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 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...