pass labs xa100.5 or pilinius sa 103

Will the dealer not let you take the Pass home? I imagine the two would be close in performance and the sound a matter of preference without one being a clear winner.

my two cents...

That is tough, both have great sound and are built very well. You should see if you can try both before you buy. If all equal and you live in the US I would buy the Pass Labs service maybe a little easier. I have a Pass Labs X350.5 and my friend has a very similar sized Pilinius and both are excellent sounding amps and strange enough they both have a very similar sound signature.

Would miss the front switches of the Plinius, especially in the summer. Also has more gain so volume knob will be higher with the Pass.

Had pass x250.5 with contour s 3.4's. Also had plinius sa 102 ( extremely similar to sa103). To my ears pass/dynaudio far better. Plinius/dun combo had noticable coloration treble region which caused the soundstage to appear compressed. Did not like plinius at all. Pass sounded more like music. Also ran plinius on s 5.4 which are same tweeters as C 4. Got the same result. Could not stand it, but that's just me. Ymmv

"..pass labs xa100.5 to replace my plinius sa 103"

Why would you replace one amp with another, almost identical power capabilities and sonic signature?

Both are excelllent. I owned Plinius SA-102 but it did not have enough power for my speakers so I bought Spectron... this why I am puzzled...