Aleph 3 - Its 2013, are they still awesome ?

I did not like the Aleph 30 with a single driver + super tweeter design similar to the Zus. The Aleph overdamped the bass on these speakers. A problem that I did not have when using First Watt amps with these speakers.

Never were

I tried the Aleph 30- agree with everything Ejlif says- nice, magical on some types of music, but forget about big dynamics... I was using on higher efficiency Coincident speakers as well.

I will agree with some of the other posts here on the advancement Pass has made with the First Watt amps- the J2 I tried had fabulous inner detailing; very 'SET like' in that area, and superior to the Aleph amps I have heard in this regard- there is an amazing thread on the First Watt amps on Agon that is very informative. I am one of those guys that was tempted, but ended up keeping my 2-watt 45-based SET as it is still a more 'complete' picture than even the First Watt J2, HOWEVER, if I were to consider solid state in the smaller-room high efficiency system that I have, the FW SIT-1 monos would be a serious contender.

Back to the Aleph series, I also had the preamp, and again agree with Ejlif- 'boring', no life- in fact, I have had TVC-based passives I prefer to the Pass Aleph preamp.

Lastly, I contacted Nelson recently and guess what his preference is for the entire Aleph series- the Aleph 2 monoblocks...

I had the Aleph 2 mono blocks and loved them. I did prefer them to the Aleph 3 and Aleph 5. I do write a little about these amps in my review of the XA100.5. For the current used price, if you can find a pair of Aleph 2s, they are a great value.

I am with Stringreen here. I've tried the Aleph 0, 2, 3, and 5 based on the glowing reviews but never really warmed up to any one of them. They sounded pretty good with the right speakers but nowhere near as good as some of the reviews claimed.

As for the the preamps, the Aleph P and Ono (and X-ono) were downright awful. Perhaps one of the most overrated SS preamps of all time.