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Stand out phono stages

This topic has been started before by others and myself as well, maybe too many times, but it is worth revisiting since the source is so very important!
So far I have had the pleasure to enjoy two worthy phono stages: the EAR 834p and the JLTI.
I have to admit they are spectacular. Obviously the record and all the equipment downstream play a role in the sound heard. In some cases I prefer the JLTI and in other cases the EAR. But neither out do the other dramatically.
What phono preamps outshine others by a big margin, those that can be considered the last phono preamp ever needed.
pedrillo

Showing 3 responses by nandric

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Hi all, Alas I have not much to offer regarding the comparitions but I am 'in'the ASR for more then 10 years. Ie before H.Pirson heard about ASR. I was much impressed by Banpukus (12.14.07) story even if my actual Basis Exclusive is the so called 'gold version'. What I can say
is about the the durability ,reliabilty and the ease of use of this phonopre. Two independent phono-pres actualy. In those 10 years I have had not an single problem with non of the different 'versions'. I own also the Emitter II
Exclusive ( and owned 2 earlier versions) and had never any problem with them. My nick -name for all those ASR's
is :'the German artillery'.
Regards,
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dhcod, Look first for your orientation at (www) audio-markt.de, second row by ASR . There are always ASR listings there in contradistinction to ebay.de. Any Emitter II from 2005 on will do. The batteries you can get everywhere. Idem for the Basis Exclusive but avoid the 2009 model because this one misses the MM input.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dhcod, I owned three versions of both: the Basis and the
Emitter II. Scheafer the owner/designer is very fond of modifications. Each new mod means new and higher price but not necessarily any improvement. The 2005 Basis was worst then 2003 version. I was not able to notice any difference
between ,say, 2002 Emitter II and 2006 Emitter II. The first 'golden' version (2008-9)of the Basis Exclusive was a disaster for me. I bought this one assuming that both MM
and MC connections were present but Scheafer decided for
some unknown reasons to mod this one with only MC inputs.
So I was 'forced' to buy the 2010 version a year later. I have some relatives by ASR company so I wrote 'forced' with quotation marks. Now if you live in Europe you can buy Emitter II for cheap on ebay.de or Audio-Markt.de. The
problem for those who live outside of Europe is the weight
and consequently the postage cost. With the Basis phono
however one can remove the batteries from the transformer
part and reduce the weight with +/- 12 kgr. This means 2
packets with less than 20 kgr. with reasonable postage cost.

Regards,
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