Pass INT-250 for B&W 800's

jeffreyw


All the above recommendations will sound fine, but you bought the B&W 800 because they are B&W’s flagship speaker, why settle for an amp that is "fine" with them.
The Pass won’t have amperage ability of the Gryphon, and many say have the "Mosfet haze" to their sound, and the "transformer coupled" SS Mac’s, will have even less control. But they both will sound "fine".

Get the Gryphon Diablo 300 which will control them far better than any other mentioned here, and have the magic transparent class-A sound they have also.

Cheers George

I have the 802D3s driven by an old Ayre V-5X amp. Even though is only 150watts the work very nice together.

PennPencil,
You bring up an interesting point about utilizing just the 250.8 amp which I am seriously considering. I only require a digital system so I would have to obtain some level of streamer/dac/preamp with a volume control as a start. This opens up an entirely different thread as to what component would synergize with the Pass? Interestingly, I have noticed many state that these DAC/preamps sound better when a preamp is introduced into the chain. 

I would consider the pass as well as the luxman and accuphase integrated amplifiers but i can tell you that a bipolar amp will be better with b&w speakers but i also can tell you that the b&w speakers are volume limited so huge power may not be required in a normal room i would go with whatever sounds the best to you try and find a dealer in your area to try some of these beast integrated amps.

but i can tell you that a bipolar amp will be better with b&w speakers but i also can tell you that the b&w speakers are volume limited so huge power may not be required in a normal room

So correct, also the bi-polar Gryphon Diablo 300 is not a huge 500watt, it’s 300watt amp similar to the Pass, but it can just do "current delivery" far better into low impedances with combination of -phase angle that the 800’s have better. So it controls better and delivers dynamics better with no strain into those loads. And it sounds typically Gryphon Class-A’ish without the heat penalty.

Cheers George