Stereophile, Pass Integrated and personal taste

Recent interviews with Uncle Nelson indicate that he certainly is currently on top of the designer heap in just about every way, and has explained (and shared things including giving away his "distortion generator" at Burning Amp) at length his ever evolving design theories...note the term "evolving" which doesn’t seem to apply to many of the neanderthals around here, but has resulted in his amps receiving near unanimous rave reviews...both Pass Labs items and his First Watt designs are considered by many as representing the state of the transistor amp art. There may be some that don’t like the sound of his new stuff, but those are likely to be people who haven’t heard it in the first place (as noted above) as otherwise you’d be hard pressed to find many dissatisfied Pass gear owners.

Eric,
I’d love to hear an INT 25; I really like the approach they took with the output stage topology; reminds me of Gamut or Dartzeel;
My speakers are probably not best load for that amp, but I have to admit I was shocked by how great my XA 30.5 sounded through them; on paper many would say don’t bother, but reality was far different;
The m900 is a beast and has bipolar devices but the Int 250, (all MOSFET ) digs deeper with notably better bass; 

I wonder now many of us really are qualified to judge which designer is at the top of the heap or not. The Berning designs are light years better than the Pass products I have heard or owned to my ears. And yes I have owned designs from both. Rave reviews mean less and less as this industry gets smaller. Nelson is an interesting cat and a great designer, which means nothing if you dont like the sound of his products as much as the designs from some neanderthal designer. 

This is an interesting thread from both sides. 

There is no denying that Nelson Pass is a legend in audio design along with the other famous circuit jockeys, Bob Carver, John Curl. 

There are a couple of disturbing points if Nelson sent out a series of products that he knew were under performing that is pretty poor that he rushed the product to market when he knew the product could and should be better. 

As per Dpac prefering Pass, that is his opinion with his matching gear, the Pass signature tends to be a bit laid back the Luxman is a more neutral sound, so it would all depend on cables, dac, speakers, room acoustics.

Pass is but one excellent choice if you like their sound, styling, size, Class of operation, and in the case of his Class A designs the heat output. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ