PassLabs Aleph 1 Owners manual

Pass Laboratories

Aleph 1 Owner's Manual

Introduction

The Aleph 1 is a single ended Class A audio power amplifier, the most powerful product
produced by Pass Laboratories. It combines completely new design thought applied to a
traditional topology and the experience of twenty five years of amplifier design.

This power amplifier flows from a commitment to create the best sounding product: a simple
circuit with the most natural characteristic. The Aleph 1 integrates power Mosfet devices and
single ended Class A operation in a simple topology in order to deliver natural sound, the
reference for naturalness being taken as the acoustic characteristic of air.

Consuming four times the rated output power, single ended Class A makes ordinary push-pull
circuits appear comparatively efficient. This inefficiency has been a deterrent to designers,
limiting this "king" of Class A circuits to preamps and input stages.

I feel that in specialized and demanding applications, the energy penalty is worth the purity of
performance obtainable from single ended Class A operation. This purity delivers the most
musicality and listening satisfaction per watt of any operating mode.

The Aleph series of power amplifiers has earned top honors around the world since their
introduction in 1992. I have been extremely gratified by their reception in the audio
community and the satisfaction they have brought to their owners.

A very few people are involved in the production of this product. I supervise all phases of the
construction, and I test and listen to each amplifier myself. If you have questions, comments,
or problems, please feel free to contact me directly.

Thank you for purchasing this amplifier. It is my sincere hope that you will enjoy its sound as
much as I do.

_________________________________
Nelson Pass

Serial # ____________________

Date: ____________________

Next page: Distortion curve of your particular amplifier into 8 ohms versus output watts.

Setup

The amplifier has three sets of connections and one switch:
The first connection and switch is the AC line power system. The amplifier's voltage and

current rating are indicated on the bottom. It will be either 240 volts, 120 volts, or 100 volts.
100 and 120 volt units are equipped with a 15 amp 3AG type fuse. 240 volt units have a 10
amp 3AG fuse. The frequency rating of the AC line source is 50 to 60 Hz.

Your amplifier is provided with a standard AC power cord which fits into the line receptacle
located just below the power switch. The amplifier is equipped for operation with an earth
ground provided by the AC outlet. Do not defeat this ground. The chassis of the amplifier is
connected directly to this earth ground, and the audio circuit ground is connected to the
chassis and earth through a power thermistor, which gives a ground connection but helps
avoid ground loops.

While the amplifier is equipped with an AC inrush suppresser, the turn-on AC draw will peak
(half cycle) at roughly 50 amps.

The second connection is at the input. If your signal source is balanced, you may use the
XLR input connector. On this connector, pin 1 is grounded, pin 2 is the positive signal input,
and pin 3 is the negative signal input. The amplifier is shipped with a shorting plug between
pins 1 and 3, which is used for unbalanced operation. If you will be using the RCA
unbalanced input, leave this plug in.

If you will be using the balanced input, remove this plug, but save it. Operating the amplifier
in unbalanced mode without this plug will not cause damage, but will not give the full voltage
gain of the amplifier.

If your signal source is unbalanced, input will occur through the RCA input connector, which is
in parallel with the XLR connections 1 and 2.

The unbalanced input impedance of the amplifier is a nominal 10 Kohm. In balanced mode,
the input impedance is higher, with a differential impedance of 25 Kohm.

The third connection is the amplifier output connection. Two sets of 5-way connectors are
provided in parallel for use in bi-wiring your loudspeakers if desired. The RED connector is
hot (+) and the black is cold (-). Connect the 5-way output connectors to loudspeaker plus
and minus, using the cable of your choice.

Do not drive the amplifier into a direct short. If distortion or fuse blowing accompany an
attempt to operate the amplifier, please disconnect the loudspeaker first and check for a
shorted circuit. As the amplifier does not use a current limiting protection circuit, quite a large
amount of power can flow from the amplifier. The design has been tested to survive external
short circuits, but the possibility exists for failure under these conditions. Such failure is
covered by your warranty.

At rated power, the amplifier draws approximately 500 watts from the wall, and most of this
energy will appear as heat on the heat sinks. Good ventilation is vital to the proper operation
of the amplifier. It has been adjusted for optimal performance at room temperature, but will
work well between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 33 Celsius). You should leave at
least twelve inches clearance on the sides and top. The amplifier should not be placed in a
closed cabinet which does not have forced air ventilation.

This amplifier runs hot. The heat sinks will warm up in about an hour to a temperature which
will not be comfortable to touch for more than a moment or two, which is 120 to 130 degrees
Fahrenheit (50 to 55 degrees Celsius). This is normal, and there is a thermal shut off system
which will shut down the amplifier at internal temperatures in excess of 160 deg F. and 70
deg. C. If the over temperature protection system is activated, it will shut down the amplifier
until the thermal sensor has cooled.

It takes at least an hour of warm up time to get the best performance out of the amplifier. It
will take that long to reach operating temperature and exhibit lowest DC offset voltage at the
output. However, prior to warm up, the amplifier will meet all objective performance
specifications except DC offset voltage.

The amplifier does not require any maintenance. While the design is conservative, this is a
hard running amplifier, as single ended Class A operation is the least efficient operating
mode. In fifteen years the electrolytic power supply capacitors will get old. Depending on
usage, you will begin to have semiconductor and other failures between 10 and 50 years after
date of manufacture. Later, the sun will cool to a white dwarf, and after that the universe will
experience heat death.

Product Philosophy and Design Theory

When I started designing amplifiers 25 years ago, solid state amplifiers had just achieved a
firm grasp on the market. Power and harmonic distortion numbers were king, and the largest
audio magazine said that amplifiers with the same specs sounded the same.

We have heard Triodes, Pentodes, Bipolar, VFET, Mosfet, TFET valves, IGBT, Hybrids, THD
distortion, IM distortion, TIM distortion, phase distortion, quantization, feedback, nested
feedback, no feedback, feed forward, Stasis, harmonic time alignment, high slew, Class AB,
Class A, Pure Class A, Class AA, Class A/AB, Class D, Class H, Constant bias, dynamic bias,
optical bias, Real Life Bias, Sustained Plateau Bias, big supplies, smart supplies, regulated
supplies, separate supplies, switching supplies, dynamic headroom, high current, balanced
inputs and balanced outputs.

Apart from digitally recorded source material, things have not changed very much in twenty
five years. Solid state amplifiers still dominate the market, the largest audio magazine still
doesn't hear the difference, and many audiophiles are still hanging on to their tubes. Leaving
aside the examples of marketing hype, we have a large number of attempts to improve the
sound of amplifiers, each attempting to address a hypothesized flaw in the performance.
Audiophiles have voted on the various designs with their pocketbooks, and products go down
in history as classics or are forgotten. The used market speaks eloquently: Marantz 9's
command a high price, while Dyna 120's are largely unwanted.

There has been a failure in the attempt to use specifications to characterize the subtleties of
sonic performance. Amplifiers with similar measurements are not equal, and products with
higher power, wider bandwidth, and lower distortion do not necessarily sound better.
Historically, that amplifier offering the most power, or the lowest IM distortion, or the lowest
THD, or the highest slew rate, or the lowest noise, has not become a classic or even been
more than a modest success.

For a long time there has been faith in the technical community that eventually some objective
analysis would reconcile critical listener's subjective experience with laboratory measurement.
Perhaps this will occur, but in the meantime, audiophiles largely reject bench specifications as
an indicator of audio quality. This is appropriate. Appreciation of audio is a completely
subjective human experience. We should no more let numbers define audio quality than we
would let chemical analysis be the arbiter of fine wines. Measurements can provide a
measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment.

As in art, classic audio components are the results of individual efforts and reflect a coherent
underlying philosophy. They make a subjective and an objective statement of quality which is
meant to be appreciated. It is essential that the circuitry of an audio component reflects a
philosophy which address the subjective nature of its performance first and foremost.

Lacking an ability to completely characterize performance in an objective manner, we should
take a step back from the resulting waveform and take into account the process by which it
has been achieved. The history of what has been done to the music is important and must be
considered a part of the result. Everything that has been done to the signal is embedded in it,
however subtly.

Experience correlating what sounds good to knowledge of component design yields some
general guidelines as to what will sound good and what will not:

1) Simplicity and a minimum number of components is a key element, and is well reflected in
the quality of tube designs. The fewer pieces in series with the signal path, the better. This
often true even if adding just one more gain stage will improve the measured specs.

2) The characteristic of gain devices and their specific use is important. Individual variations
in performance between like devices is important, as are differences in topological usage. All
signal bearing devices contribute to the degradation, but there are some different
characteristics are worth attention. Low order nonlinearities are largely additive in quality,
bringing false warmth and coloration, while abrupt high order nonlinearities are additive and
subtractive, adding harshness while losing information.

3) Maximum intrinsic linearity is desired. This is the performance of the gain stages before
feedback is applied. Experience suggests that feedback is a subtractive process; it removes
information from the signal. In many older designs, poor intrinsic linearity has been corrected
out by large application of feedback, resulting in loss of warmth, space, and detail.

High idle current, or bias, is very desirable as a means of maximizing linearity, and gives an
effect which is not only easily measured, but easily demonstrated: Take a Class A or other
high bias amplifier and compare the sound with full bias and with bias reduced. (Bias
adjustment is easily accomplished, as virtually every amplifier has a bias adjustment pot, but it

should be done very carefully). As an experiment it has the virtue of only changing the bias
and the expectations of the experimenter.

As the bias is reduced the perception of stage depth and ambiance will generally decrease.
This perception of depth is influenced by the raw quantity of bias current.
If you continue to increase the bias current far beyond the operating point, it appears that
improvements are made with bias currents which are much greater than the signal level.
Typically the levels involved in most critical listening are only a few watts, but an amplifier
biased for ten times that amount will generally sound better than one biased for the few watts.

For this reason, designs which operate in what has been referred to as "pure" Class A are
preferred because their bias currents are much larger than the signal most of the time.

As mentioned, preamp gain stages and the front ends of power amplifiers are routinely single
ended "pure" Class A, and because the signal levels are at small fractions of a watt, the
efficiency of the circuit is not important.

4) Given the assumption that every process that we perform on the signal will be heard, the
finest amplifiers must employ those processes which are most natural. There is one element
in the chain which we cannot alter or improve upon, and that is the air. Air defines sound, and
serves as a natural benchmark.

Virtually all the amplifiers on the market are based on a push-pull symmetry model. The push­pull symmetry topology has no particular basis in nature. Is it valid to use air's characteristic
as a model for designing an amplifier? If you accept that all processing leaves its signature
on the music, the answer is yes.

One of the most interesting characteristics of air is its single ended nature. Sound traveling
through air is the result of the gas equation

1.4

PV

where P is pressure and V is volume, and whose curve is illustrated in fig. 1. The small
nonlinearity which is the result of air's characteristic is not generally judged to be significant at
normal sound levels, and is comparable to the distortion numbers of fine amplifiers. This
distortion generally only becomes a concern in the throats of horns, where the intense
pressure levels are many times those at the mouth, and where the harmonic component can
reach several per cent.

= 1.26 X 10

4

1.4

1.2

1.0

.8

.6

PRESSURE

1.01.21.4 .8 .6

VOLUME

3

(M /Kg)

FIG 1 CHARACTERISTIC OF AIR

(bars)

Fig. 1 shows the single ended nature of air. We can push on it and raise the pressure an
arbitrary amount, but we cannot pull on it. We can only let it relax and fill a space as it will;
the pressure will never go below "0". As we push on air, the increase in pressure is greater
than the corresponding decrease when we allow air to expand. This means that for a given
motion of a diaphragm acting on air, the positive pressure perturbations will be slightly greater
than the negative. From this we see that air is phase sensitive.

As a result of its single ended nature, the harmonic content of air is primarily 2nd order, that is
to say most of the distortion of a single tone is second harmonic. The phase of this distortion
reflects the higher positive pressure over the negative.

Air's transfer curve also shows also that it is monotonic, which is to say its distortion products
decrease smoothly as the acoustic level decreases. This is an important element that has
often been overlooked in audio design and is reflected in the poor quality of early solid state
amplifiers and D/A and A/D converters. They are not monotonic: the distortion increases as
the level decreases.

The usual electrical picture of an audio signal is as an AC waveform, without a DC
component. Audio is represented as alternating voltage and current, where positive voltage
and current alternates with negative in a reciprocal and symmetric fashion. This fiction is
convenient because it lends itself to the use of an energy efficient design for amplifier power
stages known as push-pull, where a "plus" side of an amplifier alternates operation with a
"minus" side. Each side of a push-pull amplifier handles the audio signal alternately; the
"plus" side supplying positive voltage and current to the loudspeaker, and the "minus" side
supplying negative voltage and current.

Problems with push-pull amplifier designs associated with crossover distortion have been
discussed elsewhere at length, and one of the primary results is non-monotonicity. Class B
and many AB designs have distortion products that dramatically increase with decreasing
signal. This is reduced greatly by Class A mode, but crossover distortion remains as a lower
order discontinuity in the transfer curve.

For reproducing music as naturally as possible, push-pull symmetric operation is not the best
approach. Air is not symmetric and does not have a push-pull characteristic. Sound in air is a

perturbation around a positive pressure point. There is only positive pressure, more positive
pressure, and less positive pressure.

Push-pull circuits give rise to odd ordered harmonics, where the phase alignment reflects
compression at both positive and negative peaks and crossover nonlinearity near the zero
point.

Only one linear circuit topology delivers the appropriate characteristic, and that is the single
ended amplifier. Single ended amplification only comes in pure Class A, and is the least
efficient form of power stage you can reasonably create, typically idling at four times the rated
output power.

Single ended operation is not new. It is routinely found in the low level circuitry of the finest
preamplifying stages and in the front end circuits of the finest power amplifiers. The first tube
power amplifiers were single ended circuits using a single tube driving the primary of a
transformer.

In 1977 I designed and published in Audio Magazine a single ended Class A amplifier using
bipolar followers biased by a constant current source. A considerable number of amateurs
have built the device, rated at 20 watts output, and many have commented on its unique sonic
signature.

Single ended Class A operation is generally less efficient than push-pull Class A. Single
ended Class A amplifiers tend to be even bigger and more expensive than their push-pull
cousins, but they have a more natural transfer curve.

The "purity" of Class A designs has been at issue in the last few years, with "pure" Class A
loosely defined as an idling heat dissipation of more than twice the maximum amplifier output.
For a 100 watt amplifier, this would be 200 watts out of the wall at idle.

Designs that vary the bias against the musical signal will generally have bias currents at or
below the signal level. This is certainly an improvement from the viewpoint of energy
efficiency, but the sound reflects the lesser bias point.

I authored the first patent on the dynamically biased Class A amplifier in 1974, however I have
not used the technique for the last 15 years. The reason is that I found the quality of sound
associated with an efficient Class A operating mode inferior in depth and less liquid at high
frequencies, simply because it operates at reduced bias at low levels. Given the plethora of
cool running “Class A” amplifiers on the market, you might say I opened a Pandora’s box.

Until the output current reaches the single ended bias point of the Aleph 1, it is considered a
single ended Class A amplifier as the bias is provided by a constant current source attached
to the negative power supply. Beyond the single ended bias point at 150 watts rms. (8 ohms)
it is designed to operate as a push-pull amplifier.

A very important consideration in attempting to create an amplifier with a natural characteristic
is the selection of the gain devices. A single ended Class A topology is appropriate, and we
want a characteristic where the positive amplitude is very, very slightly greater than the
negative. For a current gain device, that would mean gain that smoothly increases with

current, and for a tube or field effect device a transconductance that smoothly increases with
current.

Triodes and Mosfets share a useful characteristic: their transconductance tends to increase
with current. Bipolar power devices have a slight gain increase until they hit about an amp or
so, and then they decline at higher currents. In general the use of bipolar in a single ended
Class A circuit is a poor fit.

Another performance advantage shared by Tubes and Fets is the high performance they
deliver in simple Class A circuits. Bipolar designs on the market have between four and
seven gain stages associated with the signal path, but with tubes and Mosfets good objective
specifications are achievable with only 2 or 3 gain devices in the signal path.

Yet a third advantage tubes and Mosfets have over bipolar devices is their greater reliability at
higher temperatures. As noted, single ended power amplifiers dissipate comparatively high
wattages and run hot.

In a decision between Triodes and Mosfets, the Mosfet's advantage is in naturally operating at
the voltages and currents we want to deliver to a loudspeaker. Efforts to create a direct
coupled single ended triode power amplifier have been severely limited by the high voltages
and low plate currents that are the province of tubes. The commercial offerings have not
exceeded 8 watts or so, in spite of hundreds of dissipated watts.

Transformer coupled single ended triode amplifiers are the alternative, using very large
gapped-core transformers to avoid core saturation from the high DC current, but they suffer
the characteristic of such a loosely coupled transformer as well.

The promise of the transconductance characteristic in power amplifiers in providing the most
realistic amplified representation of music is best fulfilled in Mosfet single ended Class A
circuitry where it can be used very simply and biased very high.

Regardless of the type of gain device, in systems where the utmost in natural reproduction is
the goal, simple single ended Class A circuits are the topologies of choice.

The Aleph 1 uses International Rectifier Hexfet Power Mosfets exclusively for all gain stages.
These Mosfets were chosen because they have the most ideal transfer curve for an
asymmetric Class A design. Made in the United States, they have the highest quality of power
Mosfets we have tested to date. We match the input devices to each other to within 0.2% and
the output devices to within 1%. The smallest of these, the input devices, are capable of peak
currents of 8 amps. The largest are capable of pulses of 50 amps each, and are run in
parallel banks of twenty.

The power Mosfets in the Aleph 1 have chip temperature ratings to 150 degrees Centigrade,
and we operate them at small fractions, typically 10% of their ratings. For extended life, we do
not allow chip temperatures to exceed 80 degrees C.

A single ended Class A design would ordinarily clip at currents greater than the bias point,
and for this occurrence the Aleph 1 has a proprietary circuit which increases the value of the
constant current source so as to operate it in push-pull at power levels beyond the 150 watt
rating of the amplifier.

This design is capable of peak currents of 50 amps on both positive and negative peaks, and
will operate with complete stability below 1 ohm with any phase angle of reactance. This new
topology has been designed to source greater negative current than previous amplifiers with
single ended bias, in the belief that push-pull operation is still preferable to clipping.

It is a very simple topology, which is a key part of the sound quality. Other solid state
amplifier designs usually have five to six gain stages in the signal path in order to get enough
gain to use feedback to provide adequate performance. In this amplifier, we get greater
linearity by providing much more bias through three gain stages: a differential input stage, a
cascoded voltage gain stage, and the output transistors. The Aleph 1 uses Mosfet power
transistors throughout. The input stage uses power Mosfets and biases them at eight to ten
times the amount of current usually running through front end circuitry. The result is
significantly greater linearity and greater drive capability from simple circuitry.

Mosfets provide the widest bandwidth of solid state power devices, however they were not
chosen for this reason. The design of the Aleph 1 does not seek to maximize the amplifier
bandwidth as such. The capacitances of the Mosfets provide a natural rolloff in conjunction
with the resistive impedances found in the circuit, and the simplicity of the circuit allows for
what is largely a single pole rolloff characteristic.

The slew rate of the amplifier is about 50 Volts/uS under load , which is about 10 times faster
than the fastest signal you will ever see, and about 100 times faster than what you will be
listening to. In and of itself, the slew rate is an unimportant factor when evaluating tube and
simple Mosfet designs. It becomes more important with complex circuit topologies where
there is heavy dependence on feedback correction, but even then its importance has been
overstated.

For the lowest possible operating noise in any environment, the amplifier is equipped with
balanced inputs featuring a common mode noise rejection of greater than 50 dB. Balanced
operation is accomplished through a passive network tied directly into the input stage of the
amplifier, not with additional active input circuitry as in other products. This assures that the
noise benefits of balanced operation are not accompanied by the degradation of more
semiconductors in the gain path.

The input of the amplifier is flexible and can also be operated with unbalanced sources. The
input system will exhibit full common mode noise rejection with passive balanced sources,
where the negative input is connected to ground at the source through the appropriate source
impedance. This allows adaptation of unbalanced sources to balanced operation with passive
cable connections in a manner that achieves the noise rejection of active balanced sources.

Fig. 2 shows the equivalent network we are using when operating in balanced mode. On a
differential amplifier with this network, there are three ways of looking at the input impedance:
the common mode input impedance, the positive input impedance, the negative input
impedance, and the differential input impedance. The common mode input impedance, seen
by signals and noise which are identical at the two inputs is 10 Kohm. This input impedance
is seen individually at both inputs for common mode signal and noise. At the positive input,
the input impedance is 10 Kohm in unbalanced mode, and the balanced differential input
impedance is 25 Kohm.

There is an alternate way to drive this network, which is also shown in Fig. 2. The positive
input is actively driven by the source circuitry of whatever preamp you might choose to use.
The negative input is passively terminated at the source to ground through whatever
impedance matches the output impedance of the active source. In the case of Fig. 2 the
source has an output impedance of 100 ohms, so a 100 ohm resistor is used. This gives full
value to the noise rejection capability of the balanced input, and avoids having to drive a low
impedance negative input. This circuit is well suited to adapting unbalanced sources to the
balanced input, as it will retain the desired rejection figures when the negative input is
terminated at the source.

The maximum short term output current is about 50 amps, which corresponds to about 2500
watts peak into 1 ohm. The AC line fuse will blow after a short duration of 50 amps. Over the
longer term, the thermal protection will possibly activate on heavy non-musical continuous .
These conditions are very unlikely when the amplifier is used for amplifying music.

Please feel free to contact the factory for information or advice when considering difficult
loads or unusual circumstances.

Load impedances do not make much difference to the character of the amplifier. The amplifier
is indifferent to the reactance of the load. As a single ended Class A device, the worst
dissipation case is idle, and current flowing into a reactive load does not particularly alter the
dissipation. Current flowing into a resistive portion of a load will generally make the amplifier
run cooler. A reactive load will not increase the distortion of the amplifier, in fact it typically
will reduce the distortion slightly.

The amplifier is powered by a toroidal transformer which charges .1 Farad capacitance to 500
Joules. This unregulated supply feeds the output transistors with a full power ripple of about
.5 volt.

The chassis of the Aleph 1 is made entirely of machined aluminum; no sheet metal is
employed. We mill the chassis components ourselves from aluminum stock on four computer
controlled vertical milling machines. We also do the chassis engraving on the milling
machines, which we built ourselves. The pieces are grained and anodized at the finest plating
house on the West Coast.

The Aleph 1 is warranted by Pass Laboratories to meet performance specifications for 3 years
from date of manufacture. During that time, Pass Laboratories will provide free labor and
parts at the manufacturing site. The warranty does not include damage due to misuse, abuse,
or modification to the amplifier and also does not include consequential damage.

Performance Specifications

Gain 23.5 dB balanced

20.9 dB unbalanced

28.9 dB unbalanced, jumper XLR pin 1 and 3
Freq. Response -3 dB @ 100 Khz,
Power Output 150 watts @ 8 ohms 20 Hz - 20 KHz

300 watts @ 4 ohms 20 Hz - 20 KHz

600 watts @ 2 ohms 20 Hz - 20 KHz
Distortion < 1%
Maximum Output 50 amps, 50 volts (peak)
Output Impedance .001 ohm @ 1 KHz @ 8V @ 8 ohm
Balanced Input 25 Kohm, nominal differential (XLR)

10 Kohm single-ended (RCA)
Common mode rejection 60 dB @ 1 KHz @ .1V input common ground
Output Noise 600 microvolt
DC offset < 50 mV after warm-up
Power Consumption 500 watts
Operating Temperature 50 degrees C.
Warm up time 1 hour minimum
Dimensions 16.6 " W x 16.5 " D x 10.5" H
Shipping Weight 122 lbs.

PASSPASS

Pass Laboratories

21555 Limestone Way

Foresthill CA 95631

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