Early this year, when my balikbayan cousin visited us here at home, he was surprised when he listened from my simple system. He was shocked to learn that I was into vinyl. They have a system playing back in CA, but it’s not engaging when you’re spinning. So we played music of Sting, REM, China Crisis Jazz etc.
When he got back from his vacation, I dropped him an email asking him if he could look for a Pass Aleph power amps. Several weeks passed by & there was none. So I guess – wala Na!
Sometime May, I got a call from him saying he was told by a friend that somebody was selling aleph power amps. Immediately that weekend he drove for an hour to check the items. When he got to the seller’s place, he called me up & described the conditions as detailed as possible, and even played it to check the quality of sound. It is indeed in A1 condition and I asked him to pay for it.
While I made arrangements with my forwarder to pick up the items in CA, I asked my relative to take it to a reliable technician & have it converted to 220V. Unfortunately, there’s no one around to do the job, so he volunteered to take it to PASSLAB since he will be in that area the following week. He made a few calls before hand and told me it will cost $100/unit with warranty. Napaisip ako doon, but I said Oh sige na nga dalhin mo na sa Pass
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After 2 weeks, I asked him if he got the amps already. He has actually forgotten about it and made calls to Pass service department regarding the status. He was bolt from the blue when the guy from the service department told him that they couldn’t find it. Patay! Upon asking around, the guy told him that Nelson took it home when he saw my amps. The guy explained to my cousin that it’s a good news (he owns the company). Nelson Pass has new testers & equipments which were not available before the design of aleph 30. He will use it with your amps and refurbish & convert it to 220V personally – It’s worth the wait! I then realised how Nelson Pass truly love his creation with the 2nd generation of Aleph. If you will read the previous stereophile issues during the 90’s John Atkinson told fellow writers that indeed they need to overhaul Class A recommended products. Aleph 3 shook stereophile’s rating of Class A products. Nelson Pass holds several amplifier patents and share his know how to other amplifier designers. He is the only one I know who has the design of Single Ended Triode (SET) Solid State pure Class A
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Now that I got my alephs, to my surprise he left me a note a special memorabilia. It's my most prized audio possession:Thanks for reading.