I tried EAR 324 and Asthetix Rhea with my ASR II Exclusive. Asthetix was terrible. However, without any previous listening test, my Asthetix dealer warned me that he think it would be a poor match to ASR according to input impedance on ASR and output impedance on Rhea. He even told me that I would waste my time trying but I was curious so I tried anyhow. He was right. If his theory was right, in my system, I can also rule out Audio Research, Pass, Lamm, Leben and most other tube phonos that I could find spec as well. EAR 324 was much better match (according to its output impedance and listening test) but when using MC cartridge (Ortofon Jubilee at that time), I much preferred using Ortofon T100 SUT into EAR MM input rather than directly into its MC input. Then I tried ASR Mini Basis with Ortofon SUT and I found that EAR/Ortofon was not any better than ASR Mini Basis/Ortofon in my system. ASR Mini Basis MC input is not bad either. However, it is very likely that ASR phono and amp may have special synergy and in different system, it might not be as close a call. Now I have ASR Basis Exclusive 2010 on order.
Basically it is not enough to just list the best phono as much will also depends on the rest of your system as well.
Basically it is not enough to just list the best phono as much will also depends on the rest of your system as well.