a few visitors have been surprised how good my affordable digital front end sounds on the "Stokowski" Altec's. I continue to marvel at what these vintage Altec's do for digital, so if you're a digital kind of listener, take note.

Nelson recommends 45 hours of run-in time for XA25, so I'll wait to offer my first impressions until I hit the 45 hour mark. Ok, maybe I should mention that even with zero hours on the XA25 it's sounding mighty fine, and there's already been a few of those "voice of god" moments while listening to the Jazz24 stream, which is a promising outcome at this early point in listening.

Those of you who have been following the Duelund-Altec Project know that they are 16 Ohm loudspeakers, and so the XA25's 25 watts of output is halved into the 16 Ohm load of the Altec's. That's ok, as there's still plenty of power for the sensitive Altec's, and even at live-like volumes I'm barely cracking the throttle open on the XA25.

I've never listened to the "Stokowski" Altec's powered by the First Watt SIT-3 power amp yet, so expect to read about some XA and SIT-3 comparisons as I get a little further along the listening curve.

Geez, I almost forgot to say that the walnut plinths for the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers have arrived, and probably next week my buddy Dave and I will be prepping them for installation of the Duelund CAST tinned-copper components.

This is an exciting time, with the culmination of the Duelund-Altec Project near at hand, and I'll be writing up the Positive Feedback feature article about them when I get everything done to my satisfaction, hopefully in the next six to eight weeks! You can just barely see the walnut boards for the plinths sitting next to the Altec's in the system photo above.

Ok, that's what's happening here at Jeff's Place at the moment. As always, thanks for stopping by to hang with me for a few minutes, and may the tone be with you!