ASL Mini Phono

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.

John,

My take on the ASL TIDT passive pre ($500. It has a big brother which sells for $800) is that it had exemplary sound! Very transparent, very dynamic & (like you said) the music had very good timing to it, lots of high freq. extension & there was nothing obvious lacking in the bass either. I'm sure that the single-driver speakers also had a lot to do w/ my enjoyment of the music.
For $500, I feel that you cannot go wrong. Hope that helps some.

Tell you the truth, the ASL T1DT was at the top of my list, but now I've discovered the existence of the Bottlehead kit preamp, and I'm salivating: it's cheap - $150 - and (therefore) fun, and it looks so retro cool. And if you're going to go single high-sensitivity driver, then you've gotta hear the ASL Tulip 3.5-watt singled-ended 2A3 amp: simply one of the best I've heard in my 25 years of listening to "high-end" audio. I can also speak for the Wave 8s (no longer made) and 20s, though these wouldn't be as refined as the Tulip, just ballsier. Any other cheap phono experiences out there? I'm building a cheap n' cheerful state-of-the-art rock'em sock'em system, thanks to the likes of ASL.