Photograph courtesy of Nelson Pass. Great amp for $6k Dave and Troy Audio … Let’s meet this man who chooses his own direction, and gives generously to the audio DIY community. Pass Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Nelson Pass, who began developing a unique prototype out of his shop at home. Nelson Pass holds 6 patents related to magneplanar speakers. Nelson Pass formed his first audio company with a friend while studying physics at the University of California-Davis in the early 1970s. This privacy statement describes how PassDIY collects and uses the personal information you provide on our Web site: passdiy.com. Legendary Nelson Pass, one of the greatest creators of modern audio designs, has his own version of Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory called First Watt, which is located in Sea Ranch, California. We have heard Triodes, Pentodes, Bipolar, VFET, Mosfet, TFET… So is this just another audio fad, or is there something fundamental about this kind of design, justifying a revival of the old approaches to amplification? It looks like you think the better Pass amps are the lower watt designs. Known for his work on brands including Adcom, Threshold, Pass Labs and his side project – First Watt, Pass has a perspective on the specialty audio business that few others … I rarely recommend a specific model -- much of the older stuff will be in … According to Papa Pass, to date there have been over 30 Nelson Pass audio designs published for use by hobbyists -- of note is the popular single-stage Zen series. X350.8 … They came Since its founding, in 1999, First Watt has … Difficulty Level . Copyright © 2016 Pass Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Founded over 30-years ago, our products elevate your audio experience. As part of the design process Nelson Pass listened to the F7 with a set of old Tannoy HPD 15 speakers because they highlight differences in the sound of amplifiers. Recently I have been playing with current source power amplifiers that have high output impedances and deliver a specific current to the load in response to an input voltage. September 2011. Amplifiers. It also describes the choices available…. More... To receive latest Pass DIY news and information, please register below. Operating out of his shop at home, Pass developed prototypes of a single-ended Class A amplifier design. Lots of good reading on the subject on the forums at Hawthorne Audio as well. As he worked on his degree, he was already an audio designer, focusing on loudspeakers—great training for a designer of audio amplifiers. Threshold Audio is a high-end audio equipment manufacturer originally established in California in 1974 by audio engineer Nelson Pass and graphic designer Rene Besne. CODA is run by Doug Dale. Nelson Pass design Adcom GFA 5500 & 5800: Greg Brown: 12/13/95 12:00 AM: I have heard the gfa 5800, and according to adcom, the 5500 is ... > and Park Ave Audio very graciously took back the first two. Design an FR driver that gets meaty bass (BOFU) and it'll suffer in the upper mids and certainly the highs - and conversly, design a driver that excells in the mids and highs and it'll be bass-poor. X600.8 X260.8. Pass Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Nelson Pass, who began developing a unique prototype out of his shop at home. Today through Pass Labs Nelson offers a full range of audio electronics including amplifiers, preamplifiers, integrated amplifiers, and even a headphone amplifier. NET WEIGHT FOR EACH SPEAKER, MADE WITH THE. The A40 power amp article was published in The Audio Amateur, 4/78, and the A75 power amplifier appears in The Audio Amateur 4/92 and 1/93. From LP cutter-head electronics to car amps, from the 1kW/ch X1000.5 to the 10W/ch FirstWatt series, from open baffles to giant pipe speakers, Nelson Pass has designed them all… and successfully so. Doug and Nelson worked together at Threshold. XA30.8 XA25. That prototype, a single-ended Class A amplifier, became what many acclaimed as the “amplifier of the decade.” Since its initial design, Pass Labs has become one of the most prestigious brands in the audio … of intensive development,revision and thoughtful listening by Nelson Pass. In today’s marketplace, audio power amplifiers are conventionally viewed as voltage sources, delivering a given voltage at the output that is a multiple of an input voltage. My friend and neighbor in Sea Ranch, Nelson Pass, was inspired to develop an analog crossover equalizer for the LXmini. I'm hoping that Nelson Pass will lend one of his new SIT3 First Watt amps to the Zu guys for the next California Audio Show, and will also have another Pass XA25 out there somewhere, too. by Nelson Pass Intro: ESS and the Heil Years In 1972 I had the good fortune to begin working for ESS, arriving a few weeks before they met Oskar Heil and his air motion transformer design. So is this just another audio fad, or is there something fundamental about this kind of design, justifying a revival of the old approaches to amplification? During his studies, he and Mike Maher founded the small speaker company PMA. Power and harmonic distortion numbers were the important thing, and the largest audio magazine said that amplifiers with the same specs sounded the same. The First Watt F6 offers a fantastic option to anyone in the market to drive sensitive speakers in the 90db’s/8ohms territory and even picks a compelling fight with speakers that are moderately difficult to drive. Pass Labs. There is no such thing as a perfect amplifier, but there is a best amplifier for each type of speaker, music, and listener. Nelson Pass is one of the world’s most famous audio engineers (if any audio engineer can be called famous compared to, say, Lady Gaga.) The Slot Loaded Open Baffle Project Article By Nelson Pass. Nelson Pass made an appearance to his “flock” on Sunday, but we were lucky enough to squeeze some time before he was due out for handshakes and seminars. In 1991, he started Pass Labs to further explore his ideas about … To receive latest Pass DIY news and information, please register below. American made with a cult following. Great post, cjfrbw. I thought the XA 30.8 sounded pretty good last year, certainly at that time better than the big brothers all over the show. … The Kleinhorn Part 2 / Nelson Pass / 2004 If you saw part one of this project (AudioXpress, January 2005), you know that the KleinHorn is a big toy, and you can imagine that it’s hard to resist playing… Stereo. More... Single-Ended Class A amplifiers have certainly hit it big in the four years since we began testing the first Aleph 0. Nelson Pass is a consummate engineer, but he got his start in physics, earning a bachelor's degree from UC Davis. When I started designing amplifiers twenty-five years ago, solid state amplifiers had just achieved a firm grasp on the market. When comparing the SIT 3 with another Nelson Pass design, the Pass Labs XA25, the latter is more concise and transparent-sounding. This is an exceptionally … Xs300 Xs150 XA200.8 XA160.8 XA100.8 XA60.8. FROM PASS LABS : “Rushmore” represents 30 years of gestation and over three years. I have heard and read great things about the XA25 and 30.8 but never heard them. Single Ended Class A — Nelson Pass / 1995. His other works are posted at passdiy.com. The transfer functions for the LXmini woofer and tweeter equalization were derived from free-field acoustic measurements and originally implemented, together with a standard LR2 crossover, in a miniDSP … A CODA CSIB integrated is a 400 watt integrated amp with the first 5-25 can be run in Pure Class A. Class A. Mono. and the staff at Pass Labs. They look alike because they all use the same basic chassis and power transformer. Enter keyword or phrase to search above... (2) Pearl 2 PCB Boards plus 6 Matched JFETS per Board. You make an interesting comment about the "steely thumbprint" of the larger PASS … The first Heil tweeter was a dipole design like an open baffle and it operated from FR drivers are a great way to dive into DIY speaker building, but I do agree with you Feanor. CODA continues a lot of Nelson's design ideas but they charge about half of what Pass does. He went on to co-found Threshold Electronics and design the well-regarded Adcom GFA-555 amplifier. There are all kinds of drivers … The main building was packed with audio setups and gear, so we made our way out to a little shoreline that houses a few park benches and began to record. The company, today based in Houston Texas, manufactures mono-block and stereo power amplifiers, multi-channel power amplifiers and stereo control … In 1974, he received his BS in physics from the University of California-Davis. Nelson Pass design Adcom GFA 5500 & 5800 Showing 1-15 of 15 messages. Nov 19, 2017 - The Slot Loaded Open Baffle Project Article By Nelson Pass, DIY AudioProjects And Articles On Enjoy the Music.com Copyright © 2016 Pass Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Pass Labs engineers and manufactures the finest Class A and Class A/B audio products in the world. Throwing everything I had in-house at the F6 left me with a new found respect for Nelson Pass. This privacy statement describes how PassDIY collects and uses the personal information you provide on our Web site: passdiy.com. To the extent that they are truly voltage sources, having a very low output impedance, they simply deliver whatever current happens to reflect the response of the loudspeaker to the defined output voltage. Each First Watt piece is a unique design and is “best” in some particular way. Dec 8, 2017 - Over the years, some of the best Nelson Pass projects have been featured by Audio Amateur and audioXpress magazines. Intro:ESS and the Heil Years In 1972 I had the good fortune to begin working for ESS, arriving a few weeks before they met Oskar Heil and his air motion transformer design. His lab is stocked with rare transistors, many of them of historical importance. Enter keyword or phrase to search above... Current Source Amplifiers and Sensitive Full Range Drivers, The Amazing FET Circlotron Construction, Continued, (2) Pearl 2 PCB Boards plus 6 Matched JFETS per Board. Nelson Pass, founder of Pass Labs and legendary do-it-yourself guru, reveals how he got into electronics and discusses his work at ESS with Oskar Heil, co-founding Threshold Electronics, his new venture called First Watt, various DIY amplifier and speaker projects, the importance of the DIY community, the operation of various … In 1994 Pass Labs released a newer Aleph design which simplified the circuit from three gain stages down to only two stages and used a newly patented power current source to bias the single-ended output stage. In response to such questions, Nelson Pass—of Threshold Audio, Adcom 555, and Pass Labs fame—established a kitchen-table skunkworks, First Watt, to explore alternative amplification "With oddball characteristics and output power ratings of 25 watts or less." Also in 1994 Nelson was joined by Wayne Colburn, who began working on improved version of the preamp and on a … It also describes the choices available…. From 1973 to 1974, he was employed at ESS and assisted Dr. Oskar Heil with crossover design, woofer selection, and final build cabinetry of audiophile, consumer grade loudspeakers. Class AB. Keep in mind that OB speakers require a good distance from the front wall (3' min), and depending on the size of the baffle, can dominate a room. Basement: Polk SDA SRS, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,Enlightened Audio Designs CD Transport, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, Marantz SA-14 SACD, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Digital Cables, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, Wireworld Oasis 8 RCA IC's, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker … Despite the four decades between his groundbreaking Threshold 800A and Pass Laboratories’ Xs, he’s still passionately driven to discover new designs … I’m sometimes asked what I would buy if were looking for a classic audio product. That prototype, a single-ended Class A amplifier, became what many acclaimed as the “amplifier of the decade.” Since its initial design, Pass Labs has become one of the most prestigious brands in the audio … Stereo. Single-Ended Class A amplifiers have certainly hit it big in the four years since we began testing the first Aleph 0. Mono. HIGHER VALUE OF THE MATERIALS ( NOT OF MDF ! ) The voltage across the loudspeaker reflects its response to this defined… You can imagine the excitement that followed. Nelson is a student of the history of solid-state amplifier design, and this knowledge informs his work. "Almost anything from Nelson Pass … At the same time, he and Mike Burley were constructing an in-house machine shop with three home-built CNC milling machines with which to produce the amplifiers when the design … I think that Nelson Pass does like more efficient speaker designs. Pass Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Nelson Pass. If you get them setup correctly though, they can be very rewarding. Nelson left Threshold Audio in 1991 to found Pass Labs so he could enjoy broader investigation into his own audio design interests. And Mike Maher founded the small speaker company PMA lab is stocked with rare transistors, many of them historical! 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