YBA Passion Pre/Power & Advance Acoustic / Paris XL-500 Speakers

Why do we like it? 

YBA Passion electronics have a musicality and realism which most other amplifiers can only dream of. The DAC in the preamp is simply exceptional and amongst the best DACS you can buy. The combination of subtlety, dynamics, control, three dimensional sound and pinpoint soundstaging from the YBA electronics and the Advance Paris speakers is breathtaking and amongst the best, we have ever heard. The XL-500's are incredible for us in a number of rooms. They aren't particularly room fussy and deal well with difficult rooms. 

YBA Passion 650 Power Amp Details

Within its price range Passion 650 offers one of the most complete power amplifier packages that bring not only great sound, but standout aesthetics. In this day and age YBA offers great value and pleasure for both the ears and the eyes! There are eye catching details like the power output meter on the front panel and the heatsinks on either side shaped into the company name.

The power amplifier rests on three feet; one in front, two in the back, which is synonymous with YBA. The mains power switch is hidden from sight on the bottom panel, towards the front edge. The backlight brightness is adjustable in four steps from the remote control unit, and can also be switched off altogether. The amplifier’s rear panel includes two pairs of gold plated speaker outputs – speaker A has the higher quality sound. It has stereo RCA and balanced inputs plus a mono balanced input if it is to be used in bridged mono mode.

Specs

Product type

Power Amplifier

2 Pairs Speaker Outputs

Stereo 200W @ 8 Ohms per channel
Stereo 400W @ 4 Ohms per channel
Mono 600W @ 8 Ohms bridged

>95dB

20Hz – 20kHz (-0.5dB)

<0.1%

1 RCA, 1 Balanced Input (Stereo)
1 Balanced Input (Mono)

Linear power supply with high performance UICore
transformer 1000VA

Natural aluminium

430 x 397 x 178mm

25 kg

YBA Passion 550A Pre Amp Details

Several things distinguish the PRE550A from other digital/analog preamps. It is possible to turn off the digital section when playing an analogue source. The analog section has three inputs — one balanced (XLR), one unbalanced (RCA), and one video pass-through (RCA). There are two sets of RCA outputs and one set of XLRs.

There is a wide choice of digital inputs — I2 S (RJ45), AES/EBU (XLR), S/PDIF (TosLink, coaxial, BNC), and USB – plus there is a network input (RJ45) that accepts signals from a 10 or 100Mbps network. Built-in Apple AirPort Express support enables the PRE550A to work via a wireless AirPort Express network. It has a direct input for an Apple iPod or iPhone that bypasses the Apple’s internal DAC and uses only the PRE550A DAC. There’s also an S/PDIF output jack, should you want to send a digital signal to another component.

The asynchronous USB 2.0 connection for a computer requires a driver if you’re running Windows, but not with a Mac or Linux computer.

Specs

Product type

Preamplifier

2 RCA 1 Balanced 1 S/PDIF

+6dB

>105dB

20Hz – 20kHz (-0.5dB)

<0.003%

7 Digital Signal Inputs
2 RCA Analog Signal Inputs
1 Balanced Analog Signal Input
1 Balanced Input (Mono)

YES

Dual Cirrus Logic High Performance 24bit/192kHz

OLED

Adjustable from remote

2 Linear power supplies with high performance
transformer 190VA

Natural aluminium

430 x 412 x 118mm

12.5 kg

Advance Acoustic / Paris XL-500 Details

Advance Paris company, designing and developing Advance Acoustic products, decided to launch its Hi End range of products, under the Advance Paris brand

X-L500 loudspeakers are designed by Advance Paris’ acoustical engineers. Their design, based solely on acoustic principles, allows it obtain pure, modern and elegant curves.
The X-L500 loudspeakers provide a perfect reproduction of instruments and voices. Their harmonic richness and rhymic speed, give a perfect preception of presence and realism. These parameters, are only some of the exceptional qualities of the X-L500 loudspeakers.

The MDF cabinet is built in 3 independent boxes, with walls reaching 4 cm in thickness. The boxes are linked by separations with decoupling, ensuring the complete control of vibrations. The location of the drivers were calculated in order to achieve the best phasing.

We designed the X-L500’s drivers. These drivers combine excellent performance which is rarely achieved.
The Woofer and mid-range are built with a cellulose pulp membrane. Rigid and lighter, these are associated with very powerful magnetic circuits (the woofer 12“ (307mm) has a voice coil : inner diameter is 49.55 mm, magnet spec : 170*85*25 mm, magnet field is 1.8-2.0 T).

The sound transparency and the absence of directivity make the mid-range driver, one of the best transducers at this time to reproduce music with realism and precision.

The ribbon tweeter reproduces high frequencies with low distortion. Moreover, its frequency response makes it ideal for the mid-range driver, coupling sweetness and dynamic without any form of aggressiveness.

The crossover elaborated with great care, divides into an ideal way the different frequencies, found in the musical message, towards all the drivers. Due to its perfect control of phases, the different drivers reproduce the music with consistency and coherence.

Moreover, with a sensitivity of 94 dB, and an impedance of 8 Ω, the X-L500 loudspeaker can drive amplifiers from 30 to 300 W.
Designing theX-L500 loudspeaker, our aim was to achieve exceptional loudspeakers, without compromise, and working on several parameters often neglected or contradictory. 

Specs