Moving from Pass Labs Aleph 5 to Aleph 2


Hello - I am looking for feedback on improvements I might experience moving from Aleph 5 (60 watts) to Aleph 2 (100 watts mono blocks). My system consists of Camelot Uther MKIV 24/192 DAC run direct to Aleph 5 powering Audio Physic Virgo II's. I use Harmonic technology thuth link XLR, and Pro 9 speaker cable. Ideas about interconnects and speaker cable is also welcome.
thanks
sgunther

Showing 1 response by john_l

The virgo's are a match made in heaven for the 2's. You will still not have world class bass though. Spikes and rear-room loading help.

Nordost quattro-fil's are the best I've used with this combination. SPM and red dawn were very good too. I thought that red dawn sounded a little better than truthlink but this is a matter of taste. Red dawn i/c's and speaker cables hit a real performace sweet spot. Try to get long i/c's and short speaker cables.

The truthlink is a bit of a coppery 'fixer' cable that removes solid state nasties and warms things up. Great cable but with pass/virgo's you don't benefit from this and you get a little syrupy slowness as compared to nordost cables. You also round off the wonderful ultra-clean airy top end of the virgo's. Additionaly midbass emphasis of the virgo can become a little overdone with forward coppery cables. A fast lean open cable sounds best to me. The pass labs/virgo combo is incredibly fast. You will hear amazing speed if you get some fast cables.

For a speaker cable Nordost SPM was far and away the best followed by red dawn, then acoustic zen satori. Openness, speed and clarity are very important with these speakers.

You might try out a preamp at some point. I know that I preferred having a preamp for it's dynamic drive. As with the cables above, it's a matter of preference.