Who did hear the new Pass Labs .8 series amps?

I owned XA30.5, 60.5 and 100.5, now I have the X-250.5. When I bought the Purist Audio limited edition ( latest version) The X-250.5 went to a new level. All harshness was gone and I got a superior articulation of voices compared to XA100.5 with XP-20 and Purist Aqueous. I also liked the higher freq of the X-250.5 over the XA-100.5. These expensive powercables give you superior quality out of your amps. That is why I will go for the 350.8. Also of the 72 caps it uses like the 160.8/200.8 and 600.8. I will go for the extra speed and drive. I have done thousends of tests with cables in 16 years of time. Powercables have a huge influence on poweramps. What I noticed is that with simple powercabels you cannot get all the quality it has out of it. Even if you buy amps ( for Pass Labs also) 2 times the costs compared to the other amp powercables make a huge difference what will become the level you can get out of your amp.

I have the XA160.8's (to potentially replace my 160.5's).

They are very different from the .5's. Much deeper bass, thicker presentation. Much darker sounding overall.

Mine have about 280 hours on them and may not be fully broken in.

Madfloyd

not liking your description of the new XA160.8's. who wants darking sounding amps?

hopefully they will improve

^People who might have otherwise have bright sounding systems?

My guess is transparent cabling a poor match for the amps.