In use, the sizeable IR eye obeyed remote commands from well off-axis. Hence this side-wall sited component required no angling toward the listening seat. Without numerical display or lit volume knob marker, you obviously have no visual feedback on that aspect. There is however a bright red LED for mute. This saves trouble shooting should you have no sound. Inconsistent is that you can't unmute the machine with a second press on the remote's 'mute' button. You need to reenter its gain setting instead. If you listened at max gain then select mute on the front panel, you must rotate the gain knob through 4 positions to reach mute, then do the same to unmute and return to your setting. Weird. A delay after power-on keeps relays shut for gain and input status indicators by about 5 seconds. That doesn't mean your deck is DOA. It's just following routine internal housekeeping protocol as enforced by its microprocessor. The gain and source selector knobs are unusual for being continuous types. One must turn them a lot before they skip to their next position. Or use the all-duplicating remote instead. It's mostly self-explanatory, no owner's manual required. The ASP-1000 also is an exceptionally well-built deck that's appointed just right on features and socketry to suit most all 2015 users including those with ultra-high output digital sources. Phono lovers will have the company's upcoming external phono stage. In short, early show impressions of a kind of Polish Pass Labs found themselves vindicated when I began to handle and use the AbysSound.

The plastic wand rather contrasts with the luxuriously thick and engraved face plate. Different function LEDs light up in different colors, here the -6dB gain setting in blue and the XLR input in orange.

Boiler plate. Sometimes the biggest compliment a component can garner is that it does no harm. This applies to preamplifiers in particular. Functionally, single-source systems with variable gain no longer need them. Even so, DAC-direct isn't always best. This could be due to lossy digital attenuation; to analog output stages not being on par with premium preamps; to insufficient current drive; or other factors like mismatched output impedance, excessive op-amp feedback or compromised S/NR. That DAC direct can also be better, or every bit as good, may rely on precision analog volume, discrete class A outputs and sufficient gain to send a robust signal down even long interconnects. Such a beast is the €9'000 COS Engineering D1 from Taiwan. I reviewed it last year and subsequently acquired it to delegate my Metrum Hex DAC to the bedfi. The D1 is its sonic kin, superior in grainlessness and smoothness, then adds analog inputs and 0.25dB-step resistor-ladder attenuation controlled remotely via precision relays. It allows me to bypass my €10'000 Esoteric C-03 transistor preamp altogether and run the Pass Labs XA30.8 DAC direct via 6-meter XLR interconnects from Zu's Event line. The D1 makes even better sound amp-direct than inserting the C-03 and does so with significantly lower wallet, box and cable cramps. Score one for the less-is-more brigade.

If the ASP-1000 in this context pulled an Esoteric, I'd not blame it one bit. The D1 really combines a DAC and top preamp in one box and is priced accordingly. Hence the best I was realistically hoping for was no difference. Given the Pole's extra circuitry, cable and contact connections, you might agree that these were high hopes, not expectations of insufficiency or failure. Mode of employ would be XLR in, XLR out to bypass AbysSound's single-ended-to-balanced and balanced-to-single-ended conversion blocks. Kudos to their uncompromising embrace of a true balanced volume control. Too many makers of supposedly balanced preamps run single-ended attenuators in the middle of their circuits. That strikes me about as consistent as listening to a mono cartridge over two speakers. Should the ASP-1000 sound different but no worse than DAC direct; or even better... I'd credit the mysterious yet possible benefits of signal conditioning. It's something premium active preamps can bestow to interfere with the less-is-more dogma. Finally, I did find it surprising that AbysSound would use Rhodium-plated RCA for the inputs and gold-plated versions for the outputs. But perhaps such seeming inconsistency was actually consistent with their multi-coloured lights?

D1 direct versus ASP-1000 addition showed mild attrition of contrast and, particularly in the treble range of cymbals and triangles, a loss of fine resolution for the detour path. More active circuitry, cabling and contact resistance from more connectors injected a thin layer of opacity. This telegraphed as a reduction of directness. There were lazier tonal beginnings with a bit more thickness. Our rural patois would call it chaleur. That's French for warmth. It was quite minor and as such not really self-evident until exposed by direct contrast. With as self-assured a player as the COS Engineering deck, adding an external linestage really did double up to not only throw away money but also some lucidity.

For a possibly parallel experience—or perhaps quite the opposite—I moved the ASP-1000 into our upstairs 2-channel video system which is anchored by a pair of white German Physiks HRS-120 2-way omnis driven by a Crayon Audio CFA-1.2 and NuForce-modified Oppo. It's a minimalist but very happy hardware grouping. Here the ASP-1000 belonged quite wholeheartedly. If you felt stumped over how a preamp could possibly improve an 'integrated' amp, think amp + passive pot. That's what the Crayon is. Whilst it played downstairs, I always ran it with my Nagra Jazz valve preamp. Crayon's volume control would be bypassed, i.e. fully open.

What the AbysSound brought to this 48kHz party were jumpier microdynamics, greater profundity of tone mass and in general a higher relief with more punch. These are things one might also pursue with better cleaner AC delivery or a burlier amplifier. In this case, a proper active preamp did the trick. Hence where the prior test had sung the less-is-more ditty, this one didn't. Sometimes more can be more. This tracked with earlier improvements I'd observed with the Nagra Jazz. Preceding the Crayon with a superior linestage reaps dividends in body, impact and colour saturation. With these basics handled, it was time to return to the big system and replace the D1 with a DAC begging for a preamp - Metrum's Hex whose fixed gain necessitates volume control behind it.