Pass Labs XP-25
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An XP-15 just replaced my Xono and it was a significant upgrade. The XP-25 must be incredible.
I had arranged a trade with Mark from Reno HiFi. He sent me the XP-15, but allowed me to hang on to the Xono for 10 days so I could compare them. After the first side of an LP through the XP-15, I knew there would be no going back to the Xono.
The XP-15 sounded like the Xono cold out of the box with one exception: it was much more open in the upper frequencies. The Xono sounded dark and dull in comparison.
As the XP-15 settled in, its lead over the Xono grew and grew and grew. The biggest improvement I'd have to say is in the reproduction of tone. Tones are far more natural with a tube-like bloom. The increased realism I have been hearing from acoustic instruments has been downright stunning - I'm still finding myself amazed.
The XP-15 also passes more information - particularly the low level stuff. It's also faster and more dynamic. And it's more transparent too - it does a better job than the Xono of getting out of the way of the music. Bass is better too.
I'm now listening to "Kind of Blue". Tone is so much more realistic than I've ever heard from this LP. Stunning really.
I am still really surprised that the XP-15 turned out to be so much better than the Xono. I wasn't expecting this big of an upgrade. The Xono was just not allowing me to hear all that my Lyra Skala could do.
Peter - I just noticed the photo of your turntable. Very nice. You should definitely think about upgrading from the Xono.
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Thanks Kenny. That sounds like quite an improvement. I really like the many load options on the Xono, but I think it's time to consider the XP15 or XP25.
The gazillion load options are available with the XP-15 too. The same 8 switches are there - but they are on the back panel, which makes it much easier. Gain is set with a switch on the back panel also.
Excellent for the money. I used it with an XP30 for a couple of years. I moved on recently to the ARC REF 10 Phono. Is it better? Yes.....at 3x the price.
Just a few quick notes on the XP-25:
1) It's apparently very susceptible to surrounding magnetic fields: had to move it far away from the amp (perhaps as expected, but this wasn't the case with other phono stages), and the Berkeley DAC (even when sitting two feet under it). This susceptibility was evident by simply moving the phono's main module around on its shelf (huge hum variations at maximum preamp gain).
2) Star-grounding gave the best results wrt hum (again at maximum preamp gain). I am still experimenting with lifting its power supply's ground (star-grounding at the preamp via interconnects) or not (star-grounding at the power distributor).
3) I am going XLR-to-RCA from the arm to the XP-25; so I measured the resistance (isolation, really) of pin 1 (ground) of the XLR Neutrik connectors and their metal skin - unfortunately, it's not infinite (i.e. not totally isolated), and the measured ~15Mohm resistance is responsible for some hum pickup, very evident when touching the connectors. So I routed a wire from the XLR's skin to the XP-25's ground terminal; the final result is shown below (don't fret about the other wires routing the input RCA's negative also to ground - internally, they two are also connected). While not many will go XLR out of the arm, the point is that you should check your RCA connectors by touching them to see if hum goes up, and take appropriate action.
The end result is that the used input of the XP-25 has MUCH lower noise than the unused (and shorted) one, and to hear traces of hum I have to crank up the preamp at almost 95% of its max gain. The audible improvements of all these tweaks are quite evident.
1) It's apparently very susceptible to surrounding magnetic fields: had to move it far away from the amp (perhaps as expected, but this wasn't the case with other phono stages), and the Berkeley DAC (even when sitting two feet under it). This susceptibility was evident by simply moving the phono's main module around on its shelf (huge hum variations at maximum preamp gain).
2) Star-grounding gave the best results wrt hum (again at maximum preamp gain). I am still experimenting with lifting its power supply's ground (star-grounding at the preamp via interconnects) or not (star-grounding at the power distributor).
3) I am going XLR-to-RCA from the arm to the XP-25; so I measured the resistance (isolation, really) of pin 1 (ground) of the XLR Neutrik connectors and their metal skin - unfortunately, it's not infinite (i.e. not totally isolated), and the measured ~15Mohm resistance is responsible for some hum pickup, very evident when touching the connectors. So I routed a wire from the XLR's skin to the XP-25's ground terminal; the final result is shown below (don't fret about the other wires routing the input RCA's negative also to ground - internally, they two are also connected). While not many will go XLR out of the arm, the point is that you should check your RCA connectors by touching them to see if hum goes up, and take appropriate action.
The end result is that the used input of the XP-25 has MUCH lower noise than the unused (and shorted) one, and to hear traces of hum I have to crank up the preamp at almost 95% of its max gain. The audible improvements of all these tweaks are quite evident.
you might be better off with a new tonearm cable that terminates with rca instead of xlr with and xlr to rca adapter if that is a possible option. I have never been a fan of adapter plugs as I think they are a compromise.
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