Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: I need a “second-type” phonostage.
Post Subject: Re: IC-based "second" phonostages? Better look into ss instead??Posted by Gregm on: 6/1/2006
"ASR do not use the regular ICs but the ICs that they removed form the demilitarized Russian nuclear missiles console and fallen Chinese satellites" 
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..which means that they use cheap, used ICs. So, the dealer has a better margin & can discount w/out going out of business...
However, unlike your dealer, I was referring to the entry level asr: I checked & it's called "mini-basis". I know the one yr dealer is trying to push to you & it's most of what you don't want: apart from the price (which puts it outside the scope of what you're looking for anyway), it's a very large two boxes product; the riaa box has to be on a top shelf to allow access to loading & gain controls; and it's heavy...
There's no point in my suggesting 15 products that look OK but I haven't heard (one ex: http://www.customanalogue.com/jlti_phono_stage.htm) -- but remembered that pass-labs publishes plans for a ~60dB phono called "pearl": http://www.passdiy.com/projects/pearlono1.htm which shouldn't cost much. I've heard the Xono but not this. At least they come from the same stable.
The Pass uses jfets rather than denuclearised Russian military ICs...Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site