Macintosh vs Pass labs

listened to the Pass XA100.5 monoblocks recently at a dealer- the highs seemed a bit 'strident' to me (Hovland HP-200 preamp; Gershman Avantegard speakers). Feel that my Symphonic Line RG4 MKIII monos do not have this issue, and be much more even across the frequency spectrum... MAC would interest me more than Pass.

I own the 501's and when I was auditioning against the 402 I thought there was a big difference, not so much sonics but power and total lack of compression when pushed. This was important to me because I drive Thiel 3.6's.

Auditioning an amplifer at a dealer with unfamilar components is basically useless.

Characterizations such as "strident" or "dry" or "lean" or whatever adjective one chooses, is a function of the system, room, and listener's preferences not a single component.

Thank you all for your responses. While I think they both have thier good and not so good points I get the feeling the Pass is hard to beat. I will second that.Happy listening