Pass Labs Amp X350.5 or X350.8 anyone compare?

Great question! I would like to know about this as well.

Owned a brand new 350.5 and ran it for 30 days to break in and it still sounded lean and bright to me. I was surprised as everyone told me how great sounding the Pass amps were. My old Jeff Rowland Model 9's of ten years ago easily outperformed the Pass in the areas of musicality, bass control, extension, etc. I dumped mine after two months of giving it time to settle in. I did audition the Pass 100.5 and that amp is far more musical than the 350.5 and had I stayed with solid state that is the Pass I'd have kept.

Mtrot,
From The Pass Labs website.
In Class A the X350.8 35 watts.
In Class A the X350.5 40 watts.

Hifimaniac, odd that you would describe the Pass Labs Amp as bright. But I guess based on way we assemble our systems anything is possible.
I have the Eggleston Works Andra 2 speaker and with the Esotar tweeters they have never sounded bright.

To upgrade or not that is the question...

I have compared the XA60.5 to the new 60.8, I would assume the same changes in sound are across the board to varying degrees despite the different series.

First off, the amps are quite different looking (although typical Pass labs look), bigger, longer, heavier, totally different binding posts and back panel. Build quality seems a bit better. For sound, the background is much blacker, deeper and wider. The window into the sound is endless. Bass is far more authoritative especially at lower volumes. Textures, tones and body are all improved significantly. Quite frankly, they could have come up with an entire new nomenclature as far as I am concerned. The upgrade is not insignificant. As good as the 60.5s were, the 60.8s are just head and shoulders better in every aspect.

I would bet the X series amps offer the same overall improvements.

Interesting that the X350.8 loses 5 Class A watts, while the X250.8 gains 10 from 15 to 25 in Class A.