I still own a pair of Mini-Grands and my position is somewhat between
Binaural and Info. The stage section is fantastic; the midrange
is one of the best I have ever heard. The original workmanship
was shoddy, and my dealer had to replace all the velcro inside
the stage sections. The subs made great stands, bringing the height
of the stages to more where it should be, and you do have to
be careful with the tilt because of the famed Venetian Blind
effect. At times on some records the subs would resonate, and
I had to tighten all the screws up in the drivers. My DAX power
supply failed and I have yet to find a replacement because of the
wierd +/- 15 volts (instead of 12V), so I replaced it with a
Dahlquist electronic crossover. Except for the 1 note resonance the
dual 8" subs did do a good job of keeping up with the Stages.
I would hesitate putting a larger sub driver on the Stages as
my Genesis 928 servo controlled sub would not keep up with the
Stage section. With all of this being said, the Stages produce
plenty of bass in most rooms and can be made to run full range
with no compromise is sound. They do take lots of current, I am
running Krell MD-300A monoblocks on the Stage sections and they
soak up the current. They need plenty of room (3 -4 feet to side
and back wall from the Stage section), and tilt is very critical.
They throw and immense sound stage (hence the name), and depending
on your feeding electronics and the toe-in the soundstage may be in front
or behind the speakers. In my initial setup the drummer's cymbals
on a Rare Earth live LP were less than a foot from my face!
Things to look for: Run a frequency sweep on the speakers to
see if they rattle or resonate. Inspect the tweeter ribbon
to see if it has ever been stuck to the front or rear mesh. It
will be wrinkled in that area and maybe still stuck. This
will indicate the speakers may have been over-driven. Also
check the DAX wall wart transformer for damage/overheating.
This is what cratered on my system.
And most of the reviews I saw in Stereophile were on the Stage.
They rated the mini-Grand in recommended components, but the
reviews were on the stages.
Binaural and Info. The stage section is fantastic; the midrange
is one of the best I have ever heard. The original workmanship
was shoddy, and my dealer had to replace all the velcro inside
the stage sections. The subs made great stands, bringing the height
of the stages to more where it should be, and you do have to
be careful with the tilt because of the famed Venetian Blind
effect. At times on some records the subs would resonate, and
I had to tighten all the screws up in the drivers. My DAX power
supply failed and I have yet to find a replacement because of the
wierd +/- 15 volts (instead of 12V), so I replaced it with a
Dahlquist electronic crossover. Except for the 1 note resonance the
dual 8" subs did do a good job of keeping up with the Stages.
I would hesitate putting a larger sub driver on the Stages as
my Genesis 928 servo controlled sub would not keep up with the
Stage section. With all of this being said, the Stages produce
plenty of bass in most rooms and can be made to run full range
with no compromise is sound. They do take lots of current, I am
running Krell MD-300A monoblocks on the Stage sections and they
soak up the current. They need plenty of room (3 -4 feet to side
and back wall from the Stage section), and tilt is very critical.
They throw and immense sound stage (hence the name), and depending
on your feeding electronics and the toe-in the soundstage may be in front
or behind the speakers. In my initial setup the drummer's cymbals
on a Rare Earth live LP were less than a foot from my face!
Things to look for: Run a frequency sweep on the speakers to
see if they rattle or resonate. Inspect the tweeter ribbon
to see if it has ever been stuck to the front or rear mesh. It
will be wrinkled in that area and maybe still stuck. This
will indicate the speakers may have been over-driven. Also
check the DAX wall wart transformer for damage/overheating.
This is what cratered on my system.
And most of the reviews I saw in Stereophile were on the Stage.
They rated the mini-Grand in recommended components, but the
reviews were on the stages.