Hi Paul, when I heard the ASR in a friend system it had been turned off completely - wasn't even in standby mode. It sounded very mechanical and distant - not at all like his system sounded with his Dartzeel amp. At the time I thought something must have been wrong with his system or the ASR was really bad - I couldn't figure out how so many positive reviews of the ASR could be written if it really didn't sound good... I experienced the same mechanical sound when I got mine and didn't have it in standby for a couple days. I now leave it in constant standby and it only takes an hour or two of full-on warmup to sound really good ;-) I have NO regrets with this amp and don't miss tubes at all ;)

Hope this helps.
Tony

mantis007 January 03, 2010 21:46

Mantis,

You said in these forums a year or so ago: :BTW: I heard the ASR last weekend and am VERY happy I didn't trade my 210's for it. Phew, that was a close one ;)"

I have to ask: what did you not like about the Emitter, and why did you change your mind? Thanks.

paulfolbrecht January 03, 2010 16:16

thanks Zephyr ;-) I really like the ASR amp feel it's a keeper for a long time. It's simply the best amp I've had in my system - it works flawlessly and transcends the tube/SS stereotypes - just a very musical amp in my system - it does need a couple hours of warmup to sound best. When I first heard the ASR in a friends system it was dead cold and sounded that way..

I like the 8th Nerve stuff too - to bad they aren't in business anymore. When I used in a much smaller room they had a bigger impact but...

mantis007 December 27, 2009 05:00

That is one hell of a nice system in a beautiful room. How do you like the ASR gear and 8th nerve tweaks? Merry Christmas from a fellow Adona stand owner!

zephyr24069 December 25, 2009 14:58