Comments about the quality of Pass Labs' products

[jh6you]

Originally posted by peranders

... De Norske Veritas (makes lot's of money in approving companies)...

Det Norske Veritas. Makes lot of money? Not really...
Remember that there is no money for nothing as Nelson Pass knows...

JH

[Peter Daniel]

That is one reason I stoped using PCBs for my hi end projects. I would never be able to make a board like the one from production line, so I want to emphasize the difference that it's hand made even more bu doing everything p2p. When you use silver wire, best soldering alloys, connect everything in 3-dimentional space with much shorter then normally connctions, I don't thing that mass production PCB comes even close. You could expect much better sound as well, especially if you use some exotic parts. I have my hand made audio done 20 years ago, being left in an outside shed in winter, and it doesn't even thin about giving me a trouble.

One production example that truly inspired me as to assembly method and overall quality is Connoisseur Preamp from Jonathan Carr, who also visists our forum.

http://www.connoisseurdefinitions.com/model_3.htm

[jh6you]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
... p2p...

I like p2p. Among others, the p2p provides me with more flexibility in construction and maintenance. PCB is mainly for robot and automation for commercial products. The PCB might be required also by diyers for the complicated circuits, tho.

JH

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

Actually I thought all of Pass Labs stuff was hand assembled in their plant.......don't know about the PCB's though.......
I am getting to like the turrett terminals alot for PTP wiring.....makes it all VERY sturdy too. Any other projects I build will be done PTP with them. Might eventually re-do the pcb's PTP in the 2's I am constructing now.
Mark

[Philo]

I believe a lot of additional manhours go into designing protection and stabilization circuitry durable enough for the average consumer that lives up to PassLab's quality. Many of the members of this forum can build amps near the quality Nelson produces but won't put the time in a circuit or amp that can cover every possible requirement the average consumer may put on it. How many of us build an amp that can switch from electrostatics to horns so easily?

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

Philo said "How many of us build an amp that can switch from electrostatics to horns so easily?

Thats easy! I'm building amps that can do that.....Aleph 2!
Mark

[Philo]

Interesting!
I haven't had any experience with that particular amp. The Aleph X is my first experince with this class of amp. I have built a couple of Borberly designs and a set of tube monoblocks prior to this. I will search back and read up on the threads to get a better idea of what the amp can do... preferably before I shoot my mouth off again

[peranders]

Originally posted by Mark A. Gulbrandsen
Philo said "How many of us build an amp that can switch from electrostatics to horns so easily?

Thats easy! I'm building amps that can do that.....Aleph 2!
Mark

But seriously, how many well-designed amps can NOT handle horns, electrostatic speakers, TL's etc?

[Philo]

The Aleph series is a Nelson Pass design he allows us to play with but, as I understand it, not to much different than his Xseries amps. The acorn just didn't fall to far from the tree.

[Mark A. Gulbrandsen]

Philo,
The X series is ALOT more to build, thats for sure. Each monoblock is like building two Alephs in one. The X series has far lower distortion, and noise levels than the Aleph series does, if thats important. Don't know if I would attempt building it or not yet.....I'll probalby just watch and see what happens for a while with them. A number of members here have been working on theirs now for along time.

I have about 100 hours just in my first complete Aleph 2. The first one always takes longer I realize...the second one is more than half way finished now. The brunt of the work is in machining a nice chassis for them, the rest is in assembling, wiring, and testing. After both are done I still have to take it all to the anodizer, but I will probably wait till late spring to do that as I'd rather listen to them and the heat takes the load off my
furnace.

Lucliky my boss lets me use the machine shop at work after hours and on weekends. There I have access to a verticle mill, lathe, much bench space, all the conveniences of a nice shop, etc. Without that access the project would have cost alot more than it has so far.
Mark