Thanks. I am in Central Europe and M8500 is insanely heavy. I would not bother to have it shipped. I am actually more interested in how its sonic qualities compare to the others, rather than the measurements. Nelson Pass is known to add deliberate distortions to his amps to make them sound more pleasing, and as many do know it, it does work. Same goes for many of the tube amplifiers, they do not measure well but they do sound sweet.
FWIW, here's some experiential commentary from a short experience I had with an MF amplifier. It was the NuVista 800, not the M8500 -- sorry -- but it's probably not far from what your choice sounds like.
There was no critical listening, testing, etc, involved, just playing around at home with an amp on loan. So, what follows is my recollection of that experience!
It's an integrated so I didn't bother using my own preamp or volume control.
Overall I was favourably impressed with the sound and enjoyed my time with that MF; it was a pleasant experience, musically immersive if you will. As I remember it, it had clarity and fast swings from ppp to fff giving the impression of "speed"; the sonic style was subjectively clear and warm-ish (i.e. it wasn't what I believe you'd call "analytical), probably not far from what your Pass sounds like, but with more power and top-end. Of course its driving capabilities were undisputable (¬300W ? / channel) and it was very user friendly.
Generally speaking afaik MF has a reputation for making well-performing, reasonably priced (by hi-end standards) high-end equipment and the 800, while not cheap, was a good deal when compared to other hi-end brands' equivalent products (try buying 300W from CH Precision...).
Anyway, voila!
