For sale: one Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC (note that this is the original MiniMax with the volume control, not the more recent MiniMax Plus). The Eastern Electric MiniMax is a superb sounding D/A converter, which uses the top of the line ESS Sabre 9018 32-bit chip. It has received numerous rave reviews. The DAC has inputs for USB, Toslink, coax, BNC, and XLR, as well as manual volume control. It is in excellent condition. I am the original owner and have all the original packaging.
I have slightly modded the DAC for improved performance, but all of these changes can be reversed, if desired. I have replaced the stock fuse with a Hifi Tuning Supreme Fuse, added a WA-Quantum fuse chip to the fuse, put thin strips of Herbie's Audio Lab Grungebuster material around the edges of the lid (this material will come off very easily) and replaced the stock opamps. If you have seen online discussion of this DAC, you will know that changing the opamps is easy to do and can make a huge difference to the sound quality. There is a long online thread about this (and other tweaks) here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/495800/eastern-electric-minimax-tube-dac-32-bit-dacI have been running the DAC with the tube removed removed, but I will reinstall the stock tube to give the purchaser the option of trying it. I will include a selection of single and dual opamps (all of which will work with this DAC), an opamp removal tool and a wrist strap to avoid static discharges. This model DAC is a modder's delight and there is plenty of scope for boosting performance even further with more exotic opamp substitutions or other changes.
Added information: the installed opamps are OPA2107 and OPA627. The DAC will also come with the stock opamps and a pair each of LME49710, LME49720, OPA2604 and LT1364. The extra opamps are worth about $150 by themselves (eg a OPA627 runs about $25 a piece).
My price is SOLD including shipping (Fedex ground or UPS Ground, shipped only within the lower 48 states) and any Paypal fee. Sorry, but I will not sell internationally.
