[OBF]

Ok, thanks Andy.  I'll be most interested to hear those results if it happens.

[Carlman]

I'm waiting on some demo's to arrive or at least get a good idea of when they'll be here before scheduling the preamp comparison.  I'd guess Feb sometime is when it will be.  I'll take better notes and hopefully get Hantra to make it as well.... he's a bit better reviewer than yours truly.

If all goes well, the next comparison will be:
Minimax
Purist
Dodd
Decware

The speakers will either be the VR1's (fully broken-in) and/or GR's Criterion's.

I have a sub now as well, using the Adire 10" driver.  It integrates very well with the monitors.

Thanks,
Carl

[Bill O'Connell]

Hi Carlman,

  Let me send you some tubes that  will not be as neutral. The MiniMax does clarity in spades with the stock tubes. We highly recommend the Tungsol 6X4 rectifier with the black & silver plates with the big wavy getter. This tube will give you the body you are looking for. I have rolled many 6x4's in the MiniMax and this tube is probably the best ever made.IMHO
 I will also send you a few 12au7's that have some wonderful tone. The stock tubes are very nice but rolling some of the NOS tubes take our preamp to another level as some have already commented. Their relatively inexpensive as the 6X4 goes for about $15 and the other 12au7's depending upon manufacturer varies but still relatively cheap.
 I just returned this morning taking the red eye from Vegas so tomorrow I'll send a few out to you for your evaluations.
 Later,
 Bill

[Carlman]

WOW    Sincerest thanks, Bill.

[guest1632]

Hi Carlman,

  Let me send you some tubes that  will not be as neutral. The MiniMax does clarity in spades with the stock tubes. We highly recommend the Tungsol 6X4 rectifier with the black & silver plates with the big wavy getter. This tube will give you the body you are looking for. I have rolled many 6x4's in the MiniMax and this tube is probably the best ever made.IMHO
 I will also send you a few 12au7's that have some wonderful tone. The stock tubes are very nice but rolling some of the NOS tubes ta ...

Hi Bill, Well, offtopic. Looking on your site about your new cd player. Could not seem to get the info on it. I just love framed websites. not! On the preamp, is the tubes that come with it considered how the preamp should sound, or is rolling with the different ones more accurate? subjective question. thanks.

[John Casler]

All this time we had been listening to the Eastern Electric Minimax. I chose to use this one because it’s dead quiet and very neutral. In fact, it’s so neutral and quiet, it pretty much sounds like solid state.

There is nothing the Minimax preamp does wrong. However, where’s the romance of tubes? I would really like to experiment with different tubes, to get the warmth and life I know tubes can have. Otherwise, all I can say is that this preamp sounded very good, had no particular coloration. Ask me specifics and I’ll provide answers on this one…

Next up was the Dodd. The Dodd was livelier and more ‘tubey’ and had to me, a more musical character. I was very impressed with the sound (other than that #!%@ hum). If it weren’t for the hum, I’d say I prefer the Dodd to the Eastern for the livelier, warmer sound. Imaging seemed about the same. I’d say the highs are slightly more extended with the Dodd as well. The bass sounded about the same.

Great sonic observations and if you read what I have said previously it falls along the same lines.

I have one "great" vintage Bryston .5B preamp which is not perfect but very good playing through my VMPS (RM40 and 626Rs)

If I could find one fault it was just a little agressivenss at "high SPLs"

I have been auditioning the MiniMax (thanks Bill for a couple weeks now ---CES was in there too) and after it burned in for a few hours it did exactly what I want it to do.

And what's that?

I wanted the detail and resolving power of SS with the shimmer and sweetness of tubes

I wanted the big, ballsy, and solid bass without the "flabbiness" and softness of tubes.

I wanted the midrange fullness and texture of tubes without the edgieness and steeliness of SS.

I wanted a full size soundstage and great depth

Well that is almost exactly what I got.  While no sound is perfect, the journey has taken a nice step with this MiniMax.

While I will be relinquishing the Mini' this weekend to Mad Dog, I think I may be getting one of these for my reference system very soon. (Hey Bill how is your stock?)  Might even try tube rolling

With my current gear, it is one stellar performer for my preferences.  VmPs craves a tube front end.  Tyson has been singing the praises of the Van Alstine Pre for his RM40s for quite some time.

And quiet???  Yes it is!  One thing I was worried about was "noise" since I had heard a few other tube pre's with serious hiss, even at reasonably low levels.

The Minimax was very quiet even when turning the gain knob well beyond any normal listening level.

I haven't heard the Dodd but if it is even close to this one, it would be good for my "stuff".

Having recently done a total "re-wiring" from the wall outlet to the speaker binding posts, I think the signal path is clean and with this little beauty, I plan on hearing some great new cuts.

We'll be A/B'ing it against Mad DOgs Aragon (SS) pre this weekend.  I'm looking forward to hearing what MD and the rest of our LA Audiophile group think.

East Coast/West Coast

[DTH]

Hello,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this, but thanks to Carl for having folks over on Saturday and organizing all the equipment. And thanks to Andy for carting all his electronics down from the hills. And thanks to Carl's wife for allowing the geek quotient to quadruple in her home for a few hours.

Anyway, here is some thought on the gear we listened to:

I was really looking forward to hearing the Von Schweikert VR1s & the GR Diluceos. I was very impressed by both of them. My impression was that the VR1s were slightly warm. Andy said the Diluceos measured into the 30Hz range on his room correction machine, I'm not sure if the VR1s were tested this way, but I'd estimate that they got into the low 40Hz neighborhood. The bass down there was a little loose(especially when compared to the Diluceo)  but I did not find anything I did not like about the mids or highs. I was left with the opinion that this is a pretty remarkable speaker, especially when you consider the cost & size.

As good as the VR1s are, the Diluceos really took it up a notch or two. As they should have considering that they are a much more complex set of speakers. They had very nice impact and the ribbon tweeter did a great job on the highs. My impression was that their overall sound was pretty neutral, at least in comparison to the VR1s & the Onix Reference 1s we listened to. I also ended up with the impression that these speakers did a good job when listening out of the sweet spot, which surprised me considering the ribbons.

The Onix speakers played less to my taste. The high end was not quite right for me, too emphasized. But they did loosen up a bit when the SN Tube Dac was swapped in, so perhaps they were looking for some more synergy. They definitely have the best appearance of the group, a really beautiful birdseye maple veneer under a gloss clear coat.

The preamp comparison was a little truncated because of the previously mentioned issue with the buzzing Dodd. The MiniMax is a pretty stout piece and was very impressive by the dead quiet when there was no signal. I will echo the other sentiments regarding a lack of tube warmth that you would expect from a tube pre, but it should be commended for doing it's job without the usual tube drama. I have tried pretty hard to put a tube preamp in my system, but have never found one that was quiet enough for me. I did manage to hear around the hums when the Dodd was playing, it is a really sweet sounding pre. I'd like to give it another chance when it no longer wants to do the hum. It looks great too, like all the Dodd stuff. I'd also be interested to hear what other tubes do to the MiniMax.

One last thought on Andy's Tact room correction system; That is a very sophisticated bit of technology & very cool. So cool that I fear if I owned one I would go insane with all the possibilities & configuration options it offers.

Todd

[Danny Richie]

Just a quick update on the Dodd pre-amp hum problem.

Gary came over Saturday with the pre-amp that Carl had plus 6 more just like it that were just assembled.

We first tried it with Mark's Nash's 120 watt mono blocks (Mark came up with Gary). These are Dodd Audio tube amps.

We tried the one that Carl had first.

The hum was really slight. Not audible from the listening position unless the gain was turned all the way up. With the gain half way up you had to stick your head a few feet in front of the speakers to hear it.

So we tried it on a 30 watt, solid state amp that I have here, 30 watts, pure class A. It was about the same.

Then we tried it on a noisier Carver solid state amp and it was worse on it, but still not real bad.

All the other the pre-amps were the same too. We listened to all of them.

How Carlman was getting what he described, I don't know.

Then Gary went to tweaking on them.

He moved one ground wire over 2" and we listened to it again.

Now it was dead quite. Now you had to put your ear to the speaker and turn it all the way up to hear anything. It didn't have a hum like a ground loop anymore either. It was more of a buzz from the transformers.

At half volume levels it was dead quite too.

How moving one ground wire over a little bit can make any noticeable difference is real puzzling, but it did.

Gary then modded all six of the others, and we tested everyone one of them. All are dead quite.

They sure sounded good too, really good!

[Carlman]

Gary's been keeping me up to date on the hum and the experimentation and I have appreciated it.  Initially, I'd played the hum for him over the phone so he wouldn't think I was crazy.  I told him I thought the problem was that his preamp didn't know the words ...   that was bad but, hey.. what can I do, I've got a little cabin fever...   So, glad he did something with the ground wire... maybe that'll help.

My preamp is on its way to Tsunami for him to try... after that it's back to me for the final test.  I'll add this back into the mix for the comparison if it's quiet.  I'm looking forward to it!

-Carl