Antique Sound Labs pre on the way

organ
organ Posts: 4,969
edited July 2003 in 2 Channel Audio
Yesterday I ordered an ASL AQ2004 tube preamp. It is very small and a lot of people seem to love it. For $299US, I don't think you can go wrong. I can't wait to hear it with my NAD amp. It's a little bit more expensive than the Foreplay, but it's going to arrive assembled and ready to go.

Maurice
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  • scottdawg
    scottdawg Posts: 166
    edited July 2003
    I recently picked up a new ASL LH-01 preamp, 2 6922 tubes and one ECL-82 power tube. It has a headphone stage with it that I dont need at this time. Cost was $400. My plan was to mate it with a B & K ST3030 amp driving a set of SDA SRS 2's for my 2 channel rig. But the B & K turned out to be a non common ground amp so I put the SDA's up and brought out the JBL L100T's. Picked up some Mullard tubes to replace the phillips JAN that came with it and what a difference the tubes made. The JBL's are bright to begin with but those Mullards brought out some mids I never heard before. I want to find some tubes that will balance it out better. I will be getting a NAD C270 from pjdami soon and will put the SDA's back where they belong. Then try the tubes again and see where Im at. I am very pleased with the ASL and cant wait to hear how it mates with the NAD. Please update us on how it sounds when you get it. This is my first tube gear and I am fighting myself from buying more tubes as we speak. One good thing is that it only needs 2.
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited July 2003
    Organ, first of all, link me to the bottlehead (Im lazy).

    Full review please, a Tube pre is my next purchase for the man cave.

    Cheers,
    Rooster
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • organ
    organ Posts: 4,969
    edited July 2003
    scott,
    I see you going tube crazy in the near future!LOL That's how it started with me. I got the Dynaco amp and heard mids that I've never heard before. Soon you'll be hooked and there's no going back. I just love the harmonics they're able to flesh out. At the moment my Dynaco is not being used. The quad cap is going bad and I want to mod it.

    Are the Mullards you got NOS tubes? They're quite pricey but it's great to change the sound of your system just by replacing tubes (much cheaper than getting new gear). I don't know much about JAN tubes other than that some were designed to survive nuclear blasts and all will survive EMP. They're also built with very good tolerance levels. If you want to play around with tubes without spending too much money, try some Svetlana, Electro Harmonix, Sovtek, etc. They're not hand made, but always receive great reviews. Let us know how it sounds with your amp too once you get the SDA's running. Try www.thetubeshop.com

    Russ,
    Here ya go: www.bottlehead.com and the ASL stuff is at www.divertech.com

    I will certainly write a review after a few days of use. Which preamps are you thinking about getting?

    Maurice
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  • scottdawg
    scottdawg Posts: 166
    edited July 2003
    organ, yea the mullards were claimed to be NOS. I got em off ebay and am now a little skeptical whether or not their even Mullards. Im taking them to a guy here local who says he can tell. They were right at $50 for the pair. Off to work in the real world.

    Later. Scott
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