ASR Emitter ii Exclusive

Only the line stage

Well, yes and no. The amp side runs on two separate power supplies one for each channel. They are heavy ,at 70 lbs each. The battery is only for the input stage. This units weight is around 45 lbs. When the unit is OFF or in STANDBY the battery is in the charge mode.
When the unit is in the ON (position one or two , the unit has two volume positions) the battery is then being used for listening. The battery is then diconnected from the line voltage charger via a relay. This way no ac in the unit to screw things up in the line stage.

so the power supplies aer external and thus we are dealing w the amp, battery supply for line stage, 2 external power supplies and thus 4 boxes?

Yes you are right . Total of four boxes. The Emitter has three cables each about 5/8 thick leading from the rear of the unit to each one of the boxes. These cables cannot be disconnected. Then each of the 3 boxes gets plugged in to your ac line, ASR provides two of the ac mains lead but you need provide your own for the battery.

the darTZeel preamp and amp are configured similarly to the ASR Emitter II Exclusive. the dart pre is battery powered, includes a phono stage, uses a propritary connection system (50 ohm BNC cables) between pre and amp, and then has an AC powered amp.

there is a separate small charging box for the pre; then the pre and amp(s) are in similarly sized chassis. i am using 2 dart stereo amps in vertical bi-amp configuration.

i am listening to a pre-production version of the dart pre in battery mode; and am blown away. it will be interesting if/when someone is able to compare the ASR and darTZeel 'systems'.

IF the ASR is similar or maybe even better than the darTZeel i can understand what all the fuss is about.