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Any Good
Fine if you want a small, lightweight sound.
Good when new, but hardly any have survived intact due to rubber-rot.
Point taken :D
Very good bass from small cabinet, if same as my ones (which may be early ones), KEF B110 surrounds fit pretty well. Salvaged surrounds from two burnt out B110's and Mimimax are fine now.
The original surrounds were foam and had completely rotted out. The rubber ones I fitted were taken from KEF B110 that had burnt voice coils.
The gunge around the tweeter cone was there from new, damping I think.
The bass unit cones have something on them (probably adhesive) near the surrounds, that is not my careless work, it was original!
The speakers work perfectly, very good really, surprising bass for such a tiny cabinet and treble is not too bad even from that paper cone tweeter.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8482/8...b15d2086_b.jpg
Videoton Minimax 2_D132E by A60man, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/8...c7d75658_b.jpg
Videoton Minimax 2 D 132E 2__D by A60man, on Flickr
^^^ They are certainly the Mk1 version, the MK2 had a plastic dome tweeter
Quote:
Originally Posted by Effem
Very strange, because label on the back says Minimax 2. I will take a photo
Here is a pic, sorry about quality.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7122/8...0a672355_b.jpg
DSCF8400 (Large) by A60man, on Flickr
I've owned several pairs of Minimax speakers, quite impressive for their size, a later equivalent to the Goodmans Maxim which I've also owned. Neither really qualify as Hi-Fi these days, fun though.
Looking at pics on the internet, there are some early Minimax with massive Alnico magnet bass units, these might be Mk1, my one with Ceramic magnet bass units, Mk2, and the ones with dome tweeters Mk3
Uncouth, raw but EXTREMELY engaging if shelf or desktop mounted. They'll magnify any harshness or lean-ness in the gear upstream, 'cos the cone tweeter doesn't hold back ;), but like many old baby novelty speakers like the Keesonic Kub and old Goodman's Maxim, they can punch well beyond their weight :)
I have a pair of Minimax 2 here on my PC, running from a Caiman DAC and Mini-T amp. Absolutely superb for near-field listening and way better than any computer speakers. They have the dome tweeter.
Very engaging, as Dave says, and surprisingly able to give a realistic rendition of the music.
Not that it can be seen very well from my picture, the bass/ mid unit has a nice cast chassis.
Cabinet has a large front to back measurement, might help reduce midrange colouration, also increases cabinet volume, making for better bass.
There seem to be a lot of changes to the Minimax. Dome/ cone tweeters have already been mentioned. My model has Din sockets on the back, some I've seen have simple binding posts.
The pair I owned in the early 80's were Minimax 2's, had cone tweeters and screw terminals. Bass was impressive from such a small enclosure. They were excellent speakers and as I have mentioned elsewhere I regret letting them go. I'm not surprised they sound good on the end of a Mini-T Martin. I was driving them with a Sony TA73 amp which was rated at 15wpc. The combo could do loud and clean with little effort...
And one reason why I often think that ProAc nicked the M'max's dimensions for the original Tablette. My old SuperTabs reminded me of the Minimax - if not sonically, then definitely in terms of dimensions.Quote:
Originally Posted by spendorman
like many old baby novelty speakers like the Keesonic Kub they can punch well beyond their weight :)[/QUOTE]
I have a pair of Kubs comming this week
:D:cool:
Hope you like 'em :)
I did all the HiFi Answers mods on my pair in my student days,replacing the cone treble unit with R Allen DT20 treble domes and then adding building the subwoofer with two RA 8HP bass units.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DSJR
Thanks Dave sure i will.
In the late '70s I got a pair of the originals to replace the Castle Richmonds I had in my bedroom, which I thought were too big for the size of the room. I was disappointed I have to say and ended up having to get another pair of Richmonds. But that's the way things generally go for me. Just born unlucky.
This might explain why there are odd ones about, 'cos we are talking thirty six plus years ago now and many of these will have had multiple owners by now..Quote:
Originally Posted by smithy
Mine are one owner: me! I bought them back in 1984 when I was posted in Germany for six months. The Videotones, a couple of small MOSFET amp modules and a Marantz portable cassette player formed my away-system and did me very well. I used a pair of breeze blocks each side as speaker stands.
Funny that, I just found the HFA with the sub-woofer article on top of a cupboard yesterday whilst I was trying to find an old puppy-traing book last seen 10 years ago. Those two articles were the only time I ever got my name in print! It seems we also recommended building stands from dexion and hanging the speakers from bits of string. In retrospect, that may not have been the best way to deal with them....Quote:
Originally Posted by smithy
The RA8 tweeter was a brilliant mod though. Dropped straight in and tidied up the top end a treat! Anyone got a copy of that article?