Not sure if all of what is written for and against are true. From a common mans point of view it seems more liquid compared to the krells, i mean if liquid is the most appropriate word to be used for tube like sound. i love the amp, but i am not sure if its better than my krell. I have different moods and both of these sound better at different times on different types of music.
i always consider this so called audiophyles and minimalists as people with neurological disorder. i love music and for me it should be pleasing to my ears and not what these audiophyle guys say it is. i use things like equalizer and preamps with tone controls etc and i manipulate them to my liking as per my mood.
i am from india and do not listen much to western music. from my point of view this is better than the krell for eastern music. Also dont take this for granted, what sounds best for your ears are the best amplifiers in the world for you.

I am coming from hi end amps like tubed Ayon Audio and fairly modest priced Magnus MA300. It seems the power and drive of the Pass lab will not match with the Magnus. Weight is lacking and are not up to driving my Wilson speakers. 100 watts does not give enough juice to take it there where the 300 watt Magnus delivers it. Perhaps the X300 would be able to match the performance of the two power amps stated.

Funny I do have a similar observation for these pair of Pass XA100's when it comes to fast and busy music(Freshaire 3 is one of my favorite complex recordings). Overall frequency range is sweet sounding except for the mid-low bass region where I feel has too much extension that what a live performance depicts. Nothing beats the vocals though and this amp to me is irreplaceable in that regard.

I bought these mammoth dual blocks. It seems these are sturdy built and could be a plus when tornadoes attack. The build quality is A1 and justifies it's hefty $16k price tag. The sound is "tubey" and has little hint of it's solid state design. I wonder how the designer was able to achieve this? Mids and highs are smooth and detailed respectively. It's almost perfect for classical and slow paced vocals. However, as Leon stated and I totally agree, the bass is incoherent and not timed with faster paced dynamic music. Unnecesary low frequency bass extension is produced specially on acoustic bass recordings. Bass is slow and ill timed. This amp would have been perfect but is really not.

I find this amp filled with just the right details. The bass though is slow when listening to jazz quartet. The phasing is a tad delayed and causes the low frequency registers to become muddled and loose. Not the type of amp for dynamic music.