ASL Mini Phono

I compared several of the low cost solid state phono pres' you mentioned here as well as a few others and found them to be somewhat dry and lifeless to me. I ran them against a Dyna PAS 3-X, which easily bested them all IMO. I have a friend who owns and operates a small audio endeavor, who swears by the ASL unit(he uses one at home). Be aware it runs less than the advertised gain, so unmodified you'll need a fairly high gain MM to get the best sonic benifit. Also, could be a tweaker's delight. They sell almost immediately here when they come up for sale used. I have not heard it yet myself yet I plan on giving one a serious listen by this summer.

Pax

Thanks for the info, Sober1, pretty well what I expected, but I needed confirmation: I'll be picking up the Mini Phono post-haste. So far, I've liked all ASL gear, as they're just so damned musical! And as you say, tweaker's delight, even if it's such simple stuff as tube-rolling. Too bad it wasn't in my stocking this X-mas.

Kickin' it back up the ladder. Any fans of the Rotel out there? Any fans of the ASL? Any alternatives in this price range? Details please...I've rediscovered the wonders of cheap n' cheerful equipment, audio fun and sheer musicality with my purchase of the Wave 8s a couple of years ago and now of the Wave 20s...

John,

I haven't heard the ASL mini-phono but I did get a chance to hear a lot of their gear over Christmas break @ a dealer's store. I had actually gone in to listen to single-driver speakers & found that his only tube gear line was ASL. He had the $500 transformer volume control unit & a large # of ASL amps. All sounded excellent for their price ranges. As I was leaving he showed my the ASL mini phono & I held it & took a good look at it. This dealer has no vinyl as yet so we could plug this device into his demo system.
However, the unit seems to be well made & if memory serves me correctly has a separate power supply box.
If the passive pre & the ASL amps are any indication of how ASL gear sounds then the mini-phono should sound excellent for its price range.
I know that this is not much so FWIW.

Bombaywalla,

Much appreciated! Even if you haven't heard the Mini Phono, I have in fact been considering buying the passive pre to go with it eventually anyway, so your take on this is very helpful. There's one area where the ASLs will go toe to toe against anything out there, and that's timing and musicality. I carried my Wave 20s to a friend's house the other day who uses 120-watt SS monoblocks, and after hours of breathless, astounded listening, he said "I'll just have to kill you and keep the amps." I think the ASL gear has made being an audiophile (a pernicious disease) the most fun I've ever had in audio. Of course, if the Rotel has fans, or any other pre in this price range, I'd love to know about it.