pass labs xa30.5 vs aleph 3


Stereophile reveiwer Erick Lichte has done a head to head review of these pass amps in August 2009 issue. Erick uses the aleph 3 as his main amp feeding a pair or Revel f30 speakers, he also uses Benchmark Dac1 to feed the alpeh as I do as well. He was asked to do a comparison between the pass amps as a follow up to the great reveiw of the xa30.5 which was reviewed by Brian Damkroger in which,I quote "absolutely, positively,and enthusiasticallly recommended" the xa30.5 and, Brian sounds like he perfers high powered amps in the review. In the review Erick thought the Xa30.5 sounded more resolving and a little bit better bass control and can sound louder than the 30 watts. It was leaner in the midbass than the aleph 3 but, had a slightly more presents in the top three octave. he still is in love with is aleph 3 and sound like he is not planning on replacing the aleph 3 with the xa30.5. Anyways I have been waiting for a head to head review of these pass amps since the xa30.5 was released. If anyone would like to see the head to head review send me an email and I will take a high res pictures of the artical and send it to anyone. Also Erick Lichte did a head to head review of the Musical Fidelity's 550k supercharger amp and the Aleph 3 in a December 2008 issue. He concluded the aleph sounded better than the 550's by itself. He then supercharged his aleph 3 but did not like the sound. Very interesting articals about my beloved aleph 3, and a great read for aleph 3 owners. In my opinion the aleph 3 is still a giant killer and is a legend when it comes to amps.
tiverson2000
Post removed 
Thanks Grant. I've spent a few week driving myself nuts with
reading and talking with AGoners looking for an SS to have in
the mix, but I think the J2 and M2 are the two I will give a
try. My guess is the J2 is more of what I am looking for, but
Mark at Reno Hi Fi makes it easy to try and find the best fit.
Thanks for you help here and in other threads.
All Pass Labs dealers make it very easy to try out Pass Labs gear. You need to call Pass labs and get your LOCAL dealer and work through them. They all offer free in-home demos with no restocking fee and only pay shipping bpth ways. I can't for the life of me figure out why all Pass Labs threads lately are turning into shameless plugs for RENO HiFi?
Post removed 
Do Pass dealers carry First Watt? Thought that was limited to Reno and Audiofeil.