Listening notes/impressions #1:
I’ll document this here just to see how my opinion changes over time. I gave it a good listen last night and as the neighbour is out I’ve got a couple of hours on it today too.
First off I’m far from convinced the synergy with my main system is good. I’ve long felt that vintage speakers are voiced for the amplification of their era, i.e. these Tannoys dating from the late-60s will have been voiced for valve amps and early transistor designs such as the Quad 50E and 303. The common denominator here is a little output impedance and comparatively low damping factor. The ‘modern’ (i.e. after the market change to inefficient little ported speakers) solid state I’ve tried are just totally wrong to my ears, e.g. I tried a Naim 42/110 with my first Monitor Golds and more recently my (lost in the Onix scam) OA21S, both of which sounded terrible in this context; thin, flat, small, gutless and without swing or groove. The valve stuff I’ve tried (Prima Luna Prologue 2, Leak Stereo 20, Radford STA15) sounds great, as does the Quad 303.
The Pass seems to sit between the two schools. It is really detailed and clear, remarkably so in many ways, but it is also a bit restrained and dark in this context. Too measured somehow. By saying that it is also really, really good. I stuck Spanish Key from Bitches Brew on last night, and it picked the bones out of it very well indeed. This is a dense and busy recording with a lot going on and it takes a very good system to retain the scale, drive and heft of it whilst allowing the various bass lines to be easily followed. The Pass did this very well. I’ve flung all kinds at it, mainly jazz, classical, rock, though also some pretty full-on techno etc.
I also tried it with my Audio Synthesis ProPassion single input stepped attenuator passive. This was rather interesting as, contrary to expectations, it worked rather well with the DPA PDM3 upstream. I ended up with it about half-open into the Tannoys (typically about 24db attenuation). It told me what I already knew about my Verdier preamp, that being that it sounds like a valve preamp; it is warm, fat, spacious and big-sounding. It’s a lovely thing currently stuffed with a few £hundred worth of vintage Mullards, though I’d not argue it was 100% transparent (like I care). The combo of the Verdier with the 303 in this system is superb, but in some respects I preferred the passive with the Pass as it sounded less dark and the bass was maybe more in balance. It’s surprisingly close though. It would be interesting to try an equivalently high-end solid state pre with the Pass.
The Aleph 3 definitely gets better the longer its been on with either preamp. After two hours it’s at 44-48 degrees C depending on which face I point the IR thermometer at.
Clearly a seriously good amp, but maybe not where it is right now. As ever system synergy is everything, and it was very good beforehand. As stated I’m going to leave it here for a good while to get used to it, but after that I’m very interested to try it with the JR149s as I suspect that could be a very good match indeed.