Passlabs Aleph 1.2 with CJ Tube 17LS/16LS Preamp

That may not be the greatest of matches. (this is my meaningless opinion only!) Why ?

A) The aleph 2 amps never really seemed to have that much power. Unlike most ss amps, the alephs don't have linear power output respective to load. The aleph 2 put 100w into 8 ohms, but only 160w into 4. I know my 100w arc vt100 had significantly more powerful bass than the 100w alephs. The mccormack dna-1 DEMOLISHED them in the bass department too. Your B&W speakers have wonderful bass. They always seem to benefit from big amps.

B) I found that the aleph's sounded noticably better in balanced mode.

C) CJ gear is more of a warm/glow sound rather than high resolution. I found when I put a tube preamp (AI 3a w/NOS telefunken) in front of the aleph's, it seemed to take away their spooky clarity. Not a good match at all. I also found the vk-30Se/aleph 2 didn't sound quite as good as the aleph P/aleph 2. The 30SE did WONDERS for the vt100 though! I have not yet tried my new BAT vk-5i/NOS with my aleph 2's. I plan too in the near future - will report !

I agree that the 200w aleph 1.2's probably have considerably better bass. I have only used the 100w aleph 2's. They have the same power rating as the 100w stereo aleph 4. My point, and I do have one, is that compared to other 100w amps, the aleph's seemed weak in the bass. Somewhat related, I found the 185w mccormack dna1/reva was much much stronger. This was into a 4 ohm load audio physic virgo and 4 ohm magnepan 1.6. At his impedence, the aleph 2 is putting out 160w, and the mccormack 375w so the difference in bass is not surprising.

I do like the aleph 2's quite a bit. Strong bass just doesn't seem to be one of their characteristics.

Hey Rayhall,

I think we are in complete agreement on the mccormack verses the alephs. I have owned both alephs and the mccormack. My Mccormack was a hotrodded dna reva/partial gold. It was a great amp. I would take it over any amp on the market except for the alephs. The alephs are the best solid state I have heard. They just have a greater purity if sound than anything I have heard. Every other solid state amp I have listened to has a little 'haze', or worse, a 'processed' sound to it (you know, like an emmylous harris album). The alephs are just pure undistorted sound with walt-disney class holography. I've heard krells, s
pectral, levinson and all. I prefer the alephs to any of them. Just my taste !

On the topic of matching a warm tube pre to these amps. I hooked up my aleph 2's to my avanti centuries last night. I first listened with the aleph P mk2 preamp for a little while. Unbelievable detail but still liquid sounding. If you told me it was a super accurate tube amp playing, I would have believed you.

I swapped in my pre-warmed NOS tubed BAT vk-5i (New sovtec 5881gxc w/ rca nos tubes). The sound was dramatically different. A little smoother, but at a fairly sizable loss of transparency. It seemed that the high frequencies were quite a bit more rounded. It was very easy to prefer the aleph P with the aleph preamps. I felt that the soundstage became quite a bit more rounded. It definitely wasn't a great match. The BAT sounds wonderful with the vt100, but 'just ok' with the alephs. The aleph P was much much better.

Cabling was nordost quattro-fil, spm speaker cable and sony SCD-1 SACD player. It didn't surprise me that this is the setup that Sony used to demo SACD. (with their own crappy speakers of course)

To eat my own words, the bass was quite spectacular. For some reason the avanti-centuries DO display greater bass authority with the aleph 2's than the vt100. I am using different cabling, a different cd player. The vt100 also has svet kt88s in it now instead of 6550's. If I recall, the major difference in bass could be heard with my old mg 1.6QR's moreso than the virgo's. The alephs have unbelievable speed. The tube equipment seems to be swimming in molasses by comparison.

I've tried the kimber 1120 i/c's and they worked just fine.

My favorites, of course, are the nordost Red Dawn and SPM. Their inherent quickness and transparency really bring out the pass labs speed. The acoustic zen is a very good speaker cable too. It's not as fast nor as transparant as the nordost SPM cable, but is very smooth and excellent overall. If you are staying with the cj preamp, you should give this cable a try.

Because of their speed and transparency, the alephs seem to benefit from big dolla cables more than most.