Pass INT-25 better than Wilsenton R8?

I have an R8. I’ve been in audio for 30 years. I’ve never had better sound. I’m driving Martin Logan Spires. I have all the headroom I need. Do I feel the need to sample anything else? Absolutely not. I’m very content. Vinyl is sublime. I have the luxury of sampling any tubes I choose. I go back in forth between the Svetlana Winged C EL34’s and the Tung Sol 6550’s. Bass is remarkable with the Tungsol’s . The Svetlana’s offer the finest Midrange. It’s a very plug and play amp that’s musical right out of the box. No 5 month break in period. The Pass won’t allow you to do that. $5k better? Absolutely not. And you can’t expect to go from a tube integrated to a SS amp and obtain sound worth comparing. All my opinion only. Good luck!

Why no love for the R800i?

If you have to try very hard to discern the improvements after spending 3x the money, it's absolutely not worth it. 3x the price should be another league altogether, you should never have to wonder like this post.

I currently own the Wilsenton R8 and a former INT 25 owner (for a good 2.5 years). I have them both mated  with a pair of Paradigm founders 100F. Vinyl duties are with a clearaudio concept turntable and streaming plus DAC duties are with a CA CXN V2 and Denafrips Pontus II. I did love the INT 25 while I had it and like what everybody said, a burn in time is required for the INT to open up more and lose a bit of its brightness. Warm up time is also needed (at least 30 min to an hour )for every listening session for the integrated amp to sound its best. I had the R8 simultaneously with INT at one point, for a period of time, and the R8 even with the stock tubes, is very impressive. Once I rolled all the tubes on the R8 to the PSVANE mkII variety , that pretty much convinced me that tube sound is what I’ve always been after. The highs are detailed yet not harsh and never fatiguing. Listening sessions have become day and night . Mid range is to die for. The bass is plenty and has a lot of weight and the PSVANE KT88 tubes brought speed and agility to the bottom end. Sound is very organize with vocals sounding very natural. It has a very engaging sound and just pulls you in . It has emotion and has that human touch to it. The R8 doesn’t need a warm up time to sound good. Even fresh from the box with the stock tubes, it sounded great to my ears. With the PSVANE tubes, it sounded better than the INT 25. I could never go back to solid state after getting a taste of the tube sound. I currently have an order in place for the Wilsenton r300B to put on a second system . The R8 runs all day and till late hours at night in our house , listening to different genres of music with all of them sounding good every time. If the Wilsenton R8 was made in the US and not directly sold from China Hi fi, it would cost (or be worth ) just as much as an INT 25 for it’s quality and performance. 

Most of the people on this forum wouldn’t be able to form an opinion about a piece of gear without knowing the price.  Not many take an objective approach or blind test even when they know that they can’t be objective. It’s is what it is folks. The R8 is a fantastic amp, and it’s 25 watts of triode power are better, imo then the 25 watts of class A from Pass.  Burn in. Lol, take whatever amount of time you need to convince yourself the more expensive amp is better.  If that doesn’t work it’s gotta be the cables.  Or maybe it’s the DAC.  Another subjective money pit. Just keep throwing money at the issue until you are temporarily satisfied.