Dennis, I'm glad you're loving your 8x56, the one SLC I haven't seen. I'm thrilled with my 10x56, the brightest bino I've ever used also. But I admit I'm curious about the "lack of aberrations" report, apart from CA which I agree is negligible. What do you see that leads you to conclude that other aberrations are better controlled than in top quality binos of more moderate aperture, or that this relates to objective size? Without using test charts, I couldn't say that myself. I do love the view though.
Lee, regarding brightness, I don't understand your argument here. In low light (which Dennis was talking about) any binocular I've ever used is "brighter" than the naked eye, comparing the same field of view. How much light there is in the entire scene strikes me as a different sort of question.