As far as bass slam with the Aleph 5; I don't know if I can comment as of yet. The Aleph 5 is a new amp for me (as of about a week ago). I've been running it thus far with the SR17 monitors which don't get down below 40mhz. I also can't comment on the Aleph 3/30 comparison that Subaruguru mentions, since I have not either of those amps. Though the SR17's have a remarkably tight low end for such small boxes, I cannot say I'd equate the effect to that classic SS bass slam that hits you in the chest (not really fair to expect that from a small monitor though). I'd be curious to hear more comments on this (Suabru?) since I've not tried the Aleph 5 with bigger speakers yet. Maybe I'll bring it home and hook it up to my La Scala's! One additional comment I can make regarding Class A, as it pertains to my Aleph 5: They most definitely sound better, and more refined as they get hotter. 1 hour minimum, but many folks leave their class-A's running 24/7 and claim they sound best that way (after a few days running). I haven't really been able to tell the difference past two hours (it sounds great at that point) to two days (sounds the same to me as two hours, as far as I can tell, though my listening has not been so deleberate to really make a really critical judgement), so I save the power and shut them down when I know I won't be listening for a while (the Aleph is in my work system, so it shuts down on weekends). If I heard this amp blind I would NEVER guess I was listening to an SS amp (I would guess tubes or hybrid).
Any SS class A experience to share?
I'm looking to upgrade from my beloved VAC Avatar SE only because I'd like tighter bass. Depth is fine, but I also want "slam". I'm thinking: Tube preamp with a Class A Solid State amp. The VAC is only 30 watts in triode mode and that is more than enough for my efficient JMLab mini utopias, so I'd rather not spend the money on power I don't need. Can anyone out there share their experience with these types of amps, especially when mated to tube preamps such as C-J, VAC, Hovland, Blue Circle, VTL, Asthetix, ...
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- 25 posts total
- 25 posts total