Return of the original Miniwatt SET ( APPJ )

Cool setup there bluestream

A little surprised that the Miniwatt trounced the Prima.


Thanks!

The Miniwatt was much preferred by both of us over the Prima. To be fair, I just unboxed the Prima Luna over the weekend and gave it only a handful of hours with each of the EL84's and the KT150's. Like the EL84's better on this system between the two, and the Triode mode over the Ultralinear mode. The tone sounds most natural in this setting and with the EL84's. The Prima is a powerhouse and I think will do very well with speakers that would not normally pair well with typical tube amps. However it does sound like a solid state amp in comparison to the Miniwatt, which is much more delicate and sweet sounding with warmer and richer mid range and bass. The Prima has more extended HF's, but that's not always natural sounding to me (I grew up an enthusiast musician playing a dozen instruments and sitting in orchestra pits or in jazz bands so that's always my reference point, to the extent my memory is still valid - like some people with smells I guess, when a system takes me back to my youth... I've found a sound that's right for my ears/brain/etc.). One person's general observation - a lot of hifi gear these days has over emphasized bass and high frequencies, guessing it sells in shows and showrooms and has more immediate sizzle (find silver does this in general too which is why I try to avoid it). Not trying to start a flame war, just one dope's opinion and as always YMMV.

I also have a couple pairs of Quad 57's for the other member's reference. The Miniwatt does not do a great job driving them. One of the pairs I have was reference upgraded by Kent McCollum and are absolutely wonderful sounding, but I drove them with ASR Emitter II monoblocks as they were very stable and able to handle the wide range of behavior of the Quads. While I love that setup, eventually migrated to lower power SET and higher efficiency speakers (which is a well worn path of course), but will _never_ let go of the quads.

Best regards
 
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The Gemtune and the APPJ appear to be the same. Probably/hopefully just a different pricing strategy by a reseller.

Poultrygeist mentions the difference from the 3-tube model in the first post.

There seems to be a lot of that. Re-Branding and Re-Pricing the same product. I found these two tube amps that look very nice but there is a $200 difference! Check these out. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FE9OYZ4?psc=1

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...d-EL34-Tube-Amplifier/1101017_1638838482.html
 
The Western Electric 403B's along with the Russian 6p1p-ev's are the cat's meow. Huge improvement with those tubes. The ev's are the rugged military spec version.

Some of the MIG's electronics used those tubes.

When the original MW was being sold online this combination was the recommended tube upgrade.

Do you have a link to websites to buy these two tube upgrades?
Thanks!
 
Okay. So I am going to purchase the Miniwatt. I am SOLD! For this little money, why not give it a try. But I am VERY confused. What version do I buy? There are 4 different links in this post. So which one is the best one or correct one? Thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/APPJ-PA1501A-6AD10-Amplifier-silver/dp/B00W4NK3BW
http://www.amazon.com/GemTune-Mini-Amplifier-Driver-tubes/dp/B00JKFCDA6
http://www.amazon.com/APPJ-mini2013...=1426941978&sr=1-2&keywords=original+miniwatt
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JKFCCYS...lid=156U38DT2ILXS&coliid=I14KQX7UCL7R9F&psc=1
 
Okay. So I am going to purchase the Miniwatt. I am SOLD! For this little money, why not give it a try. But I am VERY confused. What version do I buy? There are 4 different links in this post. So which one is the best one or correct one? Thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/APPJ-PA1501A-6AD10-Amplifier-silver/dp/B00W4NK3BW
http://www.amazon.com/GemTune-Mini-Amplifier-Driver-tubes/dp/B00JKFCDA6
http://www.amazon.com/APPJ-mini2013...=1426941978&sr=1-2&keywords=original+miniwatt
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JKFCCYS...lid=156U38DT2ILXS&coliid=I14KQX7UCL7R9F&psc=1

I believe the third link is the one that was first posted about. The second link is the one I am assuming is the same. The fourth link is the same as the second, but in silver. For some reason blue is cheaper. The first link is un-related, afaik.

I got my tubes from ebay. Just search for 6p1p-ev, and western electric 403b. I bought the former from a Ukranian seller over a Russian. Hopefully Putin's KGB will not think me worth poisoning. The WE tubes are a bit rarer and pricier if you want NOS over pulls. I paid $40 for my pair, shipped the next morning.
 
I'm speculating that the amp on Amazon is sitting in a warehouse in the US while the cheaper one is sitting in a warehouse in China.
 
OK, so I got my Gemstone Mini2013, and gave it a try on the Quads.

TubeHiFiNut, you were absolutely right, which is kind of what I expected.

The little guy does not like Quads at all. Although voices and "smooth sounding" instruments were decent, as was imaging, anything with a transient or percussive nature was severely dulled. Highs were rolled off, and bass was weak. This was with the original tubes. I have received the Western Electric input tubes, and am waiting on the Svetlana output tubes, and will give it another try when they get here, but do not expect these deficiencies to be corrected.

Remember that the Quads have a wild impedance curve, and are a capacitive load, so my results mean nothing to those with more normal speakers, and I'm not knocking the little amp, but I've never heard the Quads sound worse. In fact this is the only time I've heard them sound less than fabulous.

I'll try it on some bookshelves later too, and decide whether I want to hang onto it in case my next job is out-of-town, or maybe for an office system, or just put it up on BT...

Oh well - nothing ventured, nothing gained. Meanwhile, my Luxman A3000 tube amps with new Gold Lion KT-88s are breaking personal records for SQ, on their 16 ohm taps.

:music:
 
OK, so I got my Gemstone Mini2013, and gave it a try on the Quads.

TubeHiFiNut, you were absolutely right, which is kind of what I expected.

The little guy does not like Quads at all. Although voices and "smooth sounding" instruments were decent, as was imaging, anything with a transient or percussive nature was severely dulled. Highs were rolled off, and bass was weak. This was with the original tubes. I have received the Western Electric input tubes, and am waiting on the Svetlana output tubes, and will give it another try when they get here, but do not expect these deficiencies to be corrected.

Remember that the Quads have a wild impedance curve, and are a capacitive load, so my results mean nothing to those with more normal speakers, and I'm not knocking the little amp, but I've never heard the Quads sound worse. In fact this is the only time I've heard them sound less than fabulous.

I'll try it on some bookshelves later too, and decide whether I want to hang onto it in case my next job is out-of-town, or maybe for an office system, or just put it up on BT...

Oh well - nothing ventured, nothing gained. Meanwhile, my Luxman A3000 tube amps with new Gold Lion KT-88s are breaking personal records for SQ, on their 16 ohm taps.

:music:
I think the MiniWatt is most comfortable driving high efficiency full range speakers.

High efficiency, no crossover.
 
I think the MiniWatt is most comfortable driving high efficiency full range speakers.

High efficiency, no crossover.

That's been my experience. The amp sounds great on the various high efficiency single driver speakers I've used it with. It really doesn't work well with the traditional speakers I've paired it with.

I'm surprised that the Quads didn't blow the little thing up. :)
 
I am considering getting one, it's only $125 at Amazon. I noticed that there are a couple of companies on that auction site offering 6AQ5 to 6P1 adapters. A friend gave me over fifty NOS 6AQ5/6005 JAN tubes. this is what makes the amp up for consideration.

Does anybody know if it is safe to power 4 ohm speakers?
 
Alright, so I got the itch to venture from solid state to tubes since I recently purchased some reference 3A MM De Capo with 92db sensitivity.

So, after reading this thread, I bought the GemTune Mini 2013 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKFCCYS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

My listening room is small (12x12) and 3.5 watts is more than enough for my listening levels. I switched the driver tubes for WE 403b and I am awaiting some Beam Tetrode 6P1P-EV power tubes.

My initial impressions are very favorable. The low to mid level listening have great detail with a decent sound stage. The bass when at low to mid listening levels is natural sounding. When I turn the knob past 3' I start to notice some distortion of the bass. At this point it is louder than comfortable listening anyways.

I like headphone listening also...so I was thinking/researching...and then bought a Little Dot MKiii. With this as a pre (stock tubes) and the miniwatt as the power...wow:music:. When looking at all my other tube options, it is impressive what a relatively small amount of money can achieve.
I'm listening to Alabama Shakes currently (over speakers) and her voice is clear. Bass is deep, smooth and not over powering. Instruments are separated and timbre is accurate from my recall. I have the pre dialed to 75% and the miniwatt is adjusted accordingly to whatever I feel for the moment.

I know burn in on both these components and tubes is subject to debate, but I am happy to listen as much as I can. If the sound signature changes for the better that will just be an added plus.
 
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