Are Pass Labs amps probably the best ever you can buy ?

I have a Pass Lab's Original X-350.
   " I LOVE it",. And I looked around and there is one on ebay that say's it's, "Mint cond. and serviced with a warranty".
   Hee hee, You would still have ten grand left! 
      What to do? 
           what to do? 
  New preamp to match?
 The new models do not list a new model X-350.8. I think it's just the X-300.8?  So 50 watts less per channel.
 But at $83,000 MSRP? It's a bit pricey.....

I guess since you listen to your music "Loud"....I need to tell you that I recently tried an McIntosh, model MC402. After swapping everything over from the Pass X-350 and powering it up?
  ,The difference in power was literally "astounding". Physically the X-350 is an intimidating amplifier. It is, just plain and simply, "Huge".  But the MC402 is no slouch. In fact next to the X-350, it's the largest "By physical dimensions", amplifier I have owned and about the same weight. 
The thing was, When I first powered on the MC402. I brought the gain up just a bit to hear the source that was playing. The gain was set so low that at most it should have been about 60db. 
I didn't hear anything and walked over to the media player that I had been playing with as well, and noticed it actually hadn't started. So, 
"And yes, I can feel many of you cringing , As you surely know what came next!!!"

 I "manually" hit "start". The MC402 responded immediately, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the large glass pane in my, "French Doors" just to my left bow outwards from the SPL, As I turned quickly to reach the gain control to reduce the volume I noticed "Again out of the corner of my eye", that the "cat" was in mid-air, "NOT again" I thought.  and very luckily down went the gain before any damage, "real" had been done. Over the next few days I played with the amp but it was just too much. I LOVE my music loud. Just under the threshold for damage actually. "I do keep a calibrated db meter handy".  But with the speaker system I have, which is VERY sensitive. And the peaks at certain times, in certain passages were just too much because of the "headroom" that amplifier had. This in my 40+ years of listening seriously, has never happened before that amplifier or since. So you "May", wish to give a listen to one of those. The fellow I sold it to in Ca. a couple of weeks ago simply couldn't stop calling me and thanking me.  "First time for that as well"! He had been "Bi-Amping" with a pair of MC2205's he said. And that he had wanted to try a more contemporary and possibly more powerfull amp. "Mission Accomplished"!
And I went back to my, "as I see it now", "Moderately Powered", X-350. Though according to "Nelson", It does have an "Albiet Breif", and I do forget the amount of "nano-seconds" mentioned but, An output of 1500WPC at certain times when reproducing "Detail" was in fact, available in the X-350. I will add though that as a whole I have always found the Mac's just a bit too bright for "my" ears at least. And at my "Reference" listening level.
    But if you want a multitude of power..... Try hunting one of those up, or a similar "Mac".
And give it a shot. Many do swear by them. Just not "I". 
I do wonder what kind of "Home" audio speaker would be "SO" inefficient that one would actually need a pair of their MC601's? Their use in "Pro" applications "Not-withstanding".

Uh oh, Umm Wolf? You mean these things are supposed to glow?
 I thought.....

There "is" a Nelson Pass designed vintage SS amp that for the money and to me that is "Crazy good" sounding. The "Nakamichi PA-7", is one of his "Stasis" designs he did for them and are built like tanks and rated "200Wpc. @8Ohm" and down to 2Ohm very stable as well in my experience.
  OR, the last year of that model was 225Wpc. Those are marked, Pa-7ii. 
    "No roman numerals on this keyboard!"
I have one rig put together using nine of them. "Tri-amped mains plus surrounds and a bi-amped center for watching movies". But I do need to either turn the heat down or off in the winter about half-way through a movie! They are a nice design for a class A/B and reliable.
They seem to run about $1200-1500 for a nice one, But I have seen them for 4-600 as well.
But the nice one's? "As in mint cosmetically and serviced".  I think they are a hell of a deal as long as serviced by a good rep. company. Most were bought of course by guy's that still take allot of pride in them. One I bought even had the orig. top removed and a vented plexiglass top installed so you can see that giant "Nakamichi" labeled, toroidal transformer in the front that is about 9" in dia. and the four big caps. It's my favorite one of the bunch. I do get lots of comments from friends on it. But it's not to impress anyone but, "Lil 'ole me! And they do a good job of that. In fact the "Firefight" at the end of the movie, "The Accountant"? My friends still gossip about that as we watched it the room with that rig! Amazing! 
 And, Just think of all the good that the $13,500 that you saved would do for your favorite charity! Or you could start your own!