Pass Labs Aleph Question

The Aleph series serves you the music the only acceptable way:
good signal in ---> good signal out and the opposite of it, too. It can do everything, when the right speaker is connected. From what I heard, most people used simply the wrong speakers with them, they were never made to drive ultra low impedances, but I heard from a user, he drives Apogees with Pass O monos and he is happy with them. For me, these are one of the best sounding amps ever made ( listened to the latest XA, not better from sound IMHO ).
And yes, complex music is their strength and with rock music they sound simply amazing.

I cannot speak for the Aleph 2, but I owned an Aleph 5 for a while. The midrange on that amp was wonderful, but the low end, in fact, was its weak point, to my ears and in my systems. It was not terribly articulate in the bass and did not grasp the lows with the same authority it did the midrange. I also felt it was underpowered at a rated 50 watts (which I think is exaggerated). From all I've heard the Aleph 2's are better in every way, and even the less expensive 3's and 30 have better lows than the 5. The Aleph series in general are supposed to all excel in the midrange. Mind you, I am not saying the 5 is a dog...in fact I liked it very much. It did do complex music quite well indeed. I just wish it had more power for the large space I was using it in. I thought it worth mentioning that weakness should you look elsewhere in the Aleph range.

Marco

Thanks twice, hehe . Im currently useing an x-250 and its a great amp, but im wondering if the two gain stage -single ended design of the aleph series would bring me closer to the music. It seems like the newer Pass amps are trying to bring back some of the design philosophy of the Aleph amps yet one of the reviews on the Pass x-600 claims that " The X-600 handily outclasses the Aleph 1.2's." That statement seems to contradict where Pass is going with their newer designs.

Im sure 600 watts will sound better than 200 watts on inefficient loudspeakers that demand huge power reserves but on efficient systems where all that power is not needed, does the simpler design of the aleph stand out. Im looking for some honest opinions.

Marco, what speakers were you driving with the aleph 5?

I primarily used the Silverline monitors, but tried out the amp with all of the following.

Silverline SR17 monitors (89db)
Boehlendar Graebner (can't recall the model - around 94db)
Klipsch Heresy's (94db)
Klipsch LaScalas (104db)

I did not like it with the horns as I found it too harsh coming from tube amps, so stuck with the Silverlines where it sounded quite good indeed. The issue of the bass and power became very apparent in switching the Aleph 5 off with the very modestly powered Quicksilver Mini-Mites (35W with KT88s) which gave the SR17s what occured to me as a firmer grip throughout the range, including bass to write home about coming from those small monitors.

Marco