Yeah I like LP - Into the Wild made a CitiBank commercial oddly enough. She has albums going back a decade and wrote some bigger songs for other artists (Beyonce) but hasn't managed to find commercial success. I played her for some students here in Hong Kong and they love her. So it's strange. She's got a real good voice and a very solid band behind her - fairly original and has Cyndi Lauperesque vocal range and her own style. I wish her the best of luck. She just needs one song to take off. Younger people I meet usually like her a lot. I'm old and I like her.
The Line Magnetic dealer here in HK sells Eastern Electric Mini-Max plus. I didn't do a comparison largely because my main priority was Redbook playback. I was hugely impressed by the 515 which uses the same DAC as the 502CA so I knew that is the sound I wanted.
Having read that SS was preferred to the tube output of the minimax put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm for it. Further, the LM 502CA has balanced outputs and a dual tube outputs. The Minimax Plus does not and it's puzzling that everything I read about everyone prefers the SS output.
In fact that is something of a bother to me about the LM - you are paying for both SS and Tube and chances are if you are looking at these companies what you want is a tube DAC. Otherwise why not just buy any number of SS DACs out there?
Fortunately the LM DAC sounds about a bazillion times better in tube operation - The SS in comparison sounds like a thin caricature of the music. And the SS is actually not that bad - it is better than the KingRex I reviewed but still if they just made it all tube they could probably offer the thing at a few hundred dollars less. I am listening to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_tpbriGpE&feature=kp a trance artist similar to David Guetta and the thing has plenty of bass drive and extension.
So I wonder what the thinking was at Line Magnetic with the SS output. Me I would put it in there so people can be fully and entirely convinced that tubes walk all over SS sound. Kind of a "see - this is why we make tubes" because I can't fathom any other reason to put it in there. You do after all PAY for this SS feature. Still, I am happy because it is nice to demonstrate the difference for people. The tube stage is louder so it is important to compensate for level (Munson effect and all).
Easter Electric does the same but everyone I read likes the SS output better - oops. Having said that I looked inside the Eastern Electric and they use an EI transformer for their SS output which will likely be better than the Line Magnetic's Torroid. LM put the better transformer on the Tube stage so that is clearly where their heart is. Now whether the minimax SS will translate into the end result as being better than the LM SS I don't know.
But reading enjoythemusic the reviewer seemed to prefer the SS mode, and there was a blind session at another magazine and the SS mode was chosen as better sounding. And then there is this blog the guy likes the SS better.
http://singaporehifi.blogspot.hk/2012/05/eastern-electric-minimax-tube-dac-plus.html
I was looking at the MiniMax about 2 years ago and had interest but at the end of the day you have to ask yourself the question. "If the SS section is the one you are going to end up listening to and the tube section is relatively poor, why not just buy a much cheaper SS DAC that uses the same chips? I also read that reviewers have said the difference is "subtle" between the tube and SS modes.
On the LM the difference is like pushing a loudness button on those old receivers - perhaps my system is better than the average but it is not the least bit subtle between modes. The SLO SHA mode on the 215 is subtle - the SS/Tube mode on the 502CA is massive.
I bet the minimax sounds very good - the dealer here sells good gear and I know he likes it. And it they have been around longer than LM commercially. If this were the west the dealer would let me take it home for a couple of weeks to compare - unfortunately here I have to buy the stuff so the only way I can compare is in their shop. And I am not a big fan of ZU Audio speakers and bringing my laptop down etc is a huge pain in the rear. Packing a CD case is so much easier.
