Pass Labs XA- ".5" ???

Unsound, my point is... if you listen to music at extreme spl's in very large rooms you may need A/B amplification. That is why Pass has the X line products. I think people get the idea that the XA's are not capable of driving difficult loads because Pass also has the X series.
Now they have decided to address this misconception by consumers and give them a class A amp that will double down. What will happen to sales of there X-.5 series?
I don't get it...

I suspect that there will be a considerable price difference between a similarly powered X.5 and an XA.5. With the availability of an XA.5 individuals may now be able to choose between the better sound of pure class A or the compromised sound of class AB based on price alone. Previously spending more for the advantages of pure class A ,may have actually limited ones choice of loudspeakers. From a marketing perspective, I would have guessed the opposite would have made more sense. If appropriate attention is paid to providing appropiate lines of appropraite power levels, I believe, that the market place will welcome both a value offered class AB line and a top of the line, no holds barred, cost be damned, class A line. That the top tier may be as accomodating as the lower tier already is, can only help the sales of the top tier to those who can afford it and are willing to pay for it. For those that can't or won't the lower tier will still be available. I can even imagine situations where, some individuals might opt to power the two main channels of a HT system with XA.5 amplification and use X.5's for the surrounds, or bi-amp with XA.5s on top and X.5's on the bottom and still have the same gain.

gandme, that is an interesting question. I personally believe that unless the speakers are really inefficient and dips down to less than 4 ohms and the user listens at pretty loud volumes (>90db), most people do not need a whole lot of power. I do not mean to start a war over this but I just happen to believe in quality of power over quantity. I wish I could actuall measure the amp output but my theoretical calculations for my listening conditions shows that I do not really ever need more than 140w. Empirically, I have listened to other Pass amps at very loud volumes and have never seen the meter ever move (according to PAss that means the amp is still operating in Class A).

Anyway, just my opinion...

Tbooe, you can't be serious that you haven't seen the meter move on Pass amps. On your XA amp, that series the meter should never move. But on the X series, the meter moves on my 250.5 when I play above anything approaching high medium volume levels. So, I cannot believe your claim that you have listened to other Pass amps at very loud volume and never seen the meter move. What, with 100db horns?

...the meters do move. I have a pair of Infinity Kappa 9 speakers....they dip to 1 ohm. When I turn it up and want to rock the house, they certainly make the meters on my x-600's move.