Pass Aleph 3 or 5 for Proac 1sc

PS: Any experience for preamp for Aleph 3 (5) if I go to Pass.

The Aleph P preamps match very well. I think the 5 may have balanced inputs...I'm not positive...but the 3 doesn't. You might want to try a tube preamp with the Aleph amps. They sound great, but they do lack that certain tube magic. One tube would help.

I would definitely pony up for the aleph 5 with the 1sc's. I heard a demo setup with the aleph 3 and some 1sc's. The system could be turned up to reasonable quiet listening levels but no further because it would clip. For a preamp I would go with an adcom 750 if you want to save money. I had one on my aleph 2 monoblocks and found it was a very nice combinatino. Later I substituted an Aleph P and found around a 10% improvement. The Aleph on Aleph combination emphasizes the ultra-quiet distortion free nature of the pass line. If you are CD only I would recommend you go with a cd direct output from a wadia, sony or resolution audio cd player. Those players have variable outs that will feed an amplifier. One problem with adding a tube preamp to an aleph amp setup is that it takes away some of this ultra-quiet quality. I tried a current model audible illusions modulus 3a & found I preferred the passive mode adcom 750. The 3a threw in too much noise.

If you're inclined to use a passive preamp with Aleph 3/5, let me say that I've used a 10K ohm passive with Aleph 3, despite only 23K ohms input impedance for the Pass amp, and it worked beautifully. Nelson Pass confirmed that others have said the same. Better still: a CD player with a good output stage straight into an Aleph 3/5. Aleph 5 does have balanced input, Aleph 3 doesn't. While the Adcom in passive mode may be quite good, it's easy to have a better purely passive preamp, if only through better hardware and less switches in the signal path. There's a Go preamp for sale on Audiogon right now, unless it's sold, which sounds like the best commercial unit I've heard of: it has Shallco stepped attenuators and the steps are 1 db, which is rare.