Aleph 3 - Its 2013, are they still awesome ?

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.

Hi PeterAyer, Eljif

Have you guys tried the Aleph L ?
Heard good things about it here: http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-Linestages.html

He seems dismissive of Alephs but for some reason loved the Aleph L.

Been listening to Aleph 3 with my Benchmark DAC HDR as pre-amp.

So far a big upgrade from Jolida 801 Amp/Jolida 100A CD player combo.

Am not yet sure, how much of it is the Aleph, but am loving hearing some real bass that was completely missing in my prev setup.

Bhaskar

I have not heard the Aleph L. I did have a later model Aleph P with remote and then upgraded that to the X-1. My current XP-20 seems to combine and improve upon the basic character of these two pre amps: the rich, natural timbre and tonal balance of the Aleph P with the low noise floor and detail of the X-1. One caveat: I did change amps and speakers once during these pre amp upgrades, so I did not compare the three preamps in the exact same system, but I did compare the P to the X-1 in the same system and then the X-1 to the XP in the same system.

I do like the compactness and simple design of the Aleph L.