Aleph-3 Questions

I heard the volksamp version of the aleph 30. It's one of the very best solid state amps I have heard. I recall that when we ran it straight out of the wadia 30, the sound was some of the best I had heard. When we ran it through an Audio Research 12, the sound took on significant degredation. A preamp mismatch may be what you are experiencing. I have read that you need an active preamp with lots of gain to drive the aleph 30. That may be similar to what you are experiencing. Also, I have read that the alephs sound like an ordinary ss amp until they have been on for a whole hour.

David, Have you tried leaving the aleph 30 on all day? I have a set of the aleph 2's, and I find that they sound their best after being on for 5-6 hours, at which point they are indeed hot enough to fry an egg on (make that 2 eggs). I'm getting excellent sound with mine. Maybe the best I've ever heard. Soundstage is as large as I've experienced using vt100 and sfm-160 tube amps. The clarity and midrange truly are to die for.