Pass Aleph 5 vs. Pass XA 30.5 / 60.5

I'm pretty sure he means subwoofer. I had an aleph 5 years ago.What a beautiful sounding amp. The only drawback was its bass, it was a little loose.

I might be alone on this, but I didn't much care for the Alephs, finding them lacking in dynamics. The Pass X series amps were a huge improvement to me. YMMV.

I tried the Aleph0's with ML Quests, and it might have been a bad match or underpowered, but the results were interesting. When friends came to listen, they would say the Aleph sounded great, but then they would talk while the music was playing. That is, the system had lost its ability to captivate. I always thought a similar thing might happen in A/B tests where the mind arrives at one conclusion if it is tasked to judge, but arrive at another conclusion if the measurement is pleasure.

Reason for a subwoofer with the Alephs is to get greater control (taughtness) of the lower frequencies. Need a good crossover. The Alephs do sound very musical, but sometimes we (me included) want a bit tighter bass than generally what is heard live.

I've owned the Aleph 3 and 30 and XA 30.5. To my ears there is no comparison -- the 30.5 far outclassed both Alephs.