The new XP-12 starts with a new power supply. It uses an efficient toroidal design with both an electrostatic and Mu metal shield along with vacuum impregnating and epoxy fill. This gives us a very quiet transformer both electrically and mechanically.
The power supply circuitry itself is also lower noise and has additional filtering, a little more complicated but worth it.
The XP-12 uses the single stage volume control borrowed from the XS line preamp. This gives us one hundred 1 dB steps with lower noise and distortion while removing some signal path parts.
The gain circuitry continues to use our favorite transistors from Toshiba but has a larger higher biased output stage similar to the XS preamplifier auto bias. This makes longer and multiple cable runs easier to drive and gives us the advantage of simplifying our single ended output circuitry while increasing performance. Overall this makes for a quieter more neutral, musical and versatile control center for your system.
The Absolute Sound’s 2023 Buyer’s Guide
The Absolute Sound
Summer Guide: Best Preamps – 2022
PartTimeAudio
TAS Editors’ Choice Award – 2022
The Absolute Sound
TAS Golden Ear Award – 2021
The Absolute Sound
Summer Guide: Best Preamps – 2021
PartTimeAudio
TAS Editors’ Choice Award – 2021
The Absolute Sound
Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice 2020
Positive Feedback
TAS Editors’ Choice Award – 2020
The Absolute Sound
Choice Buyers Guide 2019
“The Occasional” – Editors’
Positive Feedback Writers Choice Awards – 2018
Positive Feedback
Products of the Year 2018
Audiophilia
“the XP-12 is the ultimate expression of trickle-down technology. With a retail price of $6,100, the it provides a good taste of the uber-sophisticated XS line stage preamplifier for a fraction of the price.”
Future Audiophile Magazine / Greg Handy – 2023
“In my A/V room at home, the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier is my reference control center. It doesn’t have the EQ, sliders, or the myriad mixing features of the X32 but, nevertheless, it remains a powerful tool, equally useful for evaluating audio equipment, software, and accessories—or—for delivering an exquisite heavenly aural experience.”
Positive Feedback / Juan C. Ayllon – 2023
“Like the matching XP-17 phono preamp, the XP-12 is incredibly neutral and does an impossibly great job at allowing you to hear what everything else in your system is doing. Features are abundant, and yet the Pass Labs XP-12 is still incredibly easy to set-up and use. The single-stage volume control is a dream, by the way.”
PartTimeAudio Summer Guide: Best Preamps – 2022
“The XP-12 line-level preamp forgoes dual-chassis extravagance but sonically you wouldn’t know it. Music abounds with stunning orchestral layering and complex three-dimensional soundspace vistas.”
TAS Editors’ Choice Award – 2022
“Like the matching XP-17 phono preamp, the XP-12 is incredibly neutral and does an impossibly great job at allowing you to hear what everything else in your system is doing. Features are abundant, and yet the XP-12 is still incredibly easy to set-up and use. The single-stage volume control is a dream, by the way.”
PartTimeAudio Summer Guide: Best Preamps – 2021
“Pass Labs’ entry-level linestage preamp has been a constant presence in my system for years. As a classic, old-school, line-level preamp, it forgoes the dual-chassis extravagance of Pass’ uptown siblings.”
TAS Golden Ear Award – 2021
“The XP-12 preamp eschews the dual-chassis, outboard power supply of its uptown siblings in favor of a compact single chassis—an ideal fit for a modestly sized den or listening room”
XP-12 TAS Editors’ Choice Award – 2021
“The Pass Labs XP-12 Pre-Amp Review”
Stevehuffphoto.com / Steve Huff
AudioArt #349 – Taiwan
Fidelity HiFi und Musik / Von Cai Brockmann
6moons.com / Srajan Ebaen
AudioBeatNik / Jack Roberts
hifiknights.com / Dawid Grzyb
6moons.com / Srajan Ebaen
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