2. amps-preamps
  3. 1162086233

Pre amp for Pass Aleph 3

Current or former owners of the Pass Labs Aleph 3 amp, please give me some idea of what pre amp you like and sounds good as well as mates well with the 3. I just picked one up and know it needs a pre amp with a bit of gain. No passives with this amp as noted in the Stereophile Class A review.

Im currently thinking of AA Modulus 3A, Cary SPL-50 or EA-3 DJH Sig. pre as well as an Audio Note M-One. Id like to have a MM phono stage...but not necessary. Price range used is ~1K.

Thanks for the ideas and thoughts,
Ken
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jameswei
883 posts
 
I'm happy feeding an Aleph 3 directly from a Mark Levinson 390S CD player. I have also had good experiences in another system using a Pass Aleph P (and an Aleph Ono), which was supposedly designed to mate with the Aleph basic amps. A used one should be in your price range.
dill
2,423 posts
 
Pass Aleph P with the Ono.
honest1
586 posts
 
I had good luck wiht a Classe CP35. There was a version with a phono stage.
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drubin
3,265 posts
 
There is no reason yo can't use a passive with it unless you have a very low-output source and/or your speakers are quite inefficient. What you should avoid, however, is a preamp with a high output impedance. This is not too common and is likely to occur only in a tube preamp, but is something to be mindful of. The reason is that the Pass has a comparatively low input impedance.
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