Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono and Line Preamps

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Re: Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby JackD201 » Wed May 15, 2013 4:37 pm

Do not swap tube positions! You will no longer be able to catch bangaw with chopsticks Daniel-san! :D :D :D :D
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Re: Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 15, 2013 4:46 pm

JackD201 wrote:Do not swap tube positions! You will no longer be able to catch bangaw with chopsticks Daniel-san! :D :D :D :D


Hahahaha.... :D
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Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 15, 2013 6:15 pm

GETTING ELECTRIFIED BY THE 'DAY'...And to the MAX... :)

Image

I usually listen early morning, and what better experience to start the day than by being 'electrified' by the Day - Doris Day. The cut that melts my socks is Be True To Me (Savor A Mi). Played through the Minimax, I should say it melted my shirt too this time. :lol: Malandi ang dating. And each word, her diction, her lips singing those precious words....oh my goodness. Like creamy soup. :lol: Was never prepared for such acts of lasciviousness, pardon the expression. :lol: I have to listen to 2 more cuts before leaving for work. But I'm telling Morita tomorrow, that I believe that this very pleasant vocal rendition is due to my newly arrived NOS Mullard Square Getters in my line stage finally getting broken in, and the Minimax just inadvertently benefited from them. :lol: :lol: He might not give me 'chopsticks lessons' no more. :D
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Re: Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby JackD201 » Wed May 15, 2013 8:16 pm

Di bale, anyway your playing record upon record.........wax in, wax out ika nga :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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Re: Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 15, 2013 8:29 pm

JackD201 wrote:Di bale, anyway your playing record upon record.........wax in, wax out ika nga :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


:D :D :D
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Re: Eastern Electric Minimax Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Mon May 20, 2013 12:34 pm

Listening to the 'max' the last few days, I am beginning to sink in into its character. It may have the typical 'tube' sound in the mids, but where I am surprised is that it also possesses a 'macho' sound. Instruments, particularly in the lower mid down, are very robust, firm and very well defined. It is not 'round' or flabby at all.

On David Roth's second album on Stockfisch, More Pearls, that bass content and bass quality sort of startled me as coming from my Maggies, I have to take a second listen to make sure what I am hearing and feeling is real. Within the context of Magnepan's limitations on the lower registers, I can say that the bass is 'staggering'. Not in terms of volume as cone speakers exhibit, but in terms of 'depth' and 'weight'. To be sure, I have not heard that kind of bass quality from other pop or acoustic recordings previously. Needless to say, the vocals of Roth is excellent. No complaints here.

Playing Madonna's La Isla Bonita once again after a very long time, I found out something new. Erstwhile, I remember my preferred version is from the Immaculate Collection double LP, which was more full bodied overall compared to a 45rpm extended remix version. While the sound passed satisfactorily on the standard double album, I got a pleasant surprise in that now with the Minimax, the music is much better with the 45rpm remix than the standard cut on the double LP. It now packs more sock and punch that I can recall my Maggies could have possibly done before. :) Woo Hoo! :lol:

And curiosity saved the cat, this time. I have been 'feeling' that the overall balance had been a teeny bit skewed to the left of center ever since the Minimax came. But listening to each channel told me that the output of each seems the same. After several days, I decided to take out the good old trusty tape measure. Wala! I mean, Voila! I found the left speaker off by half an inch to the side wall against the right speaker. And the right speaker was half an inch closer to the front wall than the left. Hmmm...I never thought these things could move by themselves after several years. :D Adjustments were made, and without fooling my own ears, I can sense that the balance is not skewed anywhere anymore. :lol: The Minimax is a psychic! :D
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby dimfer » Mon May 20, 2013 10:13 pm

I think Fremer hacked Phillip's account :devil:
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Tue May 21, 2013 8:04 am

dimfer wrote:I think Fremer hacked Phillip's account :devil:


How I wish, Ding. I might even get the Business Class ticket being talked about somewhere here. :devil:
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Tue May 21, 2013 2:39 pm

Last night, played my favorite Vivaldi 4 Seasons - the Japanese RCA Direct Cutting 45RPM 2-LP set. Before I usually played only the Spring and Winter tracks, but last night, I was enjoying each note and each stroke of the violins that I listened to all the 4 sides non-stop. Mesmerized. 8)

And I forgot to mention that on day 1, when Morita was in the house, we played a promo copy of Brothers Four Beatles Songbook and after a few cuts and ending in the side 2 cut 1 'IF I FELL', the sound was so good that Morita TOOK HOME the LP. :lol: I was tempted to tell him: 'O! Bayad na ako ha!' :D But I did make a full disclosure to him, that HIS promo copy is a little more inferior than my O.W.N. promo copy, which I intentionally did not play for him. :D

And I have to point out that the system synergy involved here is very important. When I got a new power amp a couple of years ago, things started to change. Synergy was not what it used to be or what I got used to. The amp had virtually no colorations of its own hence the flavor tilted to the whitish side. The power and slam was added a bit, but the flavor became a bit 'bland'. This phono stage has put back something to my liking, and it's all in a subjective sense. Whereas there was a lack of 'tingle' in my sound before, now it's starting to come back. :)
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby dimfer » Wed May 22, 2013 12:25 pm

congrats again Phil.. sounds like this EA Minimax is a real winner!
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 22, 2013 2:08 pm

dimfer wrote:congrats again Phil.. sounds like this EA Minimax is a real winner!


Thanks Ding. As far as my present system configuration is concerned, the 'max fits it to the T. I took a chance at it without hearing it first. Sometimes the joy of such a 'risk' is the extra joy when it turns out well. It's a relatively unknown brand compared to ARC, CJ, Jadis, etc. but my gut told me that something based on the famed Marantz 7 shouldn't be so bad. And I never even read any review of it prior. And my insurance basket is knowing that I can still roll those 2 second stage tubes with the Mullards, Teles, etc. At this point of my audio life, I learned some more from this experience, that a small and insignificant looking phono stage can have a bigger impact or improvement over a bigger and heavier power amp. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL. :)
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby Superman » Wed May 22, 2013 5:47 pm

Congratulations, Sir! Another one of those recommended gears by no less than Pat Morita! :D
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 22, 2013 6:28 pm

Superman wrote:Congratulations, Sir! Another one of those recommended gears by no less than Pat Morita! :D


Thanks Jen. :) I hope to share more insights on its performance as time goes on. The Minimax is killing me softly with each song. :lol:
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby dimfer » Wed May 22, 2013 8:47 pm

jadis wrote:
dimfer wrote:congrats again Phil.. sounds like this EA Minimax is a real winner!


Thanks Ding. As far as my present system configuration is concerned, the 'max fits it to the T. I took a chance at it without hearing it first. Sometimes the joy of such a 'risk' is the extra joy when it turns out well. It's a relatively unknown brand compared to ARC, CJ, Jadis, etc. but my gut told me that something based on the famed Marantz 7 shouldn't be so bad. And I never even read any review of it prior. And my insurance basket is knowing that I can still roll those 2 second stage tubes with the Mullards, Teles, etc. At this point of my audio life, I learned some more from this experience, that a small and insignificant looking phono stage can have a bigger impact or improvement over a bigger and heavier power amp. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL. :)


I admire your wisdom when it comes to buying your audio gears. For someone with a deep pocket and who is constantly exposed to discussions about the creme de la creme (WBF) that often comes with huge price tags, you managed to stay in the reasonably priced bracket, but was able to put up such a high performance system.
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby jadis » Wed May 22, 2013 9:34 pm

dimfer wrote:
jadis wrote:
dimfer wrote:congrats again Phil.. sounds like this EA Minimax is a real winner!


Thanks Ding. As far as my present system configuration is concerned, the 'max fits it to the T. I took a chance at it without hearing it first. Sometimes the joy of such a 'risk' is the extra joy when it turns out well. It's a relatively unknown brand compared to ARC, CJ, Jadis, etc. but my gut told me that something based on the famed Marantz 7 shouldn't be so bad. And I never even read any review of it prior. And my insurance basket is knowing that I can still roll those 2 second stage tubes with the Mullards, Teles, etc. At this point of my audio life, I learned some more from this experience, that a small and insignificant looking phono stage can have a bigger impact or improvement over a bigger and heavier power amp. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL. :)


I admire your wisdom when it comes to buying your audio gears. For someone with a deep pocket and who is constantly exposed to discussions about the creme de la creme (WBF) that often comes with huge price tags, you managed to stay in the reasonably priced bracket, but was able to put up such a high performance system.


Thanks for the kind words Ding. But I have to humbly make a little correction about the 'deep pocket', I have been trying to make it so but it's not cooperating so far. :lol:

I have to mention that long before when I started this hobby, I was exposed to good value for money products and had stayed with such things until I got 'strayed' into the costlier things. :lol: I thank the fantastically high interest rates of the 80s for that. :lol: But when I downsized my huge B&W 800s and troublesome Jadis 200s, I went back to my 'grassroots' of molding something again in the reasonably priced products, and my tweaking-from-learning was put to work once again. While I'm so grateful for being able to hear SOTA gears, I have adopted a attitude of maximizing performance vis-s-vis a specified budget that I have set for myself. :)
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby TheAnalogSource » Thu May 23, 2013 8:08 am

jadis wrote: I might even get the Business Class ticket being talked about somewhere here. :devil:


business class sa AF1 :devil: :devil:

here is my short impression on the minimax having babysitted one for about half a year philip.

You put an all-tube phono with its lusious mids and an all-ss phono with its detailed bass and crystal clear extended highs...put them in a blender together...and presto you got the minimax....an all rounder phono preamp. Synergy is what this phono does not need....put it in any system and you will hear what you havent heard before. Synergy is about ying and yang...balancing....adding a neutral component in a bloomy system or adding lushy component in a neutral one. the minimax doesnt lean to either side. It is in the middle. you can think of it as ying-yang in a box. In chemistry, we have a term buffering. it is a mixture of acid and its salt and added to a system to deflect variations. The minimax is sort of a buffer....adds the lushness to an otherwise sterile system....while bring out bass and high extensions and details to an otherwise dull one.

As with tube rolling, i believe the upgrade version is best as it is. Changing to a better tube doesnt lead to better result. like disturbing the yingyang.

happy listening with the minimax.....i did :)
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby kabubi » Thu May 23, 2013 8:12 am

TheAnalogSource wrote:here is my short impression on the minimax having babysitted one for about half a year


TAS,

in YOUR opinion, which is better the Minimax or the EAR?

isang tanong, isang sagot.
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby TheAnalogSource » Thu May 23, 2013 8:14 am

kabubi wrote:
TheAnalogSource wrote:here is my short impression on the minimax having babysitted one for about half a year


TAS,

in YOUR opinion, which is better the Minimax or the EAR?

isang tanong, isang sagot.



the minimax is more flexible in any system so i'll go for it. The ear 834p like most all-tube phono might bloom on an all tube system and needs to change tubes for best performance.
Last edited by TheAnalogSource on Thu May 23, 2013 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby TheAnalogSource » Thu May 23, 2013 8:20 am

baguhin ko nga un statement ko....un hindi pang politiko hehe....

the ear will bloom in an all tube system....thus dami sasabi mabagal ang ear....but it's like taking the wrong fix for the wrongly diagnosed sickness.
Last edited by TheAnalogSource on Thu May 23, 2013 8:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Eastern Electric MINIMAX Phono Pre-Amplifier

Postby kabubi » Thu May 23, 2013 8:20 am

great reply, Noly. Dios mabalos :D
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