I would definitely pony up for the aleph 5 with the 1sc's. I heard a demo setup with the aleph 3 and some 1sc's. The system could be turned up to reasonable quiet listening levels but no further because it would clip. For a preamp I would go with an adcom 750 if you want to save money. I had one on my aleph 2 monoblocks and found it was a very nice combinatino. Later I substituted an Aleph P and found around a 10% improvement. The Aleph on Aleph combination emphasizes the ultra-quiet distortion free nature of the pass line. If you are CD only I would recommend you go with a cd direct output from a wadia, sony or resolution audio cd player. Those players have variable outs that will feed an amplifier. One problem with adding a tube preamp to an aleph amp setup is that it takes away some of this ultra-quiet quality. I tried a current model audible illusions modulus 3a & found I preferred the passive mode adcom 750. The 3a threw in too much noise.
