[guf]

But seriously, 150 watts is kinda low.  Personally, I am never comfortable with less than 250 wpc in my house. 
What is your preamp? 
Why do you sit so close in that size room?

Whoa a little revival of the thread.  Thanks. My pre is lampizator dac with volume control. I sit close because i did the room into thirds thing.  I can easily move my sitting forward and back and I do fall in the range of 6 to 9 feet with very little change. I agree about the wpc. And i feel like such a pu$$y because I barely get needle moving on pass amp with means i'm not even moving out of the 20 watts of class A. According to my iphone spl meter i'm only in the 75-80db average range and it's awesome. Maybe my listening habits have changed because i used to be into turning it as much as i could.

For what it's worth, you are addressing the wrong end of the spectrum - high efficiency speakers are the key.

Thats the direction I'm headed towards. I mentioned in a few other threads that a couple months ago i heard a set full analog set up of Daedalus Pans, shindo something, tube something, and some vinyl rig that i know nothing about. I came back home and listen to what i thought was amazing set up and decided i wanted to try and get more of that intoxicating sound i heard and my friends house.   I changed my dac and amp and really enjoying the direction i'm heading in. But to really get a different, not better, sound i need to change my speakers. 

[guf]

One thing not being mentioned is the type of music you listen to.  Big symphonies require a lot of head room for the dynamic changes.  Small ensembles don't.  Loud compressed hard rock don't really need any headroom either.    I am with BRM in having more power if you listen to dynamic music but your x150.5 should be just fine for the crooners. 

Yeah i'm a mostly listen to the compressed rock.

[woodsyi]

Yeah i'm a mostly listen to the compress rock.

Don't get me wrong.  I listen to all kinds of music.  There are plenty (nicely or non) compressed, well recorded rock, which I love.  But loud music with compressed dB range is not a difficult load on the amps -- big fast dynamic changes are. 

[guf]

Don't get me wrong.  I listen to all kinds of music.  There are plenty (nicely or non) compressed, well recorded rock, which I love.  But loud music with compressed dB range is not a difficult load on the amps -- big fast dynamic changes are.

yeah i was just saying compressed compared to the high dynamic range of the symphony music.

[Big Red Machine]

I would try moving to the 62% spot.  You can get your 8's almost 2 feet from the front wall and not have your head too near the back wall.

You can extract a ton of good sound from the 8's if you experiment.  Did you see the thread in Acoustics about room vs. speakers?  Even if you changed speakers you may not get the sound you want until you find the best locations for all the gear, your ears, and the drivers.

My 8's are singing some serious, realistic music these days with the lampi after the Dude.

[watercourse]

Whoa a little revival of the thread.

Remember, the amp you have has been measured at about 300 wpc into 4 ohms, it's not simply a 150wpc amp...

...and numbers only tell part of the story, the whole story is in the listening...

...and if it sounds good... screw the numbers and what anyone else may tell you. Because they ain't sitting in your sweet spot.

[ricardojoa]

Hi guys,
i know this is a old post.
My question to the OP, are you suprised that even the much lower power pass lab amp still sounded impressive or are you refering that the pass labs just sounded more musical regarless of power?

[JLM]

You're being too critical of your critical listening.   

Leave that to the studio/mastering process and enjoy.

[guf]

Probably a little of both. the fact that it was able to power my speakers to a level higher that comfortable and yes it was more musical.  I'm now using an xa-30.5 and equally as impressed, its less power again and still very easily powers to levels that i'm more than happy with and yeah even more musical again, not as drastic the first change but noticeable.

[Tyson]

Pass Labs are among the best amps in the entire world, I am not surprised at all that you like them.  Nelson is a true master of amp design, he is able to extract more performance at every power level than most designers are able to get even from their cost-no-object reference designs.  Sometimes better is just better.  Pass Labs (and First Watt) is simply better.

[ricardojoa]

Thank you for the response.
Pass labs amps are built like a tank!