Like both Pass and Plinius.
The Plinius, with higher gain and input impedance, is more friendly to tube and passive "preamps". That and the swiss army knife versatility was my most deciding factors.
Pass, especially the XA series, are almost overbuilt. Truly outstanding build quality. Respect.
Pass is fully differential. Plinius only becomes differential as a bridged monoblock.
Something about the SE Alephs and XA-series that don't lend themselves toward deep bass, which wasn't an issue for myself, being active biamped. Same can be said for the Monarchy SE-100, although it only compares to the Pass in one topology terminology and use of MOSFETs. Understand the XA.5 improved in that regard. The Plinius is certainly not bass shy and I prefer it's handling of the bass to what I would call "overly tight-fisted" of some other brands.
Most of the Plinius noise issues date back before the dual transformer, mkIII series and are more related to contamination of the AC in the homes. In those rare cases, it can be usually fixed with DC blockers or a remote isolation transformer. If not, even after that, every manufacturer occasionally gets a bad transformer and can be warrantee repaired without sending back to NZ.
The Plinius SA sound is not everyone's cup of tea. It's soundstage is stable and not "bloomy" while still being dynamic. More "natural" than "impressive".
One odd thing that I encountered about the Plinius, but have never heard by others, is that it seems sensitive to mismatched speaker cables or, by extension, possibly some speakers and vulnerable to oscillation. Perhaps it was just a freak occurrence but was also easily remedied. I tend to find the breaking points of a lot of stuff.
