Yamaha integrated amp as3000 vs Pass integrated

It always baffles me when people ask what specific piece of equipment they should buy rather than stating what aspects of sound reproduction they value most and/or are looking to improve upon.  Without knowing the latter, how can we possibly recommend the former?  Argh!!!

@atl4love You know what other piece of Yamaha gear has a donut transformer? Their top of the line CX-A5000/5100/5200 home theater processor which is actually not too shabby of a preamp/DAC in itself. I love mine. Just upgraded from CX-A5000 to CX-A5100 that I bought from a member here. Cannot wait for the home theater room to be finished. Doing a bit of crazy architectural work where a 25ft wall will entirely disappear and open the theater to the outside when the weather is nice. It's taking forever.

So I've spent the weekend playing few test pieces between Yamaha AS1100 and Luxman L507ux and switching on the fly. Luxman is better by a small factor. Yamaha is just a little bit vailed and a bit less natural to me. The low end is a bit too much on Aerial 7Ts. On the other hand, when using Aerial 5Ts, my preference goes to Yamaha.