Pass Aleph 1.2s.... Anyone familiar


Has anybody heard the Pass Aleph 1.2s and more importantly compared them to any other amps of similar quality. How to they compare to the mark levinson 33hs for instance? Everyone i know who has heard both perfers the Alephs but that is all of two people. Any comparisons with other amps would be appreciated. Lastly would they be powerful enough to drive a full range (19 hz) 90.5 db sensitive speaker to very loud levels? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
lordgorian
I have Aleph 2 monos (100/200 8/4) driven by a P, and find it thoroughly effortless with an 88dB/1w speaker with a 4 ohm woofer quite flat to 30Hz in room.

The lowish imput impedence DOES preclude passive use, IMO.
Using a P also allows running balanced with longish ICs at no sacrifice. The combination, even with my unshielded Red Dawn (Alephs LOVE Nordost) ICs the setup is DEAD quiet. Phew!

Can't imagine the 1.2 wouldn't drive your speakers handsomely....

Also, the P drives my Sennheiser 600 well right off the RCAs.
I am not trying to be a smarty pants by saying this, but... I understand Subaruguru's point of "Can't imagine the 1.2 wouldn't drive your speakers handsomely....", however, I owned the 1.2 and the Khourus thus I do not have to imagine, it is not a good combination for the reason I stated in the prior post.

Best regards,

Mike M
Mikeam, certainly your empiricism is compelling...wonder if there's something unusually cruel about that speaker's impedence curve?
I don't think it is so much the impedence curve. More than likely it simply the motor structure of the 2 10" drivers in the Khourus (Can't speak directly about the Peregrine). The Khourus(I am assuming the Peregrine will display similar traits of its' big brother) has a very stiff cone structure. The speaker seems to simpy love current and lots of it.

BEst regards,

Mike M.
After doing a lot of research on the subject these amps are very powerful in terms of wattage, in a way more so then the 200 watts would suggest. They have huge power supplies and put out a ton of voltage, however they have less than ideal amounts of current. I have two specs for the amp. Pass lists it having only 12 amps of current in their manual, however the less powerful aleph 1s had 50 amps of current, a big difference indeed. This difference can be largely attributed to the three vs. two gain stage designs. However the difference seems to great. A store however lists them as having 40 amps of current. I am not sure which numbers to believe. I personally think that it has 12 amps of continuous current but can peak at 40 amps. If this is the case it should be ok but not ideal for the speakers. Lastly, these amps do everything well except for bass slam and are not very dynamic sounding. Hence when they show these charachteristics with the Talons i think that is simply them sounding how they always sound. I agree that these may not an ideal match however. Lastly i was talking with the president of Talon, Mike Farnsworth, and he often powers them with 7 watt SETs to great success in a very large room. So i think that the amps would be capable of driving the speakers to very loud volumes but will not make them boogie as other amps could. Still the Talons have such great bass and slam it may not be the worst place to have a tradeoff. And yes the Peregrine uses the same dual 10 inch woofers of the Khorus. Lastly the impedence is very easy and stable. It is 8 ohms on average and never goes below 6.5. After all of my research i think these amps would be a good but maybe not ideal combonation. Feel free to comment on it. And oh yeah there is a guy here on audiogon who powers his Khorus speakers with Aleph 2s and loves the combination. So many oppinions!!!!