Nevertheless, the essential details that deliver the sound of the .8 series have been tweaked in subjective testing, and the result is very close.  There are a couple new wrinkles to the “preamp” portions of these two products.  The volume control circuit outputs are buffered by 6 dB gain stages whose input JFETs present many megohms of load, getting attenuator distortions down below the .001% line.  The extra gain allows optimal figures for the power amp stages, and offers improvement over the previous “passive” circuits.

The output noise figures of the integrated amplifiers are a little higher than the stand alone amplifiers, but after you figure in the noise of a separate preamp external to the amplifier, it comes out about the same, so I don’t think you lose out on noise performance.

Did I mention that we included the meter on these?  Yes, we have the meter just like the other Point 8 amps.

Finally, credit goes to Wayne Colburn, usually our preamp designer, for the work integrating new preamp circuits into these amplifiers.

Wayne and I and the rest of the people at Pass Labs sincerely hope these products enrich your listening experience for many years.