I heard a very similar system, probably at the same shop. System synergy is key and that day it was adcom GCD750, pass "L" preamp, aleph 3, and thiel 1.5. Lyle Lovett was there that day!! Unbelievably clear sound.

I borrowed the amp to replace a parasound driving a pair of NHT 2.5s, with a classe preamp. That combination wasn't nearly as good as what I heard in the shop. NHT's are probably not a good match, also the classe is not perfectly transparent, and the room was larger. Oh well, big surprise.

So, no matter how good a component is, one is always hearing an entire system +the room.

I have built a number of transistor amplifiers and tube pre-amps and listened to a bunch more, EAR, Krell, Chord, Tube Technology etc.The weight of bottom octaves are there with my ProAc's which are designer to work with Audio Research kit so are relitively easy to drive. What you do get is natural definition I have not heard anywhere. No fatiguing distortion or slow transients. Just what you get when you are in the room with the instrument. Simply better.

Wanted !!!I listen Pass Aleph 3. I really impress with that sound. Can anyone send me Electrical Schemes for this.

Musicality, leaves the emotion in the music. Supremely natural.

Not for very difficult and inefficient speakers

This is a stunning amp. I've looked long and hard for an amp that sounded like music without dulling the sound. The Pass sounds supremely natural and lets you listen into the music without fatigue. It's almost impossible not to love this amp. If you have very difficult and inefficient speakers then you'll need a bigger Pass amp however.

This amp isn't about analysing the sound, it's about hearing the music as it was recorded.

Excellent. If you're agonising over what to buy then don't, just buy this and you'll be smiling all the way...

Similar Products Used:

Roksan S 1.5, Krell 300i, Parasound, NAD, Audiolab and many more.

Warmth, clearness, holographic image

maybe the bass is a bit slim

I know, this is not the right place to discuss this here, but what i dont understand is, why 99% of the reviewers here rate this amp with 5 stars (which i do, too), and the rest of the reviewers seem to kind of 'hate' this amp and give zero stars, or want to classify the amp Class Z or such nonsense.. Why is there nothing between??
This amp is simply great for my oppinion, and i would say that it's not a difficult amp if you keep in mind that it 'only' has 30 watts. I drive the ProAc Supertower (89dB) with the Aleph3, and it works simply great, it even can be really 'loud'!
The only thing i maybe could critize about the Aleph3 is that the bass is a bit slim, but very clear and defined on the other hand. It's perhaps not the right choice for people who are looking for very deep bass.

I added a 'REL Stadium II' active sub-bass a while ago, and i can tell you, this was a very big step forward!! I have everthing i wanted now! The clarity and the holographic image of the Aleph3, and a very nice and deep bass from the subwoofer. I adjusted the sub-bass that it only works up to 28Hz. The sub-bass is driven by the speaker-outputs (kind of bi-wired) of the Aleph3 so that the great sound character of the amp is used by the woofer, too.

So, be fair, this a great sounding amp! If it doesnt sound good, then maybe your speakers are not efficient enough, or there is something wrong in your system. This amp reveals every weakness of your system, for example its fun to test cables with it, you can easily tell the differences.
And NO, this amp doesnt smooth the sound. It has warmth, but definately doesnt smooth out the sound!
And if you listen to poor recorded CD's (and there are many of them!), they Really sound poor with the Aleph3... What goes in comes out, without any additions by the amp!

I am very happy with the Aleph3!

Other system:
Preamp: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista
CD: Krell DSP, Musical Fidelity X-DAC (HDCD) w/X-PSU
Speakers: ProAc Supertower, REL StadiumII Sub-Bass
Cables: StraightWire Waveguide for Speakers,
Nordost Blue-Heaven Interconnects

Extremely musical, fluid, effortless. Very clear, transparent. One of the most musical amps around

Low power. OK bass

I just love this amp. I put it into an old system directly into a pair of Epos speakers, fed by a CD player (forget which), bypassing my Counterpoint preamp at the time. Coulnd't believe how wonderful and liquid is sounded! Now have in a system with tube preamp and ProAc speakers, and it still sounds gorgeous. Current system has great imaging, very accurate tones

What can I say that hasn't been said? Phenominally musical, even with my modest setup. Great soundstaging. Great mids and highs. Great resolution. Very revealing. Bass was a bit loose, but I forgave it; music just sounds so right that I came to see this as just a minor blemish.
Unlike a lot of high end audio gear, it doesn't demand a lot of the listener. I find that I can put music on and forget that it's there, only to get pulled back in later. It's easy to loose the feeling that you are listening to gear... it's like it can totally disappear. It finesses the speakers instead of driving them hard. If this isn't your preference, maybe you would prefer Krell for example.

Over the past few months I've heard the following setups:

Naim Nait 3, Naim CD3.5, Naim Speaker Cable, ProAC Studio 100 biwired, unknown interconnects, haphazard placement

Bryston B-60, Rotel 991/Rotel 971/Audiolab 8000 CD players, Totem Forest biwired speakers, unknown cabling, careful placement.

Arcam 8SE -> Rega interconnect -> PS Audio Pre (passive mode) -> Randall Symmetric interconnect -> Aleph3 -> singlewire Naim speaker cable -> Snell EIII speakers. Wood floors, small room, windows, lots of tables & chairs (my house).

I found my system had the most realistic sound. The Bryston/Totem combo just couldn't get the clarinet right on Charlie Byrd's Aquarelle suite (small scale acoustic guitar & clarinet) on any of the 3 CD players. This suprised me, the Totems are supposed to reproduce music well. Maybe it was the amp or the cabling. They did do guitar, piano, acoustic bass, drums, and saxaphone well, though. More transparent than my setup, but my room prevents good imaging and transparence though. The entry level Naim setup was very good. No major flaws, did everything well. Comparable or slightly inferior in terms of how instuments sounded than my setup, but the Naim setup has a better CD drive, better speakers, and a better room setup, so the deck was stacked in it's favor. It definitely bested my gear in bass definition and slam.

In conclusion I'm in love with the little amp. I need to tweak my system to get a bit more bass punch, but that's OK. Email me if any of you readers have expertise in this area. I particularly need advice on cabling and my preamp -- I got the PS Audio as an interim solution at the same time as the Aleph (I upgraded from a Musical Fidelty A1 integrated, so I had no preamp).

5 stars considering the overall value. Subtract one if you NEED more bass slam.

The Aleph 3 is a 30 wpc single ended Class A amplifier. Of the dozens of amps I have heard over the past 21 years, it has the most natural sound. It always sounds like music, seems to have very little personality of its own. The bass is somewhat a matter of taste. I have come to believe that the push/pull huge power supply bass of amps like Krell/Bryston are technicolored and exciting but are not musically natural, the Pass plays bass when its there and does not when its not. It does not sound very good until its fully warmed up, and it does run hot. For speakers that present a very difficult load the 3 stage Pass amps might do a better job. This amp along with the 2 and 5 models are the only twostage amps on the market, and they are just outstanding, but not cheap. The price is $2300 US, and the used market has seen a jump from $1200 to $1400 over the past 3 months due to the almost feverish word of mouth support amongst audiophiles. If you listen at high volumes, and really like bass heavy music
you may not care for the Pass, others, don't pass it over.

Am interested in purchaseing a Pass Aleph 3 amplifier - does any one know a good match for speakers?

Smoothness

everything except

After seeing some praises like "the amp of the decade" and "an instant classic" I just need to own one and try it out in my system. This amp also received some great remarks like "Beyond class A" from Stereophile and "the best work with transistors ever" from Absolute Sound.

I got one demo for $1650 from the net and decided to sell it on the Internet within few hours. Well, I tried to give it a second chance and even a third chance…,and some more chances,…..But my feelings remained the same.

Sure, it's extremely smooth and liquid-like sounding, but real music won't sound like this. This amp smoothes out flaws within music, but it also smoothes out all the details and kills all the excitement. I believe the sound from this amp is over processed that makes all kinds of music veiled and "not fatiguing".

A lot of audiophiles praised the not fatiguing sound from this amp. It's ok to get fatigued. Our body tries to protect our ears and that's why nobody can bear loud music for hours. To brag about the not fatiguing sound from this amp is like to praise your cat won't bark at all. Meaningless!

All right. This amp can make Madonna sings like Andrea Bocelli, but this is not the point here. When you play music from Madonna, you want your speaker to resemble Madonna's real voice, right?

Speed? I cannot hear any speed from this amp.

Details? If you think this amp is detailing, you must be joking??!! All the micro dynamics and inner transition are smoothed out. How can anybody say this amp is detailing?

Pleasant to ears?? If true life like music is irritating to you, just use some ear plugs when you go to concerts or musicals, and you can always go back to the pleasing sounding Aleph 3 because no live music can sound as smooth as Aleph 3.

This amp is not a low-end amp at all for its price tag $2500 list. A $2500 amp should not produce a "mash potato bass" like this. Boil a potato completely and smash it to the floor, the sound you hear when the potato hit the floor is the bass you get from this $2500 amp.

Any moderate preamp/Aleph 3 combination will exceed $3500. I compared this amp to Quad 77, Plinius 8150 and Krell 300. All these entry level integrated amps have good definition in bass; lighting speed and crystal clear sound. They are all under $3000 list. My taste is amps that can really produce music without any additives. Pass Labs Aleph 3 is silky smooth. So silky, it becomes surreal. To me, this amp sounds extremely boring and the smoothness is not natural at all. All of us try so hard for decades to achieve a life like audio system to reproduce music without any artificial flavors. For this amp to receive so many attentions and wonderful reviews is a big mistake, a huge step backward.

"An instant classic" It certainly sounds like amps made in early 50's, which have little definition and details.

"Amp of the decade" which decade?