Puttin' The Minimax CD Through Its Paces

Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

To follow up on my earlier posts about the Minimax CD, I finished listening to it in my bedroom, then brought it out to the living room. That room also uses Oyaide SWO-XXX outlets (which was bias #3). At the time, I was using the Noisetrapper NANA (bias #6) to distribute AC to all the components in this system.
This system consisted of Acrolink P/C-046es (bias #7, but not used with the Minimax CD until later), Naim Nait 5i (not the same one as in my room), XLO LE-1 interconnect (which was bias #5), Nordost bi-wire SPM Reference (bias #8), and Totem Model One Signatures (bias #9). The resident CD player was the Naim CDX2/XPS2.
The songs I took notes with include:
Anthrax, "Indians"
Billy Joel, "Uptown Girl"
Cranberries, "Linger"
Labouche, "Sweet Dreams"
Peter Cetera, "One Good Woman"
Petula Clark, "Downtown"
The Producers, "What She Does To Me"
Regina Belle, "Make It Like It Was"
Steely Dan, "Black Friday"
I like starting audition sessions off with Petula Clark's "Downtown," because it represents that era's overblown production, and the ragged ending can get out of control with crude-sounding systems. The Minimax CD did sound as though the handcuffs were rattlin' a bit too much, but, unlike run-of-the-mill high-end gear, did not neuter or smother the bold expressions.
"Downtown" makes a good one-two punch with Steely Dan's "Black Friday." Something is really wrong with the recording of "Black Friday." It's unfocused, and the top end is muffled. Most high-end systems, which are typically voiced to be warm-sounding, further screw up this recording. Not so with the Minimax CD, which revealed the oatmeal recording for what it was, but still preserved some semblance of image depth.
I was pleasantly surprised that Labouche's "Sweet Dreams" didn't excite the room's boomy bass. That freed my mind to wonder that it's been a decade since this song was on the charts. Man, where has the time gone?
The Naim CDX2/XPS2 does a credible job at getting the startle factor of the opening drum whacks on Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." The Minimax CD didn't light a fire under my listening seat, but it made the image of a drum plausible, with, arguably, better texture than what the CDX2/XPS2 coughed up.
Overall, the images were like blobs of Jello, jiggling in the air. This was evident on Anthrax's killer anthem, "Indians." But at least it wasn't sedate and glossed over. It sounded like a garage band, which, in this context, isn't a bad thing. The "tom tom" drumming wasn't as sharply and infectiously drawn as the Naims, but it moved along at a respectable clip. At least you could mentally figure out what Anthrax were beatin' around about.
So the sound had some pluses and some minuses, which gave me the nagging feeling that certain facets could be worked on, improved. That's when I looked at powercords. So I whipped out an MIT Shotgun AC2, and sure enough, it made everything sound like L.A. Gunsâ€™ â€œCocked And Loaded.â€
Then we tried Shunyata's Anaconda Helix Alpha, which, yes, costs almost double that of the Minimax CD itself. The sound became full, powerful, somewhat midbass-heavy. But that's the same influence the AHA has with other gear we've tried it on.
With powercords having such an influence on the Minimax CD, it dawned on me that the CD player was neutral enough to reveal these powercord differences.
In my employer's music studios, we use the Acrolink 6NP4030PC power cable terminated with Oyaide 046 (similar to the XXX outlet) plugs. On the Minimax CD, the Acrolink P/C-046 pushed the musical events to the plane of the speakers, and back from there. Images were pinpoint, though too Shrinky Dink in nature. Treble could have used more fullness and warmth. But detail, focus, and speed were good, which made it easy to hear what each CD's sound quality truly was like.
Thank goodness there was no bloat, no excess. There was no sibilance when King sings the "P-p-p-pride." Regina Belle sounded, sorry 'bout this, kind of Caucasian, somewhat like a female Peter Cetera. But that had more to do with the Acrolink powercord, in my estimation. Still, the overall sound displayed decent spirit, always a good thing. And with our Oyaide SWO-XXX outlets, Noisetrapper NANA, and Acrolink P/C-046, the Minimax CD spoke with a unified voice.
That concluded this unit's stay at my parents' place. It was time to bring it to my house, and do some tube rolling. I'll report on those experiences in future posts.
-Lummy The Seahorse

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Topic - Puttin' The Minimax CD Through Its Paces - Luminator 13:33:52 06/12/06 (0)

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