I have always thought of my system as teetering on the edge of high end audiophile gear. All my gear is a lot of bang for the buck. Lately I have been thinking about upgrading my amp after talking with Mr. P. In the next day or so I am probably going to take the plunge and buy an X series Pass amp to take my system to the next level and to get the most out of my Magnepan 1.6's and Van Alstine Hybrid tube Preamp and DAC. I was going to buy a Vincent sp-331MKII like Frenchmon's, but I think that will only give me a modest improvement at best compared to my Parasound A21. When I took home the new Van Alstine 600R hybrid tube amp to review I was given a glimpse of what an audiophile amp can do. Mr. P. had bought 400R AVA amp and has since purchased a Pass X-250 which he says is a much better sounding. This has lead me up to this point.