New Pass Labs X.5 series versus previous X series

Thanks Irish65. I am planning to call Peter at Pass next week, as -- per my info -- by now they should have a working X600.5 prototype. It would be also interesting to hear from audiogoners who have already heard x350.5 in person, or who are planning to acquire one.

Some more tidbits I just gathered from Pass: while specs on new X.5 series will be virtually identical to older X series, the implementation of the class-A portion of the amps has been changed from push-pull class-A, to a single-ended class-A design. This has apparently significantly reduced time-smearing of low level detail and is generating a much more layered and finely detailed image.
The ultimate goal seems to be to maintain the high current/power of the powerplants of the X series while re-capturing some/most of sound characteristics/magic of the original Aleph series through the single-ended class-A implementation.
X350.5 is complete and is being delivered to dealers. X600.5 still in engineering. Stay tuned.

What was Peter's feedback concerning the X350.5?

Guidocorona, that's a very interesting tidbit! Thanks for passing it on.

Today I spoke to Kent, rather than Peter. Peter was home with the flue. Kent said he spent some quality time a few weeks ago with X350.5.
He indicated that X350.5 has the very best sound he has heard this far, and not by a small margin.
According to his particular taste, the previous series lineup, in descending order of preference for him went: X600, X250, X350, X150.
He seemed to indicate that in the X.5 series things are very different. As nelson Pass proceeded in re-designing from X150 upwards, he put more and more of his own sound philosophy into the new models. So while X150.5 was definitely a positive step in the right direction, X250.5 was significantly better than X250, and the difference between old X350 and X350.5 is apparently even more remarkable.
Kent's new descending order of preference is X350.5, X250.5, X150.5.
The X600.5 will not experience 'first sound' until after mid December, and I intend to call back Pass Labs at that time. Will the delta between X600.5 andd X600 exceed the delta between the immediately lower model? Kent of course would not commit. Stay tuned. I suspect the entire new lineup may be ready for CES 2005--my inference only, not a tidbit from Pass.