Amp stands- Do they work?


I recently purchased a Pass Aleph 3 and loved it so much that I "had to buy" a pair of the Aleph 2 monoblocks. I have been A/B-ing them at my home for the last 3 weeks for most of my free time. The 2s have a lot more presence, but lack the for lack of better words "musical reality" the 3 has. Forgive me for the term, but if you've heard the 3, then you probably understand. Anyway, I have asked most of the guys at Pass Labs and they essentially tell me I am hearing things- that the 2s "have all the sonic characteristics of the 3, just more of it" I have eliminated all other variables except that the 3 is on the bottom of my rack (Salamander Archetype), and the 2's are on the carpet in front of my system. I am interested in anyone's input as to the impact a reasonable stand might have on the sonics of my amps. I currently am acting on this hypothesis and have put the 3 on the floor next to the 2's. If it is of any help the components are in order- my source is a Muse Model 5 transport, Illuminati D-60 digital, EAD 7000 MkIII D/A, Kimber KCAG, Muse Model 3 preamp, WBT 5151 -great cable!!!!!, Pass Amps, Nordost Red Dawn speaker cable, B&W 804s. Counterpoint PAC-5 conditioner, API Power Wedge 4A conditioner. Marigo RMX ref power cables. Amps are using stock power cables- Nelson Pass's recommendation. Thanks for listening and I look forward to any input.
tsquared
I gurantee that it is, by a wide margin, Noel. I'm at least in the upper one percentile. You still didn't answer how far away you can hear a 32 inch tv's sweep noise/tone. I had my own weight set made out of two sets of concrete/plastic weights, a few iron ones, and a custom solid steel one inch bar, seven feet long, which weighed 40 pounds by itself. I usually had two people spot me. You wouldn't want any of me, Noel...... If we don't use blind tests with our systems, it is because we don't doubt our own hearing, like you do, Noel (and for good reason, since you are much older than me, and obviously have more loss than you claim). I never argued against using test tones to set up a system (I do it with several excellent test CDs), but doing it while blind folded is silly and stupid, just like doing it to "test" for system equipment or cable changes. You can never perform a blind test without relying on "aural memory" to some degree, and a controlled test injects tension variables that scew concentration and aural memory. You are living in that river in Egypt! Frankly, I don't need to have someone else to control my comparisons in order for me to hear consistent differences...Mine have always been consistent from one day to the next. PERHAPS YOU COULD HELP YOUR DECREPID HEARING BY CLEANING THE WAX OUT OF YOUR EARS...you might try a couple of M-80's! An automotive pressure washer would be fine too...
How do you know (by the way the name is Niles)your hearing is better? Just because you like to hear your self talk. On another point, you never asked me if I can hear a signal sweap of CRT tube? Please send me the pic, Carly, of you benching standard olympic free weights exceeding 300 lbs. I find it very funny that you can not produce a simple pic of you doing something you insist you can do. Do this and I might believe your other braggings! Until then....well you know.
Like I give a flying fart if you believe me or not! I don't owe you a damn thing! And your name IS Noel. Like I said, I wouldn't give a guy like you a picture of me (I don't play for that team...not that there's anything wrong with that...well, there sort of is). Of course I asked you if you could hear a CRT's sweep. Just scroll up. And I'm asking again: How far away can you hear one?
I got all the information I need to formulate an opinion. Thanks for chatting so long with a person you don't give a flying fart about. Drop me a note if you are in my neighborhood, I wager a scientific evaluation of your perceiptive abilities to differentiate between the subtles of high end audio will reveal as weak a structure as your emotional under pinnings. Maybe a day in the gym with me will help.
You couldn't formulate an informed opinion if one was cattle branded on your heavily sloping forehead! Oh yeah, and how much can you bench, old man? And "bitching" doesn't count, either, although you'd win that one, heh heh......Anyhoo, I submit that it is YOUR emotional under pinnings that are in dire need of a coffee ENEMA, with a hydrochloric acid chaser, Mr. Nazi-thought-probe-Sigmund-fraud-pretender-to-the-throne....bastard...You still didn't answer about the CRT sweep. AND WE ALL KNOW WHY.....YOU'RE BEATEN, AND YOU KNOW IT! Move to Florida and retire, old geezer! Or, you could search out unexploded ordinance and land mines, or something...Let these fine folks talk about what they hear their systems doing, and STOP trying to tell them they aren't hearing what they ARE hearing, already! You're just a rotten apple and thoughtless chider. I may be opinionated myself, but I don't go around telling people what they hear is a falacy. GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS HOBBY! It's smug blowhards like you that keep people OUT of the highend, rather than encouraging them to aprreciate fine recorded music. You make me heave!