Pass Labs X260.5 Power Amp Promises Even Less Distortion

It can be hard getting your product to stand out at CES, so one good way of doing so is pretending it's January 7th and pushing out a press release prematurely.  Pass Labs are bringing their new X260.5 Power Amplifier to the show, a 260W mono-block amp which boasts the company's Super-Symmetry circuit that – as far as we can tell – promises to more accurately synchronize a stereo pair of the units.

According to Pass Labs, their system improves signal matching by an order of magnitude over regular processes, lowering distortion and noise.  Connectivity includes two pairs of output connectors, a pair of binding post connectors for remote power control, an RCA input connector and an XLR balanced input connector.

You'll need to be reasonably well-heeled in order to take advantage of Super-Symmetry, however: a single X260.5 Power Amp comes in at $11,000.  It's available to buy now.

Press Release:

Pass Labs Introduces New X260.5 Power Amplifier

Powerful Mono-Block Design Boasts Low-Noise Super-Symmetry Circuit,

Explosive Dynamics, and Sweet, Clear, Highly Detailed Performance

CES 2010, LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2010 — Pass Laboratories, Inc., an audio innovator renowned for its unique high-performance products, has introduced the X260.5 Power Amplifier at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show. The X260.5 is a powerful 260-watt mono-block amplifier embodying the design technology and refinements of Pass Labs' acclaimed X Series amplifiers, including extensions of its patented Super-Symmetry™ circuit.

The Super-Symmetry topology, developed by audio innovator and company founder Nelson Pass following 19 years of research, earned its patent in 1994. It improves performance by precisely matching characteristics of the two halves of a balanced amplifier. To the extent that distortion and noise can be made to appear identical at the two output connections, the X260.5's balanced output will not detect them.

In conventional amplifiers, under ideal conditions, ordinary matching techniques can achieve improvements by a factor of about 10. In the X260.5, Super-Symmetry lowers distortion and noise by an additional order of magnitude. It delivers the sweetness, staging, and detail of very simple circuitry up to kilowatt power levels and beyond.

The X260.5 also has the tremendous dynamic range needed to do justice to the high-resolution of the latest 24-bit digital recordings, and the elegance to retrieve the micro-dynamics the most sensitive loudspeakers now offer. The amplifier's simple, powerful circuitry moves easily from total silence to explosive transients and back to silence without any information loss. Unlike conventional high-power amplifiers, it provides this power with a subtlety befitting the better tube amplifiers. The X260.5 performance is consistent across the audio spectrum, and unconditionally stable into all speaker loads.

In addition, the X260.5 incorporates certain refinements from the balanced single-ended Class A circuits of Pass Labs' XA series amplifiers that significantly improves its performance while retaining its high power and reliability. The changes include improved power transformers and AC EMI filters, paralleled high-speed/soft recovery rectifiers, more paralleled power supply capacitors and supply RC filtering, refinements to the front-end input circuits, and the addition of single-ended Class A bias circuits for balanced single-ended Class A results at low power levels.

The X260.5's thick aluminum front panel includes Pass labs' distinctive meter as well as buttons and blue LED indicators for Power On, Off and Standby. The rear panel includes an IEC 320 AC power cord receptacle, a main power switch, two pairs of output connectors, a pair of binding post connectors for remote turn-on, one RCA input connector, and one XLR balanced input connector.

The X260.5 Power Amplifier is available now from authorized dealers at a suggested price of $11,000 per pair (U.S. MSRP). It can be seen with other outstanding Pass Labs products at the Venetian Hotel, Suite 29-140, during CES.

About Pass Labs

Founded in 1991 by legendary audio designer Nelson Pass, Pass Laboratories, Inc. markets its unique amplifiers, preamplifiers and speakers throughout the world. The company has been based in Foresthill, California since its beginning, and is widely regarded as one of the most innovative audio brands in the world. Its critically acclaimed Aleph, X and XA-Series products have won numerous awards, and Founder and CEO Nelson Pass holds numerous audio patents. His achievements include developing the first dynamically biased Class A amplifier circuit, developing a fully cascode audio power amplifier, and developing the Stasis amplifier in 1977. He helped popularize solid-state, single-ended Class A power amplifiers, and developed the very successful Aleph series of products, and the Super-Symmetry(TM) circuit, which achieves exceptionally low distortion and noise levels. The company is now poised to introduce a new generation of amplifiers and other high-performance audio products.