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EE Minimax phono pre--a day's enjoyment

I went to see a friend of mine from Audio Circles forum this morning to borrow his Eastern Electric Minimax phono preamp. He has "honey dos" all weekend, so no tunes for him that require his assistance. As you can see from my registered system, I'm a Rega P25/Dynavector 20XH/Black Cube SE w/ PWX vinyl guy. The cube is passable on MC, but supposed to be very good for MM/HOMC. At $1500, the EE Minimax is about twice as expensive as the Cube SE. I have been unhappy with recent new vinyl purchases such as Who's Next and Mirrorball. Although decent, the Who's next did not sound as great a reissue as Fremer said. Mirrorball was still outclassed by the concert DVD on my HT system in terms of emotion, concert hall ambvience, and just sound. The EE minimax changed all that. I'm going out on a limb, but IMHO the Minimax is twice as good as the Cube. In our hobby, we often pay three times the price for 20% improvement if that. Not here. It blows away and wipes the floor with the updated Cube with its PWX powersupply. Lots more air around instruments, great big 3D soundstage with pinpoint focus,Very fast transients and great dynamics, in short, every thing I wanted in my vinyl rig, but didn't have. I was ready to upgrade to a P9, but I no longer have the urge. The funny thing is, I didn't roll a single tube. Dead stock.
I have been playing vinyl nonstop since 9 this morning. Old 60s and 70s rock that I thought sucked due to recording came to life. For me, it was hard to believe that a phono pre could make such a difference.


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Topic - EE Minimax phono pre--a day's enjoyment - claud 15:49:16 03/19/05 (0)


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