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REVIEW: ASUSA PP-1 Phono Preamp Review by Michael Gaynes at Audio Asylum

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Just a few hours ago, I finished building the ASUSA PP1 phono stage kit. I ordered directly through their website and found their service to be quick and responsive -- although UPS lost my package for a time. When I had a problem with the billing, it was resolved instantly.

Specifications for this product can be found at the link above.

The parts seemed reasonable, nothing exotic -- "xicon" capacitors, ceramic sockets, Chinese tubes. Everything else was unlabeled. All came unsorted in a couple of brown paper bags. The instructions came bound in a folder and covered the theory behind RIAA equalization as well as basic kit building tips that looked to have come out of an older manual. Written text covered the assembly procedures, supplemented with parts layout diagrams for the two single-sided circuit boards, a crude drawing for wiring the RIAA/Flat equalization switch, and an electrical schematic.

I wouldn't recommend this as a beginner's kit because the instructions weren't as clear as they could be. Unlike the Arion Adonis kit I previously built, I had to refer to the schematic often, and found a few mistakes. For instance one resistor in the power supply was no where to be found on the layout diagram and could only be placed via the schematic with the corresponding 203v output was also missing from the circuit board. The grounding seemed a little fishy to me - a little convoluted or unclear in places. I ended up star-grounding from some spots where it seemed more logical. I may go back in to reroute some more.

These are problems easily overcome, but can be a little unsettling if you expect everything to be laid out in front of you. It is also surprising for a kit that has been on the market for close to four years.

However, aside from a few bumps like these, the preamp did go together fairly easily – a relaxed twelve hours. And it worked first time on! So far it sounds pretty good, much better than the little QED Discsaver it's replacing – more gain, quieter, but not silent. At full volume there is some white(?) noise and a little transformer hum, which would only be natural given that everything is mounted on the same chasis. I don’t have much to compare it to and it is early with no break in time, so I don’t feel qualified to ruminate on it’s sound, per say. Plus, my speakers leave a lot to be desired...

Thus far, I’m quite happy with this product. Even at this early stage, I have found my that my lps finally sound better than my cds. I found the building experience to be on par with my previous kit – 95% straight forward, 5% improvisation.


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Topic - REVIEW: ASUSA PP-1 Phono Preamp Review by Michael Gaynes at Audio Asylum - Michael Gaynes 17:09:51 03/5/00 ( 0)