Bryston 14B-SST or Pass Labs X 350.5

Thanks for the comments guys. Tvad what you are saying about the bass control is very interesting to me because my concern is that the Pass would not have the woofer control that the Bryston does. In the past I have heard that the Pass' have incredible midrange but they do not have good woofer and thus bass control.

Let me echo Tvad. I have not been able to hear either in my own system but from other sources it is clear that their design philosophy is quite different and their sound is quite unalike. Pass has their own sound, class A has a midrange that you can't get from AB. In the past I used Krell, Musical Fidelity and Stax class A amps. I now use AB, Musical Fidelity and Meridian. The main thing is to decide what your sonic priorities are, no amp is the best at everything. If you can't audition them at home read the reviews and see which of them matches what you are looking for. And Buy Used, a high quality amp has a long life. I have a Tandberg 3026 that I bought used as a sub amp 15 years ago and it still works fine.

I used to own Pass X-600 mono's with a an X-1 preamp driving my B%W 800's and switched to the much less expensive Bryston 7B-SST mono's and BP-26 preamp with the same speaker setup. I was hoping the Bryston set-up would still be in the same ballpark as the Pass X series. Unbelievably, the Bryston gear blew the Pass stuff away in almost every way. Now, I have owned and enjoyed Nelson's equipment for many years, so you can imagine how shocked I was that this was the case. The 14B-SST is very similar to my mono's and would imagine it sounds excellent as well. Oh, and the 20 year warranty doesn't hurt its long-term value either.

Given there was a slight design change within the 14B-SST amp commonly known as the "Swedish choke" if buying used you want to make sure you get the most recent version. I believe this "mod" was incorporated after unit serial # 505 (can be confirmed by Bryston). You can have an older version updated but of course the mod will cost you (around $250) as well as freight both ways so look for a more recent amp.

Also if buying used you want to review Bryston's warranty info on their website. Gear made after a specific date must have the original invoice to ensure the 20 year transferable warranty.