Pass Aleph 5 vs. Pass XA 30.5 / 60.5

I still have my Aleph Os in my secondary system. I moved it to my primary system for a few weeks to try out these bookshelf speakers. As good as the Aleph was in those days, the X- and the XA- series are just in a different league all together.

The mellowness and the relax presentation that Hew indicated was the characteristics that my wife fell in love with and she "mandated" that I would not be allowed to sell that amp. But with the bookshelf speakers I was checking out in my new dedicated room, it sounded a bit veiled and sluggish when compared to the X350.5.

FrankC

Aikidoka,

What preamp do you have?
The XA amps are truly balanced. The Aleph amps were not.

I think, 90% of all Aleph's are used with the wrong speakers. The Aleph Design
was never designed to drive the majority of speakers, it is sonically comparable
to a Single ended Design (--> balanced Design or not is irrelevant compared to
X, XA Design) and Speakers should be seen from that view.
Matched with a high sensitive speaker (past X-over!) the Alephs are even today
very hard to beat from sonic quality (speed, airy headroom, pace...). MUCH
better than the X or XA series.
It is a different chapter when Aleph is connected to a speaker which is a load for
them (lower sensitivity), here the newer Pass amps show their advantages. In all
those discussions the speaker loading is crucial.
When I used a 99dB Speaker with stable 8Ω and I made my comparisons
with X, XA I never was able to listen to these more than 20min, dead, cold,
clinical, not natural... (like the products from other manufacturers, too), far
away from a lively sonic presentation. Aleph connected to a Speaker from
Burmester, Magico, Thiel ...are disappointing compared to amps which were
designed for these loads. All their merits are gone then...With those Speakers
the newer Pass Designs are better.
When you want to keep the audiophile life as simple as possible, think about
Amplifier AND Speaker as one - matching - unit. The Alephs are even today a
sonic milestone compared to the rest of the world, but only with the matching
Speaker Design.

And if you add a decent SW to the Alephs, OH MY!

Thanks to all of you for your valuable comments and suggestions. I own the Pass x 0.2 preamp and speakers are 91 db- audio physics caldera ( three cabinet- first version). My room is 15" x 12" x 7.5" at present and in a year will be 23.5 x 12 x 12. For now I will keep the aleph, although I agree on the lack of control in the low frequencies. I am still fascinated by the ease of that musical flow the aleph delivers, but will give the xa 60.5 a serious in-deep listening. To edwyun: what do you mean by SW?