I actually just went through a similiar situation. I had a P8 with 8.5v1. I auditioned a 8.5v2 with my P8. It was a definite improvement. Here's the thing, though. You have one year to trade in your P8 towards a P9, and 3 years to upgrade the amp. The preamp is an unbelievable improvement. It's a fundamental change that can't be really be compared to a change from v1 to v2 for the amps. I want to mention that I use v2 power cords on my v1. Get the P9-you won't regret it! The P9 makes the music whole(I searched for a better word.). It introduces the whole atmosphere in a recording, and places all the music within that atmosphere. It adds a lot of detail that I didn't know existed in many recordings. I guess "adds" is the wrong word, as a great preamp just gets out of the way more. Voices are especially good. There is less of a ping-pong effect, because everything happens within that one acoustic. Songs make more sense as to why they wrote that song. That being said, I will be auditioning the 8.5v2 with my P9(if I'm allowed to) with the intention of buying v2. I do want to mention a few good things to P8 owners that don't have the funds(yet) to move to the P9. First, if you were tweaking speaker placement while using the P8, the direction you were going to move the speaker(you move one speaker at a time, using the better sounding one as a reference) doesn't change. Second, some cd's sound about the same with the P8 as they do with the P9. v1 to v2 costs under a grand, and P8 to P9 over two grand. I gave up drinking and roll my own cigarettes now to get the P9. The high you get from listening to music is greatly improved with the P9.
