I wrote about it before and I was/am afraid this effect too. I discovered it a few years back when suddenly my bass picked some odd harmonics. After a few days I realized that the harmonics came from an acoustic guitar that was sitting in my listening room at that time.

I have to note that since the MiniMe went up the Macondo went down (Macondo cannot run without Milq amps). So, sine I put the Macondo LF section in I was not too critical to impact it has too critical observing the Macondo’s bass. I was censers that main me do not screw up Macondo’s imagine but I do not look into bass yet. Thanks for reminding and the attention – I will look into it.

There is another “reason why I do not care too much about the Macondo’s sound now, until the new DH Milq’s is finished. It is “deeper” reason but you will understand it. With new Macondo’s MF channel that will be outputting more “transiential” sound the center of Macondo’s output in vertical plane will be shitting a bit lower. This is one of my objectives as the “vertical center” is too much offset now by my Injection Channel. This will lead to me to drive the Injection Channel differently and I would need to review how the Injection Channel’s bass in new configuration will be taking with my Macondo’s bass. So, it will be some revision in the end and whan I will be there THEN I will be looking at the constitution of the Mini bass.

I have to note that it would be no difficult to do – juts plug the MiniMe’s ports and to see how the sound will be changed.  BTW, it will be funny if I learn that I like the Macondo’s bass better with the “help” of the MiniMe’s ports. The 95Hz is VERY special region for Macondo as the Macondo’s upperbass horn and the Macondo’s bass sections both are dying in there….

Romy the Cat wrote:

BTW, it will be funny if I learn that I like the Macondo’s bass better with the “help” of the MiniMe’s ports. The 95Hz is VERY special region for Macondo as the Macondo’s upperbass horn and the Macondo’s bass sections both are dying in there…. The Cat

Lbjefferies7 wrote:

I will be laughing my ass off when I visit the GoodSoundClub website and read about a certain Cat who was finally motivated into tuning the ports on the Mini's specifically to "adjust" Macondo's sound!  I am reminded of Buckminster Fuller's chosen nickname "trimtab"...the tiny rudder on the rudder of the Queen Mary, for instance.  The trimtab creates a low presure that swings the huge rudder that steers the entire ship.  Could Mini's port be Macondo's trimtab?  I love the analogy even if it is BS. With all of the issues with intigrating an 8 foot array of 6 (and then 7) channels, it is no wonder that the many audiophiles indulge in delusions and confuse them with solutions...assuming they have the awareness (and the jump to 'understanding' is quite a journey from that point as well).  I can easily visualize (auralize?) how a midbass horn could solve some problems while creating plenty of their own.

Anyhow, the very major tool in the fine-tuning of my upperbass and bass channel is… the high-pass filter on my Injection Channel. It is completely not known and very much not logically quantifiable but this high-pass filter is absolutely wonderful toll in context of Macondo that allow doing a LOT. I have seen people online were bitching about my Injection Channel but I know those people and I know that that are idiots. In reality any single person who visited me if they asked me to demonstrate the benefits of the Injection Channel were immediately and very convincingly sold. The bottom of the Injection Channel is VERY tricky subject; it moderates the “barrel effect” of my upperbass. It is like taking into a large barrel and be able to modify how much the barrel is filled. So, I presume that since the use of my Injection Channel will be most likely modified after the DHT MF channel will be in full-time use and since the MiniMe’s bass is installed and will remand where it is, I think that my upcoming fine re-tuning of Injection Channel high-pass will already include the noise that  MiniMe’s bass section would introduce.

Romy the Cat wrote:

.... I was/am afraid this effect too. I discovered it a few years back when suddenly my bass picked some odd harmonics. After a few days I realized that the harmonics came from an acoustic guitar that was sitting in my listening room at that time.

Lbjefferies7 wrote:

Well, the only thing I can think of is to seal them and keep 'em that way.

Yes, is exactly what I did - I stocked socks into the ports, plaguing then up. That did ruin a lot the sound of the MiniMe. What I think is following: how about tine the posts of MiniMe in a way that it will not affect the Macondo but still give “some” extension to MiniMe. I less concern at this point about the quality of MiniMe bass.

Paul S wrote:

A while back I suggested (easy for me...!) using monitors that you could also use as the injection channels (or vice-versa)

Good idea but absolutely not implementable as MiniMe and Injection Channels are driver from two very different amps with totally different volume levels.

The MiniMe, as much as the rest of my playback have lost the “novelty”. I do not do or planning to do anything with audio. I have found the way to calm down my Focal tweeters and it… will die this way. For what MiniMe meant to be it does very good.

The only thing that I might change with MiniMe might be a power amp that I drive it with. I use 70W SS consumer Hitachi amp that I bought for $50. It is very bad, even for MiniMe and I do no mind to get anything better but not too demanding.

Something for let say $300, SS, cool running, 100W, something that can run all time, sound good and preferably soft sounding. I think I need to puck some high-end consumer amps from 70s-80s, probably build around the V-FET transistors, if they are all not burned yet.

I do not look the level of Lamm M1.1 performance but I look something better then the crap that I use now.

Hi Romy,

If you are willing to stretch your budget and DIY check out this site from Australia.

http://www.ska-audio.com/diy/index.html

regards,

Gordon

Thanks, Gordon

I have absolutely no desire to undertake any DIY efforts for MiniMe amp. The amp that I want will be boxed, with bells and whistles, binding posts and matters. There were plenty of top of the line Yamahas, Sonys and Sansuis were made in end of 70s and 80s and some of them were surprisingly good. Take a look at my Sansui SU-1X – a consumer mass-market unit but no “high-end” tuner with “objectives” can beat in term of Sound. At the period they did make some interesting amps, some of them were VERY expensive at that time; some of them had popularity mostly in Japanese market and they were not bad. Back in beginning of the 90s I had one “serious” Yamaha V-FET amp and I remember it was pretty good. Of cause I was much different that time and my demand were much different but it might be interesting to review the subject now with MiniMe.

Well, since I will not experiment with many of them I'm  kind of narrowing down the scope of the amps that I would like to get. In 70s-80s break there was a short period of time when Yamaha and Sony made top of the line amps around V-FET output transistors. The V-FET are very different little bitches as the run a very-very high bias, I think like 20V or 25V that make them very much operate like a triode in A1. They shall sound much different then what ordinary would be expected from transistors. If I get “better” SS amp for MiniMe then I would like to try a full-blown V-FET. They are usually big but still manageable… I do not think that V-FETs are used anymore. Spectral said that this 360 amp use V-FETs but I do not know if it is true.

Thanks, scooter.

I do not know Vince from Watertown. As long he does not work for Goodwins’ from Watertown I might be able to talk with him…. After some consideration I picked today Yamaha B-2 amp. It is V-FET from 1978, it might be interesting.  Post Vince’s site or his shop info I might need to have B-2 serviced or modified.  I think the 140W of B-2 might be good for my MiniMe, I just a bit afraid that it might run to hot…

I went for a better amp for MiniMe because it’s summer, hot and I am listening MiniMe more than Macondo.

But!

As I said before the MiniMe post talks with Macondo (when I turn Macondo on) and it forces me to plug the MiniMe port with a pile of sacks. This is a tedious task… I have to admit that I thought to use the MiniMe with plugged port but it does not breathe right …

So, I wonder: what if I plug the whole foe port with some kind of passive radiator? Then I might still have the LF extension but the open hole will not act as a Helmholtz resonator.

I do not know how to deal with characteristics of passive radiators. If I look at drivers then I would go for something like Morel ECW 536

http://www.morelhifi.com/products/pdf/Woofers/EW/Specs%20sheet%20ECW%20536.pdf

I presume that with no vise coil and gup it would have 3 time mire exertions and even lower resonant frequency.