My preamp search...

[richidoo]

Glad to hear you'll be there Bill, along with all the new stuff. Congrats to Alex and family. Big changes ahead!

Yep, Jim took good care of me. So good, I couldn't possibly say no! So I'm glad I liked it too...   I like the 12AU7s he sent, Telefunken as gain and BugleBoy as buffer. Fat and sexy as all hell but still clean enough to hear everything. Makes any female singers sound loose and horny, even uptight opera singers! ... I can only take so much... hehe     With the new RCAs almost broken in now it is just mind blowing how enabling of the music it is. Tonight I listened to all "quiet stuff." Quiet passages of symphony music. Hours of subtle delicate beautiful powerful music. It is a very special audio product, allowing a tube lover to really have at it. Congrats on a fine product Bill, and Alex!

But, as with all major upgrades, something else in the system takes a big hit. The squeezebox just sounds pretty weak now, so looking forward to finally hearing the Bolder mod after everything I have heard.
See you there!
Rich

[Bill O'Connell]

You guys are making me thirsty

 Look forward to meeting everyone and putting a face to the names.
I always return the buy so who's ready for a couple of cold ones?

 You will love the Bolder modifications to the SB or his power supply is very special also. It's the best my digital has ever sounded.
I'm a vinyl guy at heart but my table is seeing less and less time.I love the convenience besides the sound ,as I might just be getting a little lazier in my extended youth. Use to spin vinyl on my Fridays until about 3 am, now I find I only make it till about 1:30am unless I take a nap before hand then I could be good till 4 or 5 am. The wife came down about 2 months ago at 4:30 am and just shook her head and asked if I would please lower the volume. After 32 years of marriage she is finally starting to realize that I just love to listen and prefer it over sleep.

My younger brothers were laughing at me asking if I remembered making them some cassette tapes of music that I loved at the time. They were commenting on how much I've grown.

 I know what I love, wife, music, friends, & family.

 Bill

 

[mdconnelly]

I know what I love, wife, music, friends, & family.

Bill, I do love your priorities!   Well said.   (now, where does the nervosa side of this hobby fall?)

[Bill O'Connell]

I looked up nervosa in the dictionary and couldn't find a definition.

 Carl , Please explain?

if it pertains to craziness in the audio arts, I definitely fit this bill. Does anybody remember the old Norelco(maybe Schick) electric razor ad? He loved the shaver so much he bought the company. I loved the music coming out of my original MiniMax so much, Alex and I started both our company's. If that ain't crazy, what is?
 Thank you for reminding me, in a couple of days we will be celebrating our 5th or is it our 6th anniversary in business. Time to run some anniversary specials 

 Later guys,

[Carlman]

I looked up nervosa in the dictionary and couldn't find a definition.

 Carl , Please explain?

if it pertains to craziness in the audio arts, I definitely fit this bill.

You got it... just crazy about audio... or the pursuit of the unobtainable... We used to have this nice intro/definition... 

The drummer from the Butthole Surfers was Teresa Nervosa... which kind of fits in a weird way too.

However, I think this Stereophile article describes the situation fairly well...
http://stereophile.com/thinkpieces/300audiophilia/

Have fun!

-Carl

[mdconnelly]

However, I think this Stereophile article describes the situation fairly well...
http://stereophile.com/thinkpieces/300audiophilia/

Great reference Carl!   I'm not sure I ever saw that before but it certainly fits.   

Nervosa is generally used as a qualifying term trailing a particular medical condition indicating that it is a pyschological disorder (e.g. anorexia nervosa).   In the case of AN, the stereophile term 'Audiophilia Nervosa' seems a perfect fit - certainly 'Nervosa' is a valid characteristic of many of us- one we often wear with great pride 

[mca]

Is there any way to fit that Minimax pre with a remote volume control?

[jrebman]

Mike,

Probably not internal to the unit -- it is very compact and tight and my guess is that there isn't a whole lot of extra room in there.

Maybe Mike Galusha will chime in here because, if I recall, he's been working on some remote volume controls, which from the description, sound like they may be very compact.  Another alternative would be to set the Minimax to a desiered maximum level and have a remote attenuator hung off the outputs between the pre and amps.

Welborne makes such a device -- the Zephyr -- but I have no idea what the sound quality is like.  Seems like this kind of thing could be really nice to have for CD players too.

Someday down the road I may get Wayne to build me a Burson with remote volume (but without all the switching, etc. that his control center has, so I can set the SB to max volume and control it remotely and have the advantage of the burson.  He's already told me he can do this -- all it takes is money.

HTH,

Jim

[richidoo]

Mike, this thing is TINY! You can't tell from the Morningstar pictures, but it is surprising how small it is. You can easily pick it up and carry it around in one hand. It's smaller than two CD cases end to end. I don't believe you could fit one more thing in there. I asked Bill about adding HT bypass so I could switch sources to my patio speakers without burning tubes, but he said it was very tight and would require some surgery that I might not like the final result. That's when I realized leave it the way it is, let it be. The patio speakers never sounded better!   

It is easy to hang a remote controlled placette, TwistedPear something like that after the preamp, and then turn the preamp all the way up to minimize the contribution of its own pot. Ideally the volume control would come before the output stage though, to minimize output impedance, ala Jim's idea with the Burson.

What is "HTH"   

[jrebman]

HTH?  Uh, dunno, chlorine powder for swimming pools

Actually, "Hope This Helps".

HTH,

Jim

[dangerbird]

Rather than start a new thread,I thought that I wouls post here. I ended up with this pre,and while it's very good with the Tutay mods and all,I wanted to see how well it responds to tube rolling. After doing quite a bit of reading/research,I have just replaced the rectifier with a Genalex,,after warmup,, the soundstage has changed--WOW-- MUCH MORE DEPTH AND WIDTH-- detail seems to have improved,and it's just damn pleasant to listen to,,not fatiquing at all. Next up is the "middle tube",,a NOS Tungsram E80cc,,, then after that I have a Siemens Silverplate thats going in,,this thing is very responsive to tubes and just keeps getting better an better,,I don't know if I can stand it,,I have not had this much fun rolling tubes EVER,,especially with the discernable difference. Thanks for allowing me to share. 

[bacobits]

When I had mine I was running a RCA black plate 12bh7 in the middle and a Brimar 13D5 on the right, Tungsol 6X4. Fantastic! To my taste of course. Good little pre.

Den

[richidoo]

Glad to know the old girl is still getting lots of love. Jim's family and mine love that preamp. In my house it is known as "The Big Silver Knob" that controls all the pretty tubes.

[mgalusha]

A friend sent me a minimax to tinker with and I'm enjoying it very much. I knew it was small but I didn't realize how small until i pulled it out of the box. Little guy.

In answer to the question what did I tinker with, I swapped in some Mundorf caps for the output coupling caps and also some Mundorf film caps as bypass for the power supply 'lytics. I am also experimenting with changing the operating point of the gain tube as IMO it should idle a little higher.

[dangerbird]

 Mundorf,, Hmmmmm,, I'm a habitual tinkerer