ASL Mini Phono

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.

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.

Glad you like it. John!
Is it headed for the "giant-killer" designation??
Let us know how it sounds after break-in. Thanks!