My preamp search...

[richidoo]

... is finally over. I bought jrebman's Eastern Electric Minimax, and I couldn't be happier with it. I let sound be the overriding feature and gave up some convenience features in the other preamps that I tried. At one point I was fortunate to have 5 pres here to compare. I only had to pay to audition the Van Alstine T8, and I did so because that was the one with the most convincing reputation for great sound, and the most features that I wanted, so I was sure I would keep it. The particular T8 was on sale so the value for features was unbeatable. I also read about Mike's (Dr Connelly) AR SP9, but I knew it wouldn't fit in my wooden case rack with the 19" rack ears and I'm still shy of modded gear. But thanks for the offer to audition it Mike. I was relieved when it sold for you!

Before I decided on the Minimax, I took a chance and put in some of those Black Sable cryoed tubes from Tube Depot, the RCA clear top 12AU7s. They are not cheap, but they really are as good as they say. The combination with Minimax is great. Without calling attention to any changes these RCA tubes just make everything sound better, it's hard to describe. There is a slight boldness to the tone, a little flesh, but nothing that stands out. There is a huge, beautiful tone, but details are still crystal clear, realistic with a natural tone and realistic soundstage size. It is nice to be able to easily change the tube flavor for different moods and music. The minimax reveals the character of the tube, for better or worse, in the case of RCA clear top 12AU7, that's very good. 

The Van Alstine T8 was a very close second place and had all the features I wanted for a great price. A three year warrantee, and built of heavy steel ready for Army duty. The inside looked like a sample being sent to the Gugenheim, absolutely perfect, clean, loose wires arranged and ruler straight. Frank has some truly talented people on staff. I was really disappointed that the T8 didn't work out for me. In the end I had to ignore everything and go with the best sound which was clearly the minimax. T8 had a huge soundstage, very detailed sound, more dynamic than Minimax. It had kind of a "better than real" presentation - the highs and lows were both a little exaggerated and timbre was slightly off in upper midrange. If you weren't a tone nut like me listening to oboes and violins all the time you would never notice the tone thing, I am really very picky about that - I want it to sound realistic. On rock and pop and stuff produced with 'tonal relativism' it sounded great. James, who disliked the Altmann at the previous meet because it sounded boring compared to oversampling players, loved the T8's bigger than life interpretation. Carl said he liked the overall sound and said it cured some kind of high freq annoyance in my system. Shane disliked it, said it worsened the high freq annoyance in my system.
  hahaha  (that's me in the middle.) 

I tried swapping tubes, but the T8 can only use 6N1P, not cousins like 6922/6DJ8 which Frank said will sound bad in the new T8. I tried 3 different brands new and old, and found a preference (not stock Sovteks) but the swapping did not change the overall character of the preamp nor improve the tone. I would love to hear the previous version of T8 with 12AT7 tubes someday. Thanks to Frank Van Alstine for making the transaction easy and for offering 30 day satisfaction guarantee.

It is great to hear the system come together as it has with this preamp. Thanks WEEZ and others, you were so right about the benefit of a good preamp over just SB direct into the amps. I'm glad I was (finally) able to put aside my stubborn ignorance and take a chance based on your trusted recommendation. It will be fun to compare it to Steve's 11A at some point in the future, but the Minimax beat all the others that I tried within my price range.

Thanks to Jim for letting me audition the preamp too, and for the advice on tubes, etc.
Rich

[mdconnelly]

Rich, congrats on the Minimax!    I haven't heard the pre, but I've got the phono pre and I love it.   

[Carlman]

YAY!  Glad you stayed true to what your ears told you rather than getting sucked into the psychology of it.  I think I owned that preamp for almost a year, which is up there for me....   I could've lived with it long term but well... I got caught up in the psychology...

Hope you can sit back and enjoy your choice for a long time.... Now... onto speakers, amps, and cables, oh my!  hahaha 

[WEEZ]

Glad you found the pre that 'did it' for you.

WEEZ

[jrebman]

Rich,

I'm really glad it worked out for you and that it has a good new home.  If I could afford it I would have never sold it, but as with my Signature 70s, it's the price I have to pay for switching to a tube integrated, which just synergizes better with the Adagios.  Thanks again for making the whole process easy and fun.

Rich, congrats on the Minimax!    I haven't heard the pre, but I've got the phono pre and I love it.   

Mike,

That's the next major thing on my wish list.  It seems that there is not enough good that can be said about this piece.  My wife will appreciate it as well as I'm assuming it will look roughly similar to the preamp, which she was very disappointed that I sold as she liked the improvement in sound, but loved it's appearance.  She also loves the sound and looks of the Cayin with it's 9 glowing tubes and stylishly rugged appearance, but the Minimax was "cute".

Bill really does have some great gear -- never mind the relative value factor, it looks good, sounds great, and is built like a tank.

-- Jim

[Carlman]

My thoughs on the Minimax phono pre....
It is one of the biggest no-brainers I've run into in hifi.  I don't think you can find 'better' just different... and since it has tubes, you can tweak the sound if you want.  It's incredible with stock tubes and just gets better with your favorite flavor. 

-C

[Black Sand Cable]

Glad you found something you like! I can honestly say what you ended up with doesn't surprise me as most around here are well aware that I'm a big EE fan.

I love the BBA and I'm currently on the list to demo the new tube mono blocks when they come out. Bill and I have been discussing these amps for probably the last 6 months. I have seen some preliminary specs and designs and if I was a betting man I would bet that these amps when launched will give a few of the mega buck tube amps a serious run.

[richidoo]

Thanks John. You mean the mythical 160W monoblocks I have been hearing whispers about? Any idea when they will land on these shores? A little birdie told me they might be in Denver this year? Any truth to that?

I took some SAS advice today. We hooked up the TT and played some stones. After one side I noticed that the Bellari phono pre is making its usual -40dB hum. I had it's pot cranked up to max, and minimax at normal volume. So I remembered steve's advice to keep the gain in the preamp. I turned down the Bellari, turned up the minimax all the way, then adjusted Bellari to suit, but it stayed down at a very low level. The RCAs did the gain instead of the cheap chinese 12AX7 with all that hum. Wow what a big difference. I could actually enjoy the sound, not just the tunes. Of course the Bellari tube and volume pot are still in the chain, but not as magnified as when carrying all the gain. Thanks steve!

[Blue]

The EE preamp is a fine piece--congrats! I had one for a couple of years and enjoyed it very much. The only reason it left was to make way for a Transcendent Sound SE OTL monoblock rig I built with the Grounded Grid preamp in front. I still have the MiniMax CDP (which is another, IMHO, "world beater" piece of gear.)

I've never had the chance to hear an EE phono stage, but I'd bet they are very nice. If you get a chance to audition a PS Audio GCPH phono stage, I highly recommend it in the same MSRP range. I also have a Bottlehead Seduction with the CS4 upgrade that sounds wonderful.

[Black Sand Cable]

Thanks John. You mean the mythical 160W monoblocks I have been hearing whispers about? Any idea when they will land on these shores? A little birdie told me they might be in Denver this year? Any truth to that?

No myth.....they are coming! Many months ago I had the pleasure of a sneak peek and the last I heard I think the 160w mark has now been surpassed but I'm not positive. I know Bill was gunning for 200w. As for RMAF, news to me but it wouldn't surprise me to see them there.

I will track Bill down and see what he has to say.

[jrebman]

I believe Wayne from Bolder Cables ha already said they will be in his room driving some pair of VMPS speakers -- with all the Bolder SB goodies on the front end.

-- Jim

[steve]

Your welcome Rich. A little tweek here, a little adjustment there sometimes helps.

Glad I could help Rich.

[Bill O'Connell]

 Those 160 watt mono's will be at RMAF in room 1009 so please come visit if you have the chance. Hooked up with Wayne at Bolder and Brian from VMPS  so the v60 will be the speakers used and the latest in modification for the Squeezebox and power supply from Wayne should be some great music to be heard.

These mono's have been in the works now for about 10 months now and have taken twice as long as I thought they would . Alex Yeung the designer and his beautiful wife gave birth to their little daughter about 3 months ago so he has been busy with preparation for their upcoming bundle of joy.

I'm anxiously awaiting for them to arrive myself.

Congrats Rich on the preamp and I know Jim probably gave you an abundance of tubes along with the pre so you should be set for your tube rolling frenzy

Bill

[Carlman]

The Bolder room just keeps looking cooler and cooler... Will you be there, Bill?  Hope so... I would imagine you'd have a lot of free meals, drinks, or whatever you like coming your way with the incredible service you provide.
TTYL,
Carl

[jrebman]

Bill, yup, sent him a couple nice tubes (not all of them though -- saved some for the new amp .  He does have the cream of the lot though.

As Carl said, I'll sure do my part to keep you fed and hydrated .

-- Jim