I think, 90% of all Aleph's are used with the wrong speakers. The Aleph Design
was never designed to drive the majority of speakers, it is sonically comparable
to a Single ended Design (--> balanced Design or not is irrelevant compared to
X, XA Design) and Speakers should be seen from that view.
Matched with a high sensitive speaker (past X-over!) the Alephs are even today
very hard to beat from sonic quality (speed, airy headroom, pace...). MUCH
better than the X or XA series.
It is a different chapter when Aleph is connected to a speaker which is a load for
them (lower sensitivity), here the newer Pass amps show their advantages. In all
those discussions the speaker loading is crucial.
When I used a 99dB Speaker with stable 8Ω and I made my comparisons
with X, XA I never was able to listen to these more than 20min, dead, cold,
clinical, not natural... (like the products from other manufacturers, too), far
away from a lively sonic presentation. Aleph connected to a Speaker from
Burmester, Magico, Thiel ...are disappointing compared to amps which were
designed for these loads. All their merits are gone then...With those Speakers
the newer Pass Designs are better.
When you want to keep the audiophile life as simple as possible, think about
Amplifier AND Speaker as one - matching - unit. The Alephs are even today a
sonic milestone compared to the rest of the world, but only with the matching
Speaker Design.
was never designed to drive the majority of speakers, it is sonically comparable
to a Single ended Design (--> balanced Design or not is irrelevant compared to
X, XA Design) and Speakers should be seen from that view.
Matched with a high sensitive speaker (past X-over!) the Alephs are even today
very hard to beat from sonic quality (speed, airy headroom, pace...). MUCH
better than the X or XA series.
It is a different chapter when Aleph is connected to a speaker which is a load for
them (lower sensitivity), here the newer Pass amps show their advantages. In all
those discussions the speaker loading is crucial.
When I used a 99dB Speaker with stable 8Ω and I made my comparisons
with X, XA I never was able to listen to these more than 20min, dead, cold,
clinical, not natural... (like the products from other manufacturers, too), far
away from a lively sonic presentation. Aleph connected to a Speaker from
Burmester, Magico, Thiel ...are disappointing compared to amps which were
designed for these loads. All their merits are gone then...With those Speakers
the newer Pass Designs are better.
When you want to keep the audiophile life as simple as possible, think about
Amplifier AND Speaker as one - matching - unit. The Alephs are even today a
sonic milestone compared to the rest of the world, but only with the matching
Speaker Design.