Pass Aleph-3 questions

Assumming you can bi-wire your speakers, you can try vertical, passive bi-amping with 2 Alephs and it should make a very noticable improvement. Part of this is because you have twice the power available (3 DB) but also, each amp will see the load from only one driver and that driver's half of the x-over and not the entire x-over. Also the impedance of the woofer half will tend to rise with increasing frequency and that of the tweeter will tend to rise with decreasing frequency. This will unload the amps somewhat from having to deliver as much current compared to looking into the entire x-over. Sound stage will get wider & deeper. The presentation will be more dynamic as well as more at ease. If you can get another Aleph 3, I highly recommend you try it. If you still run out of gas, try the Aleph 2.

One other consideration is the pre-amp. I say this because the Aleph 3 has a very low gain of only 20 DB. This means that you may actually be asking your preamp to supply some gain as well (in these days of digital & analog stages with high output voltages, most pre-amps are acting as attenuators). There is the possibility that you are stressing the pre-amp as well.

David- I had an Aleph 3 for a while and then went to the 2s, and I can tell you if you are looking for a lot more power the 2s may dissapoint you, as they don't really go that much louder. I think that the 3 may even sound slightly better. The few times that I clipped my 3 it was not something that was hard to notice, it was very apparent. By the way I was able to play fairly loud volumes with an Adcom GFP 750 in passive mode and a set of Dunlavy 4 speakers (91 db sensitivity)

My speakers are 92 dB 8 ohm.It sounds wonderful at moderate volume but when I push it hard it becomes very bright.I have tried different tubes in my 99,different interconnects,speaker cables,different speaker placement,room treatment.I have tamed it a bit but not enough.My 99 output impedence is 100 ohm.I guess I will have to get used to listening to my rock and metal at moderate levels which is still quite loud but I thought I would get more (clean) volume out of this lttle guy.

If your listening to rock and "metal" with 92 db speakers, 200 wpc is not enough to REALLY "jam". You've got the wrong amp for what your trying to do. Sean
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I would say 200 wpc with 92 dB speakers is plenty of power for rock and metal and probably over kill! The Pass is 30 wpc and Im almost there now.It plays louder than I need but as I have said it gets bright at very high volume.Its a single ended amp and has a midrange to die for.I wouldnt trade it for an over kill amp anyday.Lots more to music than volume anyway,and this amp plays music! Tubes,single ended and analog is where its at for me.I have a friend who just bought a 225 wpc amp and sure it plays louder but not as much as I imagined it would.It just goes to show in this hobby you cant have everything but I still will keep the Pass.