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EE Minimax Plus DAC vs. Rega DAC

This comparison was done using a Cambridge Audio 840c CDP (as transport) and newest Mac Mini running Pure Music HD files. Cables were Cardas.
The system is my friends: Vandersteen 5a's fed by the ARC DSi integrated amp.

The Rega DAC has at least 300 hours on it now and was using a inexpensive Pangea power cord, which makes it sound a tad brighter than the stock cord. The EE Minimax Plus was 100% stock. The EE Minimax Plus belongs to my friend and has 150 hours on it (aprox).

Out of the Gate:
The Minimax sounded sweeter and a bit more refined (smoother) at the top end, loaded with detail, and yet not fatiguing at all. The Rega sounded flatter, neutral and a bit less engaging to us initially. On the other hand the Rega's midrange and overall image was excellent. The layered effect on classical tracks was better with the Rega and we continue to love it's overall coherent ability to create a soundstage across a wide soundfield. The Minimax Plus still exhibited a bit of thickness, (Easy to spot on male vocals on SE of Tumbleweed Connection or Lyle Lovett' I love Everybody), but it was not on the same distracting level as with the original Minimax. Still, this chesty quality was present much of time and it took some getting used to.

Extended Listening
Using the 840c: The Rega is dryer, neutral. At times we felt it was more accurate, but not always more fun. It sounds very analogue. The Minimax also sounded like analogue and added a sweetness to some old tracks when the Rega just let them all hang out. Fed with older recordings we preferred the Minimax much of the time. A perfect example was Bob Dylan CD's, which sounded a little harsh with the Rega. But when we put better recordings it was a closer race. My friend felt the Rega was creating a sense of realism missing from the Minimax Plus. His exact words: "The Rega makes a live recording sound live while the Minimax sweetens it out and it's just not the same." On the other hand I dug what the Minimax was doing with the highest frequencies. It seemed to have them under control, while the Rega just let them shine through too brightly. If the Minimax was forcing some sonic character at the high end I like it a lot anyway. Both DACs were SO CLOSE that we usually found ourselves having to check which one was on at times. The differences were very subtle overall.

Using the Mac Mini and some HD tracks was a whole new battle. The Mini is well configured with memory and most of the stuff in the BG turned off. Software is Pure Music. The Rega DAC was fed with the Musical Fidelity V-Link convertor since it's USB is limited to 16 bit files. This is a inexpensive convertor and it's far from the top pick. We also used it on the Minimax plus.
After listening with the CDP the Mac sounded as if it had a slight edge to the highest frequencies. At times we weren't sure, but we agreed it wasn't a negative, just different. The Mac produced a dead-quiet blackness between notes that made things sound a bit dark until we were used to it. The Rega and Minimax Plus seemed even more evenly matched as the pairing made the Minimax sound leaner in the midbass, which was something we were liking more and more about the Rega. The Rega still retained an edge in resolving the venue in live recordings, but the Minimax evened things up with it's superb sweet high end yet again. Listening to Eva Cassidy's live album we were both liking the Rega's presentation better. 20 minutes later we were listening to Anne Sophie Mutter (HD) and her playing was sweet beyond words with the Minimax besting the Rega on that recording. Oddly we preferred the Minimax with the tube switched out as we did with the first unit. Bass was better on the Minimax without the tube for us. Male vocals could sound "chesty" even congested on the Minimax Plus with the tube, less so in SS mode. The owner of the unit agreed that his previous audition of the unit agreed with what I was hearing, but said unit had been tube-rolled with some improvement. The Rega's bass was tight and a bit deeper than the Minimax, but we really thought the quality of bass was pretty much the same.

Image and Soundstage
The Rega seems to pursue this goal more than the other DACs we've heard. It really makes the speakers vanish (on SOME recordings). The Minimax tries to match this ability, but comes in short. For studio stuff it didn't matter a lot of the time. On live recordings the Rega had the edge.

Conclusion
It's hardly a fun answer, but....Pick one! I had a slight preference for the Minimax plus and my friend liked the Rega better. Maybe we were just being polite as it was a very even match-up. He likes a lot of live jazz and that's where we agreed the Rega was king. But I listen to some older rock with less than ideal recording efforts and the Minimax did something beautiful to those recordings. It also handled strings in a way that could make a grown man cry. The Rega created a "room" of music...it's ability to expose distances between instruments with precision was very impressive. The Minimax seemed to pursue musicality above accuracy. Perhaps the best way to put it is that the Minimax Plus was more forgiving in his system. If you're waiting for me to declare a winner....don't hold your breath! For my Merlin speakers I think the Rega was the right choice. The TSM's are speakers that expose midrange like few others and the Rega compliments that very well. Another item some folks would want to consider is that the Minimax Plus can be tried with other tubes, but I find the Rega's 5 filter settings of more value.
As I always say, be very suspicious of anyone claiming that the Rega, Minimax or W4S or even Dacmagic are far better than others in their ranges. The absolute truth is that these units are excellent and are not seriously dominated by DACs we've heard costing much more. If you hear these DACs in the same system back-to-back and have the ability to hear small nuances you'll soon learn that they all have strengths and weaknesses, but generally sound quite close. The DAC I liked the least (W4S 2) was still excellent and would be fine in my system. Of course that's not what we read shootouts for. We want a winner, but it's silly to think that everyone would hear what I heard in a different room with different gear. For what little it's worth I prefer the cosmetics of the Minimax Plus over the Rega. It has more of a high end look. As I plan to add the Rega Apollo R CPD/Transport, the Rega stack may even that score a bit. Owners of either unit may take exception to my comments, but I think we all know that either unit can be tweaked by settings, tubes, power cords and so on. The point here was to compare the units initial character. Bottom line: You cannot go wrong with either.

Cheers,

Rob
robbob
jult52
153 posts
 
I just had an opportunity to hear the Minimax Dac Plus on a very good system and I wanted to concur with Rob's opinion that the solid-state output stage was clearly superior to the tube stage. This was not splitting hairs - it was noticeable within a couple of seconds of listening. The ss had more timbral variety, more focus and better bass than the tube output. Note that the tube output was unmodded with original tube. I also wish EE would just concentrate on what they do best.

Very informative review. Thanks.
robbob OP
273 posts
 
The Mimimax Plus is a SS component with a tube that can be employed. As with the original Minimax we found the SS mode superior, though by the slimmest of margins. Swapping the tubes could change that, but the main point is that there was nothing "tube-like" about the Mimimax Plus. It sounded like a very good DAC in either mode. As my friend found out, the Rega's filter choices allow for plenty of subtle changes. The Rega's midrange sounded more like what we'd expect from a tube and the Mimimax Plus had more sweetness in the extended frequencies with the tube switched out. The Centrance midrange was more tube-like than either of them, transparent, lush and layered.

If there is one thing I would change in the Mimimax it would be the removal of the tube. Focus fully on a single design choice and I believe the Minimax could be better than the Rega. As it stands I find them about the same overall. If someone told me they had wild differences I'd call the guys in the white suits! And I think a lot of people would be surprised how wonderful the DacMagic sounds against these units, with strengths of its own.

In the end I don't buy a component so that I can alter it. If I choose it, it's because it sounded "right" from the start and had synergy with my system. Most people buy a DAC without hearing it in their own system against other units. It's hard to pull off. My friend owns several DACs and Rich at Signature Sound loaned me a Rega DAC for a week so I could carefully compare. My word is far from final. Synergy with your system could mean (and probably would) different impressions.

Once again I'd like to point out that these units sounded MOSTLY the same. Differences were very subtle and you really have to stop listening to the music to keep track of it all. I would worry more about choosing any other component before being concerned with DAC choice. As I'm slowly learning that a Mac Mini with any of these DACs sounds superior to expensive CD players....it's a long road ahead!

Rob
robbob OP
273 posts
 
I think EE believes they do tubes best. But in the case of their DAC, the SS mode is incredibly good. Some folks are removing the tube and reporting that the unit is even better that way-not sure why. My friend is going to try some different tubes and then in SS without.

Rob
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
My deepest gratitude to "some folks" as I went down this evening as per your comment, Rob, and removed the tube in the Minimax DAC Plus. Those people are absolutely correct; the resultant improvement is stunning. I rolled one tube, the Siemens Silver Plate and it had nowhere near as powerful a result as removal of the entire tube.

My assessment is the effect of this tweak is to make the DAC Plus perform on a power basis similar to the adjustment I did to the original but did not speak of publicly - after commenting ad nauseum about Opamp rolling the unit in the end removal of one set of Opamps was how I ran it. I took out the SS Opamp set, rendering SS output lame, but this shunted all the power supply to the tube output with far better results.

Now, recognizing that the removal of the tube of the Minimax DAC Plus is effectively accomplishing the same thing, only without the marginal hassle of Opamp removal, my guess is the power supplies are operating in tandem to elevate the performance of the SS output. If that is not the explanation I really want to know why there is a radical improvement in sound quality across the board.

This is THE most unorthodox and unexpected, as well as effective, tweak I can recall doing. It's free, easy, and VERY powerful in effect. In a word it's the perfect tweak!

So, THANK YOU to the bright one(s) who thought of it. I'm just ticked off I didn't think of it so I could write a special article about it! :)

I do not wish to be hyperbolic in my description of what this tube removal tweak does (BTW, THIS MAY VOID THE WARRANTY; I KNOW THAT BILL O'CONNELL AT MORNINGSTAR AUDIO, THE DISTRIBUTOR IN N. AMERICA IS CONCERNED THAT PEOPLE TAKE RESPONSIBIITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS/TWEAKS! Morningstar is NOT responsible if YOU screw up your DAC. I'm not responsible either, because this is "do at your own risk" tweak!) but in a few words it mulitplies the characteristics I speak about in my review of this unit at Dagogo.com.

I am not one given to mamby-pamby tweaks. I find most of them not efficatious. However, this one IS VERY efficacious! What is most striking is the tremendously smooth, silky and voluptuously full character of the music. One gets a huge dose of appreciation of two things:
1. The phenomenal potential of 32 bit processing
2. How much "digititis" still exists even in good DACs

Gentlemen and Ladies, once again the ceiling has been shattered in terms of performance. I admonish audiophiles to never set limits on how much improvement can be obtained (and thus listening pleasure and involvement in and appreciation of the music) in an audio system.

My rig is well past the place where I initially thought it could go. I have blown past performance levels many times over. This is some thick icing on the cake.

Now, a reviewer's critical comment about this particular tweak: I can see many audiophiles reacting negatively to it due to feeling that it's "information overload." Some listeners seem to actually prefer less detail/definition as long as tonality is correct. When I first switched over to the "tubeless" DAC Plus I was struck by the immense amount of intensity in the upper-mid/treble region. I went through a lot of my quick test pieces and found that on the whole the change is far more beneficial than detrimental. The classic parameters of excellent sound are here in dump-truck-fulls (as opposed to merely bucketfulls).

One thing which struck me is the effect on the 3-D placement of performers. In SO many rigs the center image is really tough to have on an even plane with the L/R. The phantom image is tremendously difficult to get to be similar intensity, thus making the soundstage seem consistently deep across from L-C-R. This tweak nails it! It's simply gorgeous in terms of spatial relations in the soundstage.

And treble - wow, how delicate. Really, we're nearly talking a paradigm shift in experience with such a revelatory clarity happening across the board with the tubeless unit. Mind you, I've only used the DAC Plus this evening with one set of amps and transport etc. But I have no problem urging owners try (do this at your OWN RISK!) remove the tube and run SS output. Perhaps you will adore it, perhaps you will hate it, but either way if you can't hear the difference then go get some fun looking vintage gear because you've got major hearing problems!

This commentary was about using the DAC Plus with Redbook and dig coax to the DAC. I haven't used USB with it yet as I'm looking at new options for server/streaming music.

Rob, if ou think the SS output of the DAC Plus is good, just wait until you hear it without the tube. Where did you see discussion taking place about tube removal?
robbob OP
273 posts
 


Try this link at Audiocircle (If the link is allowed)

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=98695.0

That's one of several I remembered reading, with at least a couple of people pulling the tube entirely and running in SS. Does this void the warranty? Does the removal of the tube tax the design in some way?

In any case it seems there are plenty of people enjoying the SS mode of this unit and many are messing with the tubes. Let me know if you get to hear the Rega DAC as I'd be interested in your opinion.

Rob
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