Aleph 3 - Its 2013, are they still awesome ?

Hello Essrand,

I listened to some Aleph Designs with Horn speakers and it was always a good combination. The recommendation from Stereo5 - ZU Audio - is interesting, too. Another idea is to check Reference 3A, those speakers are outstanding from Performance, or Verity Audio, but I have no experience with their 2. hand pricing. You can also look what Atma-Sphere used for their demos, probably you can get some new ideas there. The Alephs are quite robust with speakers but they are never made for low impedance speaker designs.

Thanks Zd and Syntax.

I did not think of proac or reference 3A, but now I will.

Any ideas on Pre-amps for the aleph. Am planning to audition the following next week. Was wondering if from experience you guys have any opinions.

I can get a BAT Vk-50SE used for around 2500$ or an Aleph P used for 1900$.

Or a CJ ET3 new $2500 or the Triode Corporation TRX-1 $3000.

Or do you guys know anything else that you absolutely loved with your Alephs.

cheers.
Bhaskar

I tried the Aleph 0's with Martin Logan Quests and thought they were boring. They look cool and have a great sexy name, but make sure you emotionally love the sound with the speakers you choose.

Hello Essrand,

from my experience, the Alephs run very well with a wide range of Preamps, I used Klyne 7, Aesthetix Callisto sign., Lamm L2R, Lamm LL2 and my favorite match was with Lamm units. Specially LL2 (or LL2.1) is amazing (and reliable).
Gain is generally a chain, when you have a weak Preamp output but a high sensitive speaker it doesn't matter so much, but when all is on the downside + a speaker which has a complex X-over (that is important, because such a design can ruin ever a high sensitive speaker design, Wilson, Martin Logan and others) even good units will be not able to serve an effortless reproduction. The Aleph Design itself is outstanding good but a lot of Audiophiles used them with problematic speakers, that was the reason for higher powered Alephs (until Model 1.2) because most Users simply didn't understand that this amp is totally different to others (former Threshold, later the - boring - Pass X-amps ...
It is in a "way" a 300B, but made with Transistors.

A relatively inexpensive used pre amp that you could try is the Pass X-1. I replaced the Aleph P with the X-1 and found it to be quieter and much more transparent. I used the X-1 with a pair of Aleph 2s.

Syntax is correct when he writes that the Aleph 3 is an excellent amplifier, but it needs to be paired with the correct speaker load. I would try to stay with an 8 ohm nominal rating and fairly efficient (90+dB) design.