Tubelike solid state: Ayre Vs Aleph


Hello All,
Just for a change of pace, I sold off my tube amp and I've gone back to using my pass aleph 2 monoblocks in my main system. I am interested in trying out another 'tubelike' amplifier, but with greater power. I can get more than the volume level's I want, I just don't have the bass slam that I want.

Has anyone compared the aleph series to the ayre's ? I am considering the 200w/400w(4ohm) v-1x and possibly the k-1 pre w/integral phonostage. I use 4ohm audio physic avanti's with a hotrod scd-1, basis 2500, and aleph P preamp.

One of the great characteristics of the pass labs equipment is that I can listen at moderately low levels and still get tremendous detail. I have read that the v-1 does not really open up at low levels.

Has anyone compared these ?
john_l

Showing 1 response by driver

I also run a Pass Aleph P & am using an Ayre V-3 with VR4 Gen III's. I also ran an Aleph 5 before the V-3 & the only reason I sold it was because it didn't sound right when playing rock. I didn't have the VR's at that time so it's hard to make a comparison.

The Ayre/VR combination is great. Tremendous bass & I can crank it if I want to. Pretty impressive for an amp rated at 100, but we all know that ratings are a basic guideline & not a true reflection of a particular pieces ability.

Another possibility is that the room is giving you problems or even the speakers themselves.

As for low level listening, again I have no complaints. In fact it seems like the very first click on my "P" is so loud it will wake the house during the wee hours. I did have the power supply rebuilt & the transformer upgraded on the P so that may be a factor too.

Only suggestion I can make is just change one thing at a time & listen to them for a while before the next one. I made the mistake of changing too many things at one time several years ago & it made comparisons invalid.