I had an Aleph 3 back in 1996, so it may have changed since then. I found it very clean, and pure in its tone. I have to say, it didn't knock me out otherwise.
The ASL 1001 I found quite intense in the best sense of the word. I've owned it for 7 years. It, perhaps even more than the Hurricanes (maybe it's that Class A sound) has rhythm and passion. It seemed to image better than the Hurricanes, but then I've had problems with the Hurricanes' resistors since 2005 and had them repaired, but not mated to the same preamp I had (a First Sound) at that time. I would NEVER say that it imaged better than the First Sound/Hurricane combination, which imaged so solidly as to cause my (very) non-audiophile boyfriend of the time (a musician, by the way) to point out that he could tell which way the drummer's hands were moving in A Waltz for Debby (I exaggerate not). The imaging was spectacular (oh, the rest of the system was an Arcam FMJ23, Hales Revelation 3s and Shunyata power cords, speaker cable and Nordost Quattro Fil interconnects).
I have to say, I also tried a Cairn 30 watter last year, but came to realize something about the AQ1001: it can sound quite "continuous" as few other components can. (I was using the Rega Apollo, incidentally). The 1001 will make the sound all seem to be happening at the same time. That is to say, the air from the violin moves throughOUT the soundstage in a flow of air, much as in real life, in a way that not too many other components can. Obviously, it doesn't fill an entire stage, the way a blast of the brass can, but the recording space does not sound "canned." More like "Live at The Met" on a Saturday afternoon over a half-decent tuner, which is to say, VERY alive. My last system to produce that effect (circa 1993) was the Convergent Ref 1, Jadis Defy 7, Avalon Eclipse, MIT 750 Music Hose (and matching interconnects) and a Versa Dynamics 2.0 turntable.
One thing I've found is that, in order to genuinely appreciate the 1001, one must have a speaker that is also continuous, and those are few and far between. Avalons, Sound Dynamics (the RTS 3s do this astoundingly well, as HP noted in his review of them back in 1996) and perhaps a few other speakers allow one to hear the continuousness. If your speaker has any grain (and most do), you'll not notice this. It won't kill the effect of the 1001, it's just that you won't realize how much better than the Cairn it is (the Cairn is "cleaner" but not nearly as "alive in your room"). I have Usher 718s and while they're very good, they're certainly not grainless, effortless and, most assuredly not continuous-sounding. Sound doesn't "float" through space the way it can with the RTS3 powered by the 1001. For all that, the 1001 has a little bit of bass heaviness. Nothing objectionable and it certainly doeesn't seem to sound as dark as the Hurricanes, but it's there. Still, for $750, this is a killer amp. Not the most pure sounding (tubes, you know), but not "dirty." Frankly, it's a standout amp with tremendous pace (it can do a waltz with a ONE-two-thre, ONE-two-three rhythm) leaving other amps sounding like, pardon the expression, the proverbial white guy with NO rhythm. I suspect this is why HP came so late to the rhythm game with components in general, which he espoused in one of his essays as "The 4th Dimension-- TIME." ANYONE who can dance knows that time IS rhythm - in music. The 1001 can dance.
