Antique Sound Labs


A recent post on Chinese tube amps jogged my memory of this brand.  I'm a SS guy, so all I know about them is that they created a minor sensation 20+? years ago with an 8 watt tube monoblock amp for $99.  They seemed pretty prolific, with an array of amps using a variety of tubes.

Did they survive their brush with tube world fame (hah!) and the resulting demand for product?  Are they still around in a meaningful way?  Any opinions out there on their gear and place in the market?

petaluman

They were the "Wave 8".

A friend had a pair that he liked (tested a batch of Svetlana 6BM8’s purchased for them).

He never brought the amps up from Palm Springs (I live in the Los Angeles are) so never heard them.

If you are in the market for something "like" that perhaps look @ the little Musical Paradise stereo amp that is around $500/shipped from a US or Canadian dealer.

It has a volume pot, two sets of RCA inputs and accepts a wide range of tubes for tube rolling (unlike the 8’s).

There is also a small (well reviewed) Jolida/Black Ice EL84 based amp for $100-$200 more.

Used Wave 8’s ended up selling in the $300-$400+ range last I looked years ago.

DeKay

No, Dennis Had was in no way involved with Antique Sound Labs. He built the Inspire amps.

Link to: Antique Sound Labs

Thanks for the responses, but I'm mostly curious about whether the brand still survives, and how they are viewed by this community.  The other thread was about some dealer apparently bashing all Chinese tube amps.  ASL came to mind as a fairly early Chinese maker with a good reputation at the time.  Has anyone had any experience with them in the last 10 years?

I recently got in touch with Divergent Technologies in Canada who was the North American distributor of ASL for a schematic of one of their headphone amps. 

I asked what had happened to Antique Sound Labs and was told:

On Fri, Aug 27, 2021 at 10:12 AM Tash Goka <[email protected]> wrote:

ASL IMO has decided to change course and pursue more profitable businesses Rick.

Make of that what you will...