Pass Aleph 30 and 60

The only real difference between the Aleph 30 and the Aleph 3 is that the Aleph 30 has balanced inputs to go along with the single ended RCA inputs and a rather conventional looking chassis. The aleph 60 is actually an Aleph 5 built as monoblocks with the balanced inputs and conventional chassis. The best sounding of the Aleph series in MHO is the Aleph 2 but the Aleph 3 or 30 can be very very good with some efficient speakers. Why not try to build a pair of Alephs for yourself. It can be very rewarding. Go to www.diyaudio.com and visit the PassLabs forum to see how.

I would get a aleph-3 over a 'aleph-30'
These second generation 'alephs' originally were to be called Volksamp,a German company that bought the patents for some of the Pass Aleph amps after they were discoutinued.
Its my guess that Volksamp had trouble selling them and turned to Pass to help out.Thus the name change.
The original Pass Alephs have a much heavier and rigid chassis which will lower nasty vibrations and will provide better sound.I think the 30's are ugly with that weird stripe on it.
Get a used Aleph-3 for ~$850 and forget about a copycat amp.
The Aleph-3 will drive your speakers with ease and high spl's.
The Aleph-3 is a classic amp.The 30 never will be.

David,

You couldn't be furthur from the truth. Volksamp was a company set up by Nelson Pass. The reason Nelson started to remarket the Aleph 30 under the Pass Labs name and not the Volksamp name was that they were not selling as well without the Pass Labs name. They were manufactured at Pass Labs in Forrest Hills, California. Look at page 12 of the Aleph 30 service manual. Guess what other company is in Forrest Hills, California? Pass Labs, thats who. You can even see the pass Labs logo on the first page of the service manual. You can download the service manuals for both the Aleph 3 and Aleph30 and look at the schematics and find the amps are identical except for the balanced input connector. Here is the Aleph Page at PassLabs.com: http://www.passlabs.com/aleph.htm if you don't believe me. I have no idea why you concocted this whacky story but it is just not the truth.