There are pretty nice Aleph 2 monoblocks for sale here now.
Aleph 4, or else? (good general purpose class A amp)
I have a question on Aleph 4, other desgns by Mr Pass, and older class A solid state amps in general:
I am looking for a solid state power amp to complement or replace my 300B SET (kit from hificollective.co.uk, built by them). 300B is fine with my 15 Ohm Lowther DX2 Fidelios, but I intend to buy (or build) some other speakers. I sort of like "the English sound", but other than that I am quite open and curious (wondering about open baffle, planars, etc., yet reluctant about very low impedance or extremely inefficient designs).
I am in continental Europe (Belgium), and I do not really consider shipping from the US.
In Europe the most acessible and readily available Aleph amp is Aleph 3. Aleph 2s are desireable, but rare; Aleph 5 seems to be pointless.
But what about Aleph 4? They are relatively rear, but there happens to be recapped one on offer, and I better decide soon...
As a general question, are they, in particular Aleph 4 (but also Aleph 3), restrictive or not when it comes to the speakers?
Aleph 3 can provide impressive current down to 2 Ohm, but otherwise it is a 30W amp.
Aleph 4 is a 100W amp, yet its current output seems to be on a par with Aleph 3 (- am I right???).
To complicate things, there are old Krells (thinking only about the first KSA50, fixed bias + fan) as well as Mark Levinson (I may consider ML2 and ML20.6, expensive as they are). I considered early McIntosh (MC 2505, 2105, 2120, 2125, 2200, 2205), but I dropped that idea.
In a nutshell:
- Does Aleph 4 take care of, like, 90% of 'reasonable' loudspeakers, or it is not the safest bet?
And, if Aleph 4 imposes considerable restrictions, would you say that its other qualities outweight its limitations, or there is a more universal option?
Again, all this is to be seen in Europe's second hand market setting.
P.S.
FirstWatt is a horse of different colour, but a thought about a F6 crossed my mind.
I am looking for a solid state power amp to complement or replace my 300B SET (kit from hificollective.co.uk, built by them). 300B is fine with my 15 Ohm Lowther DX2 Fidelios, but I intend to buy (or build) some other speakers. I sort of like "the English sound", but other than that I am quite open and curious (wondering about open baffle, planars, etc., yet reluctant about very low impedance or extremely inefficient designs).
I am in continental Europe (Belgium), and I do not really consider shipping from the US.
In Europe the most acessible and readily available Aleph amp is Aleph 3. Aleph 2s are desireable, but rare; Aleph 5 seems to be pointless.
But what about Aleph 4? They are relatively rear, but there happens to be recapped one on offer, and I better decide soon...
As a general question, are they, in particular Aleph 4 (but also Aleph 3), restrictive or not when it comes to the speakers?
Aleph 3 can provide impressive current down to 2 Ohm, but otherwise it is a 30W amp.
Aleph 4 is a 100W amp, yet its current output seems to be on a par with Aleph 3 (- am I right???).
To complicate things, there are old Krells (thinking only about the first KSA50, fixed bias + fan) as well as Mark Levinson (I may consider ML2 and ML20.6, expensive as they are). I considered early McIntosh (MC 2505, 2105, 2120, 2125, 2200, 2205), but I dropped that idea.
In a nutshell:
- Does Aleph 4 take care of, like, 90% of 'reasonable' loudspeakers, or it is not the safest bet?
And, if Aleph 4 imposes considerable restrictions, would you say that its other qualities outweight its limitations, or there is a more universal option?
Again, all this is to be seen in Europe's second hand market setting.
P.S.
FirstWatt is a horse of different colour, but a thought about a F6 crossed my mind.
10 responses Add your response
Thank you for the ideas! Bedinis seem to be very rare, especially in Europe. Again, so are FirstWatt amps, unless we count their clones, and I am a bit cautious about those: I do not mind DIY/handmade (my Fidelios are made of spruce, and my 300B amp in principle is a kit), but It seems that clones’ market is infestated by some ripoffs which have dubious pedigree and undeclared ‘improvements’, Finally, ideally the amp should allow me to explore other speaker options, not just Lowthers. For instance, smth from ProAc (possibly Response 3.5), Audio Note (probably AN-K), Quad ESLs (most likely 63 model), Magnepan 1.7, etc. |
Post removed |
Thanks! My doubt about Aleph 4 was <4Ohm speaker question. Realising that an autoformer could take care of that, I think I will go on with Aleph 4, and contact Sowther or Lundahl about the autotransformer. P.S. I came across this one: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0603/midmonth/zeroautoformer.htm. - McIntosh is not alone. |
Thank you for input! Keeping an eye on FirstWatt. Unless I go for FirstWatt clones, the originals are precious and rare as hens teeth. Besides, that way I would be "Lowther for life". Still pondering about that Aleph 4: If necessary, I could lated find a pair of >100W McIntosh autoformers with 8-4-2 Ohm taps -- these would take care of impedance matching... |