The Trigger has been pulled. New amplification!!

MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Made some jumpers for the XLR inputs and got the amp all hooked up. Kerry was still in bed, so I just watched some TV for a couple of hours at a low volume level. He got up and I had clearance to start some serious listening.

I put on Journey's Greatest Hits SACD. Listened to that for awhile. Then went to Cyndi Lauper's "She's So Unusual" SACD. Then went to my "Critical Listening" playlist on my Squeezebox which includes songs I feel really sound amazing on my system. These are the songs I play when someone comes over for the first time and wants to hear my system.

Here's my initial impressions:
My jaw needs to be wired shut. It's been agape all morning. FONK!
I feel as if I've had these reQuest sitting in a closet for the last 3 years.
I feel like someone should've slapped me and said, "Get a real amp"
I finally know what it means when someone says, "The amp is conrolling the speakers with authority". In this case, the X250 has bitch-slapped my MartinLogans and said, "Who's your Daddy now?"

Serious control and alot more dynamics than I've ever had in my system.

I can honestly say that that the sound I'm hearing now BLOWS AWAY what I heard a couple weeks ago with the Summit/Classe combination. It's just incredible and my system has come to life in a way that it never had before. Simply amazing!


Tom,

Congrats! Welcome to the Pass/ML Club! They are awsome IMO. Is the amp a 250.5 or 250? I would of thought it would say .5 on the face (meter). That's weird. Just curious.
 
Now Tom, tell us what you really think

Tom,

I will speak for Jason and I regarding your first impression. We are sooooo glad you like the Pass. Your initial comments pretty much mirror my initial reaction. The wonderful thing about this addition is the fact that every "familar" disc will now present new magic and a new listening experience and that, IMHO, is the reason we all subscribe to this crazy hobby. Enjoy, Honorable Webmaster, enjoy!

GG :rocker:
 
I want to convert Joey V to the Pass equipment....Hmm. How can I do it? Joey V I will make you a deal.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Tom-

We at the ML Forum expect you to have a review under amplifiers. Being that this is your forum, we all want to see how it's done.;)

Thanks,
your obsessed ML owners/soon to be owners
 
Its amazing how the reQuests wake up with a good amp, isnt it?

T-
 
Glad to hear your impressions are very positive Tom! What was the amp you used prior to the Pass btw?

Also, I'm sure if we get the Summits in your room with your equipment, we'd have something special, too!!

Lastly, to Jason.... Plinius vs Pass... it's on now!! :mad:

Where's the battle-face emoticon when you need one??

Joey :)
 
Sorry, but it's NOT the .5 version.. just the X250. It was used and the previous owner was a bottlehead who used it when his tube amp was getting fixed or something... So it's all broken in and everything. Paid $2450 for it, and 100 to ship it.

I will definitely post a review - maybe next week....

I am really just stunned at what this one piece of equipment has done.

Kerry sat in the sweet spot and listened to one of his favorite songs.. "Borrowed Heaven" by The Corrs. When he actually heard the lead singer breathe in the first line of the lyrics, his jaw hit the floor too!

Needless to say, he was stoked and took the remote from me for awhile so he could hear some other stuff...

This really is amazing.

The last amp was a carver TFM-35X.. magnetic field power amp. sounds good at low levels but really seemed to struggle at higher volumes.. Of course I didn't know that before today. It'll be going on ebay soon.
 
Last edited:
Tom,
I am so happy for you. After you have listened to your entire music collection again :D, try and listen a low volumes. You should see the same dynamics at lower volumes and you will be truly amazed. I realize I have an inferior amp compared to this exclusive club :eek: even though it is a Conrad Johnson!! :rolleyes:

What you will find is, as a lot of us realize, is not only will an amp of this quality play well at higher volumes, it will also play well at low volumes.

Enjoy my friend and use it in the best of health!!!

P.S Why do I have the feeling you will be fighting Kerry for the sweet spot for a few days. LOL


Jeff:cool:
 
"Borrowed Heaven" by The Corrs. When he actually heard the lead singer breathe in the first line of the lyrics, his jaw hit the floor too!

Tom,

I really like The Corrs too, not familiar w/ that song...what CD is it on?
 
"TomDac reQuest Denon AVR4800 Receiver Carver TFM-35x ......
Sony KDF-50WE655 50" Grand Wega"

uhoh.gif


Lugano is going to have your head if you do not update the database!!!! :p
 
Tom,
I am so happy for you. After you have listened to your entire music collection again :D, try and listen a low volumes. You should see the same dynamics at lower volumes and you will be truly amazed. I realize I have an inferior amp compared to this exclusive club :eek: even though it is a Conrad Johnson!! :rolleyes:

What you will find is, as a lot of us realize, is not only will an amp of this quality play well at higher volumes, it will also play well at low volumes.:


Tom, Glad to hear the new addition is superb !! and Jeff makes a good point as to clear and improved dynamics regardless of volume level. But I must disagree with his CJ comment, inferior my foot !!!
 
The CD is called "Borrowed Heaven" oddly enough.

LOL, Tom!!

Good one!

Glad you're enjoying your crown jewel.... make sure to keep impressions coming as I enjoy reading your thoughts on your big guy!

Thanks,
Joey
 
My friend Ryan called me yesterday. He's the one that went to the hi-end audio store with me to listen to Summits with Classe amps. Here's what the conversation was like:

Me: Hello
Ryan: Well? How is it?
Me: Dude.... It's awesome. C'mon over and bring some CDs.
Ryan: Cool.. I'll be right over.

20 minutes later, Ryan was here with CDs in hand.

Ryan is NOT an audiophile by any means. He's 32 years old, REALLY into cars (his current stable includes his beloved BMW 7 series and a 2003 Mercedes SL55 that is a MONSTER). Anyway, he loves music, but unfortunately this is where we don't quite see eye-to-eye. He's really into trance and house music. I don't get it, but hey, to each his own.

So first I sit him in the sweet spot. I play him Linda Ronstadt's "Straighten Up & Fly Right". His jaw hits the floor. I then put on Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" which is from a CD we listened to on the Summit/Classe combination. Again he was stunned.

I gave him control and he loaded some CDs into the changer and he did his thing with some trance music.

Not knowing the material, it was hard for me to be amazed, but Ryan's comments were the same as what both Kerry and I said earlier:

"I was hearing all sorts of new things"
"channel separation is way more defined"
"bass is so controlled"

It was REALLY fun to see the look on his face.

Now if I can just convince him into a small set of Logans and convert him!
:D
 
Last edited:
Tom -- Now that you've run with it for a bit, what kind of heat is generated by the X250? One of the advantages I saw with the Sunfire pre-pro and amp is that they run pretty cool. The B&K that they replaced is an A-A/B amp like the X250, but it ran really hot (and was spec'd to do so). It was actually uncomfortable to the touch and had to be specially positioned and vented within its enclosed rack. On the other hand, it was about half the wattage at 8 ohms (150) and significantly less at 4 ohms (185).
 
Back
Top